Sunderland (Away) 12.04.2026

Some changes were enforced, but five different players started this match who weren’t in the starting line-up for the Forest game three weeks ago and at the start of the game it looked promising.  Two minutes in, Lucas Bergvall slipped a pass through the defence for Dominic Solanke, who got behind a defender to the left of the goal, pulled the ball across for Richarlison, who just had the ball knocked away from him.  It ran out to Pedro Porro on the 18 yard line, but his shot lacked power and Roefs held it comfortably in the top left hand corner of his goal.  Two minutes later, Randal Kolo Muani ran at the defence before releasing the ball to his left, where Richarlison took a first time shot, but topped it making the save easy for the keeper to get behind. 

Sadiki won a tackle when Kolo Muani was pressuring him and he won the ball, but the follow-through sunk his studs into the side of Randal’s knee.  There was no free-kick or review, but we have seen players sent off for less.  Cristian Romero was then called upon to make a good tackle on Brobbey in the box to stop the centre-forward turning for a shot on goal six yards out.

Starting Toni Kinsky in place of the missing Vicario, Sunderland thought that they would test him out earl yon, with an in-swinging corner well pushed over by the Spurs keeper, who was then quick off his line when a through pass was touched towards goal by Romero, trying a back-heel to clear the ball, but Toni got to it before Brobbey.  The Sunderland striker then had a good chance when he headed Le Fee’s cross too high over the bar while grabbing Mick van de Ven’s shirt and then catching him in the face as he came down.

Twenty minutes in, Sunderland were furious as Mandava fell on the ball and had a free-kick given for handball against them.  It was taken quickly by Kolo Muani to Bergvall, who returned a pass beyond the defender, with Alderete going in for the ball and Randal going down which resulted in the referee pointing to the spot.  VAR called the ref to the monitor and the penalty was ruled out.  The play should have restarted with a corner, but for some reason, we didn’t even get that as the ref dropped the ball for the keeper.

A Porro corner was headed away from close to goal by a defender and the ball was worked along the right by Romero to Connor Gallagher and his cross picked out Richarlison at the back of the box.  His header down stuck under Solanke’s feet and the home defence managed to smuggle the ball away.  When Sunderland went forward, Romero went through Brobbey from behind and while the referee allowed play to go on, .  From the free-kick, it was played to the left side of the goal, where Sunderland had men over, but Mukiele headed wide when he was unmarked five yards out.

On the half hour, the ball was headed out from a long throw by van de Ven but only to Xhaka outside the box and while he kept his shot down, he drilled it narrowly wide of the Kinsky’s right hand post.  Brobbey, who gets away with lots of rough stuff, reacted to Porro trying to get past him to get the ball off him, with an elbow into the Spurs defender’s face and then he threw him to the floor.  As is the usual way, if it had been Romero (even not on a yellow card) it would have been red, but as it wasn’t him it was a yellow for the Dutch front man.  And the striker was involved again, grabbing Micky and then going down when Micky pushed him, which gave them a free-kick and gave us two yellow cards – one for van de Ven for the foul and one for Porro for arguing with the ref.  When the free-kick was taken two and a half minutes later, Xhaka planted it high into the crowd behind the goal.

Five minutes before half time, Richi went on a long run down the left wing, with Diarra at his heels and when it looked like he had got away, he dwelt on the ball and Diarra got back at him to force him to play the ball into the side-netting.  The second phase from a corner saw Porro’s cross skewed wide as he tried a scissor-kick with the ball just behind him with a minute to go to half-time, before five more were added on.  Romero conceded another free-kick fouling Brobbey on our right and when it was taken it was headed away, but came back in running to Brobbey at the far post, with Kinsky out quickly to throw his body in the way to block his shot and then Gallagher threw a block as another shot came in.  

Richarlison did well on the left to play Udogie in outside and his low cross was cut out by Alderete at the near post, but he effectively set up Solanke and his shot from just wide of the post was blocked by Roefs for a corner.  That was headed over with a looping Romero header and that was it for the first half.

The second half started looking good for Spurs, with Lucas Bergvall feeding Richarlison inside the box, but O’Nien came across to challenge and the ball cannoned off the Spurs striker for a goal-kick.  A through ball for Udogie running into the D saw him knocked to the ground with an arm to his throat by O’Nien without getting anywhere near the ball which was OK with the ref.

A good cross-field pass by Porro allowed Richi to move into the box, but when he got there, his effort was weak and Roefs flopped down behind it with ease.  On the hour, it was the same old story when nobody challenged Mukiele as he moved in from the right, his shot looked like it wasn’t going to cause any trouble as it looked to be going wide, until it hit Mick van de Ven ad spun past Kinsky into the net.

Before the game restarted, a triple substitution was made with Sarr, Palhinha and Tel coming off the bench for Bergvall, Gray and Richarlison who made way.

Brobbey got away with it again, as a ball came off Romero and was running through to Kinsky until the striker pushed Romero and he collided with Kinsky with both Spurs players going down.  It’s not a case of things going against you when you are down, it is a case of the referee not doing his job, as it might have only been a little push but it was unnecessary and dangerous.  Kinsky managed to carry on, with a heavily bandaged head with Romero having to leave the pitch seemingly in tears.  

On 75 minutes Solanke headed at goal from Tel’s cross, but Roefs plucked it out the air.  A couple of minutes before the added 11, Sunderland bumbled their way into the box on the left and when Brobbey played the ball across the six-yard box, Destiny was there to hack the ball away from in front of goal.  Hume got a booking a minute into added time for a swipe at Tel that missed the ball (not so different to Mandava’s on Randal earlier on) and when Porro swung in it from the left, Roefs fumbled the ball over the bar.  He did better pushing a drive from Porro over the bar and then Porro skied an effort from the left when a corner was played back to him.

And the relegation place we currently sit in will not change for a week until we play Brighton at home in the De Zerbi derby.  Hope is fading fast, as not only our own ineptitude continues, but so does the bad luck that goes against us.

• Archie Gray made his 50th Premier League appearance for Spurs.