Black Cats ride luck as wild Rovers fail to fire
“You’re lucky, aren’t you?” he asked Sunderland’s Ricky Sbragia, who was minded to agree after witnessing an astounding miss by the Rovers forward Jason Roberts seconds earlier.
The game was in stoppage time when Roberts broke into the area and rounded the Sunderland goalkeeper Marton Fulop before steering the ball wide of the vacant net.
It appeared to be an inexplicable miss, but Roberts produced an excuse that Allardyce apparently considered plausible. Whether he was quite so forgiving in the dressing room is debatable.
Allardyce said: “He told us it took a bobble and hit him on the shin. I was convinced it was in — I was off and celebrating. I ended up bitterly disappointed, but that’s life. The bobble has cost us a fantastic win, but I have to be pleased with the commitment shown by my players.”
Sbragia could hardly believe his luck at Roberts’s failure. “I thought we had lost it when he was through, but thank God he missed the target. I think we earned that little bit of luck because we deserved a draw.”
A draw looked the least that Sunderland would achieve after they controlled an opening half when the tone was set after only three minutes as Djibril Cisse accelerated clear and goalkeeper Paul Robinson timed his intervention perfectly to take the ball away as he tried to round him.
From then on, Sunderland pinned back Allardyce’s team throughout the first half to raise expectations among their supporters that they would score four goals for the third game in succession.
With Sbragia employing players who had failed to function under Roy Keane, it really seemed that the former manager — in the manner of Morecambe and Wise — had been playing all the right players, but not necessarily in the right order.
Of course, Keane did not have the injured Kenwyne Jones for much of this season, but the striker is back and, if anything, looks even more impressive than he did before injuring his knee in the summer.
He was involved in most of the moves which brought opportunities for Steed Malbranque, Phil Bardsley and the excellent Andy Reid inside the first 30 minutes.
And, when Jones was offered a chance by a high ball into the area, he out-muscled three Blackburn defenders who were all left on the ground as he eventually hooked his shot wide.
The second half proved more productive for Blackburn, who put the ball in the net in the opening seconds, earning a booking for Chris Samba, who had handled.
There were more legitimate attempts from Morten Gamst Pedersen, whose shot was touched on to the post by Fulop, who also blocked a shot from Keith Andrews on the hour.
“The longer it went on, the more a draw looked a safe bet,” said Sbragia. Roberts could have proved him wrong in the those final moments, but his miss denied Blackburn their third successive win here.
Sbragia said: “I knew it would be difficult, a real struggle. It would have been nice to win by three or four goals again, but it was never going to happen. We did extremely well, but just lacked an edge in attack. I’m happy with 0-0.”
Allardyce, who has already instilled a new, more organised approach in the team inherited from Paul Ince, said: “We created the best chances in the whole match and we are left with a point instead of three because we didn’t take them. But that’s still four points out of six and two clean sheets.
“We know we are still in a massive relegation battle and six points from my two games would have been lovely, but at least we are undefeated with two clean sheets and are creating chances away from home.
“I’m so pleased with the commitment we showed. It is going to need experience to get out of trouble. I believe we have enough, but we’ve still got to do it.
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