Sunderland 1, Wigan Athletic 1

Feb 8 2010 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

The first roar of disapproval came after an untypical moment of hesitancy from Lee Cattermole on 16 minutes and the discontent rose to a crescendo by the time Michael Turner lumped an aimless long ball towards the head of Kenwyne Jones in first-half stoppage time.

A slow start was somewhat inevitable given the toils of recent weeks, but the poverty of Sunderland’s play for 45 minutes was troubling nonetheless.

There was a distinct lack of authority in their play, and as the fear built so too did a tendency to look for the long, aimless ball to Jones.

Wigan, by contrast, grew into the game and took a deserved lead on 20 minutes.

Cana, suffering another difficult afternoon, was robbed by Diame on the half-way line and the French midfielder marched unimpeded into the penalty box before lashing an impressive drive past Craig Gordon.

Sunderland’s riposte was virtually non-existent.

Jones, performing as well as he had all season, skipped past Titus Bramble before clattering a post – but in truth the Latics should have been out of sight.

They departed to a cacophony of abuse, but improved drastically after the break. Jordan Henderson, one of the few who looked unaffected by the turmoil surrounding him, delivered a superb cross for Jones to level with an emphatic header – and it looked as if Sunderland would kick on.

The momentum did not deliver a win, however. On his 26th birthday, Darren Bent thought he had spirited a winner but his close-range shot hit Jones and somehow stayed out of Chris Kirkland’s goal to leave Sunderland dangling on the precipice of a relegation fight.

Can Bruce arrest the decline? The sharp improvement after the break augurs quite well for Sunderland. If they beat Portsmouth, who were walloped by Manchester United on Saturday, things will look a great deal rosier. However, the concern is Sunderland’s players do not yet realise the scale of the predicament they find themselves in.

The familiar talk of getting players back from injury has been rebounding around the Stadium of Light this week, but it is not as simple as that.

As the struggles of the previously irresistible central midfield pairing of Cattermole and Cana prove, it takes a while for star men to get back in their groove and adding Kieran Richardson and John Mensah to this team will not remedy the crisis of confidence being suffered.