Same story for McCarthy

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: Sunderland 5 Wolves 2: AS HE paced the technical area, forlornly shaking his head and sometimes his fists, Mick McCarthy cut a familiar figure. The current Wolves and former Sunderland manager is still awaiting his first Premier League win at the Stadium of Light and although this, his 20th attempt to break the hoodoo, was gallant enough it concluded in all too customary failure.

McCarthy must have been engulfed by a horrible sense of deja vu as, despite competing manfully for much of the afternoon, his side ultimately shipped five goals. Painful memories of that grim season when Sunderland were relegated with a record-low 15 points surely came flooding back. Not that this was a vintage display from Steve Bruce’s side, whose impressive attacking threat was persistently undermined by slapdash defending and unnecessary concessions of possession.

“I can’t make sense of that, it was one of them crazy ones,” said Sunderland’s manager. “We’ve got a cutting edge but when Wolves pulled it back to 2-2, I thought we were in trouble. Thankfully, we then scored three goals out of nothing. We have to improve defensively.”

McCarthy proved sanguine. “I feel very proud of the performance,” he said. “The scoreline was harsh. We had the game by the scruff of the neck for a while.”

His old feelings of helpless frustration surely returned when Wolves conceded a slightly harsh penalty following Segundo Castillo’s foul on Darren Bent, after the midfielder got a foot on the ball as the pair tussled for possession. Although Wayne Hennessy dived the right way, he could not divert Bent’s low kick away from the bottom corner. It was the striker’s sixth goal since his summer move from Tottenham Hotspur.

Wolves were intent on forcing themselves into the game and they might have equalised when Dave Edwards put a free header wide from a Matt Jarvis cross.

If Sunderland got away with that one, Lorik Cana and Lee Cattermole were struggling to control central midfield. While only Michael Mancienne’s smart block prevented Cattermole from converting the influential – and now astonishingly slimline – Andy Reid’s low cross, Wolves enjoyed plentiful possession.

At times Kevin Doyle and Andy Keogh terrorised Bruce’s rearguard as McCarthy’s men set a vigorous tempo but such efforts seemed in vain as Sunderland won a second penalty when Christophe Berra bundled into Bent. This time Kenwyne Jones took it and he sent Hennessy the wrong way. Bruce is too superstitious to watch penalties but was later angry that Bent, his pre-ordained spot kick expert, did not step forward.

“It won’t happen again. Darren is one of the best penalty takers in the country,” he stressed. “If Kenwyne had missed there would have been hell to pay. It’s something kids do with their mates.” Anxious to redeem himself, Berra slung in a cross-shot at the other end and could not believe his fortune when Craig Gordon parried it into the path of John Mensah, who promptly knocked it into his own net. It appeared a form of poetic justice, as the Ghana defender had spent much of the afternoon pulling Andy Keogh’s shirt.

Next, Sunderland conceded an indirect free-kick on the edge of their six-yard box after Gordon had been left with no option but to palm Kieran Richardson’s brainless backpass to safety. The dead ball was duly nudged to Karl Henry and when his effort was blocked it rebounded to Doyle, who rammed it home.

The moment for Bent and Jones to truly strut their stuff had arrived. Sure enough, when Bent chested down a long ball he laid it off deftly to Jones who, by shifting his weight, wrong-footed Berra and Mancienne before beating Hennessy with a low shot from outside the area.

Suddenly Sunderland were ascendant and from Reid’s corner Turner headed their fourth. Once Bent saw a shot deflected in off Mancienne to make it five, McCarthy’s discomfort was complete. (- Guardian Service)