In a victory that Sunderland supervisor Gus Poyet described as ‘a lot wanted’, new Sunderland signing Jermain Defoe bought off the mark for his new membership after his January transfer from Toronto FC.
Sunderland had been struggling for targets all through the season the place they’d turn out to be fairly the draw specialists and the membership knew that one thing needed to change within the second half of the season in the event that they wished to keep away from struggling once more close to the underside of the desk.
Commercial
The signing of the England worldwide was a transparent sign of intent from the membership and with Jozy Altidore entering into the other way, it was nearly a no brainer.
With one win on the Stadium of Gentle up till this level of the season, a victory at dwelling was a lot wanted and nearly a necessity given the truth that Burnley would have been perceived as one of many extra ‘winnable’ encounters at dwelling.
It didn’t assist that the Stadium of Gentle was not the fortress then as it’s now and with the gang considerably on edge, a objective was required to energise the house devoted.
Fortunately, this arrived inside the first twenty minutes by the person who everybody thought was going to kick on and be the principle man, Connor Wickham. Wickham had struggled to essentially take the mantle of Sunderland’s foremost centre-forward after his exploits on the finish of the earlier season however his objective gave them the lead right here to offer him solely his third of the season.
Commercial
Sebastian Larsson’s energy and imaginative and prescient created the opening for Anthony Réveillère to ship over an ideal cross for Wickham, who headed again throughout the scrambling Tom Heaton and into the far nook.
This objective appeared to energise and likewise calm a fragile fanbase on the identical time solely days after Poyet had instructed there was a ‘missed connection’ between gamers and supporters on the stadium.
Any issues that the followers had dissipated even additional as the brand new signing Defoe bought off the mark for his new membership with one of many best finishes he’ll ever have.
Jordi Gómez sprung the offside entice with a cute lofted go to the superior Van Aanholt, who managed and picked out Defoe to use a easy end.
Commercial
After this, it was comparatively comfy for the house aspect towards Sean Dyche’s workforce as Sunderland saved the Clarets at bay with ease. The win noticed the workforce go 4 factors away from the drop zone and after the sport Defoe expressed his delight at getting off the mark in his new environment.
“It was essential that we bought the win right this moment. It was an enormous win. We created a whole lot of possibilities, the followers had been implausible. The vitality from begin to end was implausible. We managed to get the early objective which helped us, settled us down.
“The Premier League is the most effective on the earth and that’s the place you wish to be. I really feel like I’ve a whole lot of targets left in me.”
The signing of Defoe would show to be a masterstroke over the subsequent couple of years as his targets would find yourself being very important in direction of Sunderland’s survival within the division. All of this might come after a spell the place Dick Advocaat tried to show him right into a proper winger!