That, Sam Allardyce, is the fine mess into which you have walked. This was a relatively tidy Sunderland performance and for a while they even looked like marking their new manager’s debut with their first clean sheet of the campaign, but then that costly hapless streak resurfaced and they found themselves in the familiar position of ending a match with no points.
Whether Costel Pantilimon dropped the ball at the feet of Saido Berahino in the 54th minute because he was fouled by the striker – as Allardyce claimed – or because of his own clumsiness while attempting to reach around his opponent to cut out a cross, the challenge allowed Berahino to score a winning goal that Albion had not looked capable of scoring otherwise. And from which Sunderland never looked like recovering.
“We’ll probably get a ticking off for surrounding the referee [Martin Atkinson] after the goal went in because you’re not supposed to confront the referee, but I can hardly blame them for that because the referee has made such an error,” said Allardyce. “It was not our fault that we lost the game, I thought it was his.”
Sunderland fans’ cheery endorsement of Allardyce’s appointment made the release of his autobiography happily timed, especially as, for now, the 60-year-old can still boast of never being relegated from the Premier League. Maintaining that record beyond this season could prove the stiffest challenge of a managerial career that began more than 25 years ago.
Sunderland, clad in green and hoping to see shoots of recovery, did at least make a bright start and the manager was pleased that a previously porous defence looked tight throughout, with Younès Kaboul performing competently on his return to the side, one of three changes that Allardyce made to the lineup that began the last match before Dick Advocaat stood down, a 2-2 draw with West Ham.
“I was happy that I’ve stopped one of the biggest problems and that’s conceding 18 goals in eight games [before the trip to West Brom],” said Allardyce. “They never looked like conceding for the whole 90 minutes, which is a great platform for them to build on. The disappointment, though, was the lack of penetration in the second half with the possession we had.”
It was the home crowd who were disappointed at half-time, booing their team off after 45 minutes when only the visitors rose above bleakness. Sunderland were compact and coherent and, in Jordi Gómez – another brought back into the side by Allardyce – they had the game’s classiest midfielder.
Albion began less promisingly, with Berahino giving away possession in the first minute to allow Sunderland to send Fabio Borini racing free. The Italian put a dangerous low ball across the face of goal. Albion cleared that cross well enough but were far less assured 10 minutes later when shots from Lee Cattermole and Steven Fletcher brought desperate blocks. Boaz Myhill then had to make an excellent one-handed save to tip over a close-range diving header from Billy Jones after a corner by Gómez provoked an unseemly scramble in the penalty area. That, as it turned out, was as close as Sunderland got to scoring all day.
Albion had come into the game eager to show signs of improvement, too, as Pulis was castigated for the team’s meek showing at Crystal Palace in their last outing. Perhaps in an effort to refute accusations of negativity, the manager brought Stéphane Sessègnon back in for his first league start since early April. “I just fancied Stephane because he was playing against his old club,” said Pulis. “And he’s come in and done brilliantly.”
True enough, the Benin international was one of Albion’s best performers and came closest to scoring for them before the breakthrough, firing wide from the edge of the area in the 21st minute.
After falling behind Allardyce needed to introduce more incisiveness to his team, so replaced Larsson with Adam Johnson. But Albion, now infused with confidence, threatened to score again, Salomón Rondón poking another cross by Brunt wide at the near post.
Sunderland’s inability to muster any kind of forward momentum convinced Allardyce to replace Gómez with Jermain Defoe and try a slightly more direct approach. But Myhill was not bothered again.
