Johnno breaks Sunderland hearts to earn deserved point

A late pearler from new fans darling Adam Johnson this afternoon earned the Blues a valuable point at the Stadium of Light. Truly a game of two halves, the Mackems had put us under pressure for much of the first period, Kenwyne Jones bagging the opener. A change in formation and likely stiff words from Roberto at half-time, however, saw us return rejuvenated, and after much pressure sub Johnson snatched an injury time leveller.

Tigerish midfielder David Meyler earned a rare start in place of suspended captain Lorik Cana. Otherwise the opposition lined up as expected, with Steed Malbranque and Fraizer Campbell wide of their usual strikers, and Anton Ferdinand continuing as a makeshift left-back. Mancini made one change, Shaun Wright-Phillips replacing Adam Johnson on the right after his good performance from the bench at Chelsea a fortnight previously.

The home side started extremely brightly, backed by a capacity support whose continued vocal encouragement seemed somewhat unbefitting of the Stadium of Light. Steed Malbranque almost fed Darren Bent in inside three minutes, a late interception from Vince Kompany sparing our blushes. Moments later the buoyant Jones galloped down the left flank and cut inside his marker, firing tamely at Given.

With a mere nine minutes on the clock they took a deserved lead. Steed Malbranque, frequently a City tormentor when at Fulham but whose form for his clubs since could at best be described as fitful, turned in onto his preferred right peg and floated a cross into the penalty area where Jones rose like a salmon to head home with relative ease. It had certainly been coming.

Carlos Tevez, increasingly alienated in attack, picked up a booking for a late challenge on Michael Turner as we struggled to create any real efforts on goal. The half-chances that did follow were generally at the other end - Meyler's hopeful scuff trickled into Given's arms, Jones put another header wide and Malbranque went close, picking up the ball to the left of the area after Pablo Zabaleta appeared to have been unfairly felled.

The 4-5-1 patently wasn't working. With the threat of Bellamy nilled by Alan Hutton, SWP struggling to make the most of being up against a centre-half, and no obvious ball-player in the middle of the park, we were causing them few problems. To his credit, Mancini put his marker down quite early, introducing the still-not-fit Roque Santa Cruz and dropping Pablo Zabaleta back into the left of defence just after we'd created our first chance, Gareth Barry steering the ball wide after a tenacious run down the flank by Richards.

On another day Sunderland could have put the game to bed before the break. Darren Bent made a great run into the box, switching his feet but missing the ball completely when, given his form, you'd half expected him to drill home. Joleon Lescott then brought down Campbell and could have given away a penalty. The ref probably got it right but you wouldn't have been surprised to see it given.

If the first half had been relatively routine for Steve Bruce's side, the second was anything but. Trailing, we should probably have been expected to come out the brighter, but by the looks of it the Italian's half-time talk did the trick, as we relentlessly stalked their back five, pressuring them right from the off and gaining complete control of the game.

With Jones having been replaced at half-time, they became short of someone to hold the ball up in our half, much like we'd done early on. Santa Cruz should have levelled on fifty minutes, forcing a save from the impressive Gordon after being nodded in by Tevez. Almost immediately afterward, SWP was set away after a reverse ball into the area by Barry, but he chose to shoot low to Gordon's left instead of centring, the Scot again stopping well.

Either side of a bout of handbags between Meyler and Barry, both overreacting and earning yellows, but the Irishman showing some particularly unsporting behaviour trying to fire up the crowd to influence the official to dish our more severe punishment, Craig Bellamy almost beat Gordon with a dink off the outside of his foot. We were continuing to go close but as the heavens opened you began to wonder if it would be a barren afternoon.

Pat Vieira was introduced just after the hour, taking the place of Micah Richards, Zabaleta switching flanks and Barry becoming our third left-back of the game. Tevez had our best chance, beating his marker to the near post to get on the end of Bellamy's cross from the right, but again Gordon was equal to it.

With just shy of twenty minutes to go Mancini introduced Adam Johnson. Within seconds he'd gone on a mazy run, skinning two players and feeding Santa Cruz down the right channel, but the cross left a lot to be desired. Each time he got the ball he looked like doing something, with Sunderland having to double up to keep him at bay. Tevez blazed high and wide after a good turn from Santa Cruz, and Bellamy again tested Gordon.

As the game fell into four added minutes we continued to batter the home goal - a corner was smothered, Bellamy's goalward strike was somehow deflected off a defender, then Gordon and wide. Midway through the added time, however, we got our goal. A corner from the left ran long, Johnson picked up play, stopped the ball with his second touch and effortlessly curled into the top corner as the entire Sunderland defence stood stranded. A genuinely breathtaking finish.

For me, the positives of the second half far outweigh the poor performance first, and i stand by my opinion that a point at Sunderland is respectable. They bullied us early on, didn't let us settle and defended doggedly. Their centre halves did a real job on Carlos Tevez for large parts of the game, and their back five all did well enough. In the end quality told, and with rockets up arses and the change in tactics we began to play as we know we can.

No-one can really question the side Mancini started with, nor the formation given that it served us so well at Stamford Bridge. He was brave enough to make changes early, and again that's quite refreshing. We probably did deserve to sneak it, but enough encouragement can be taken from the last forty-five, where we demonstrated a hunger to take the game to the opposition.

The two substitutions after the break both had a positive impact. Vieira, though deemed a defensive midfielder, was at least willing to forge forward and also proved more useful as a body in the penalty area late on. Johnson's moment of magic won us the deserved point, but all round he seems more clinical in possession than Shaun, more capable of beating his man, has better movement, a far superior first touch and more of an end product.

Bar the penalty shout just before the break, Joleon Lescott again performed admirably, a steady head at the back, always in position, calm on the ball, generally reading attacks well, and on an afternoon where i thought Vince appeared a little irritable. A word for Santa Cruz, too, who despite not having his shooting boots on at least gave us some presence. He's some way off yet, and i doubt that he'll score consistently as at Blackburn without more direct play from the flanks, but he did okay.

How we go now is in our own hands. I believe we'll need around nineteen points to be sure of fourth position, and that's taking into account the worst-case scenario of Spurs getting the better of us at Eastlands as they tend to, though our results against the top sides so far should see us fancying our chances. If we play as we did post-bollocking today we've a real chance.

Team:
Given, Richards (Vieira '64), Bridge (Santa Cruz '33), Kompany, Lescott, de Jong, Zabaleta, Barry, Wright-Phillips (A.Johnson '73), Tevez, Bellamy