If, as seems quite likely, Sunderland do end up in the Championship next month Sam Allardyce may wish to pin a small part of the blame on Ben Foster.
West Brom’s goalkeeper performed persistent wonders to earn Tony Pulis’s unambitious team a point and a clean sheet on a day when Foster looked every inch the England international he once was and maybe still should be.
Leaving Vito Mannone a virtual bystander, the visitors neglected to direct any shots on target and seemed mightily relieved when Dame N’Doye’s last-gasp, hooked-in effort was disallowed for offside.
“We broke West Brom’s well-organised defence down time and time again but unfortunately there was an outstanding guy in their goal who denied us at least two or three goals,” said Allardyce. “I can only tell the players that if they continue to play like that, they’ll win enough games to stay up. Sooner or later it will turn in our favour.”
His side remain third-bottom but Sunderland do have a game in hand on 17th-placed Norwich who they visit on Saturday week. First though, Leicester travel to Wearside next Sunday and on this evidence Claudio Ranieri’s title favourites have no cause for complacency.
At least they are unlikely to arrive with a defence staffed by four centre-halves – a favourite Pulis ploy – and four central midfielders further up. The resultant constriction made for a rather congested, often incoherent afternoon when one thing swiftly became crystal clear – Wahbi Khazri was by far the most menacing creator on view.
Alternating between the right and the left flank, Sunderland’s Tunisia winger was invariably at the heart of the game’s more uplifting moments. There was the outrageous early dummy he sold James Chester before crossing for Jermain Defoe whose audacious backheel flick was easily held by Foster.
Later, Khazri crossed superbly only for the leaping Defoe to somehow, untypically, miss the ball and then had a penalty appeal rejected after his collision with Sandro.
If that decision represented good refereeing, Khazri’s subsequent through-pass to Lee Cattermole should have led to a goal. Unfortunately for Allardyce, the recalled midfielder – captaining Sunderland in the absence of the benched John O’Shea – proved unequal to the task, Foster all too easily batting away his attempted chip with an outstretched glove.
Clearly content to settle for a point, the wingless visitors retreated ever deeper in a one-sided second half featuring Pulis’s backline repeatedly being bailed out by Foster.
When Jan Kirchhoff made a rare advance from his deep-sitting midfield role and steamrollered his way through a couple of challenges before shooting, the visiting goalkeeper bravely diverted the danger by taking the full force of the ball in his face. Shortly afterwards Foster stretched every sinew to scramble Borini’s swerving 20-yard shot to safety.
If Khazri’s penalty claim against Sandro after the ball struck the midfielder’s arm was perhaps slightly ambitious, Borini will have been disappointed to volley DeAndre Yedlin’s stellar cross wide.
Realising something needed to change, Pulis replaced one Sunderland old boy with another, Craig Gardner making way for James McClean with the latter greeted by resounding booing from his less than adoring former public. Next in line to be hooked was the thoroughly underwhelming Saido Berahino as West Brom’s manager sent 16-year-old debutant Jonathan Leko on in the striker’s stead.
It was a big moment for Leko but Foster refused to be eclipsed and did especially well to keep out another Borini curler before saving smartly from Defoe with a leg after Yann M’Vila’s pass bisected Pulis’s rearguard.
That department came undone once again as N’Doye briefly believed he had broken the deadlock but they were rescued by a linesman’s flag. “We’re pleased,” said West Brom’s manager with considerable understatement. “Sunderland just pushed us back but Ben’s a top goalkeeper.”
