Fletcher piles woe on sorry Sunderland

STEVEN FLETCHER ensured Martin O’Neill will commence work today with the most difficult and challenging task ahead of him in his career.

Resurrecting the fortunes of Sunderland from 17th in the Premier League table will test the talents of the Irishman with the red and white of Wearside running in his blood.

His immediate thoughts will turn to the fact that only one point is keeping his new charges out of the relegation zone, but the statistics of the calendar year point to a far more deep-seated problem which he has inherited from Steve Bruce.

Sunderland’s latest capitulation means they have accumulated just 28 points from their 32 league games and there will be no quick fix.

Fletcher demonstrated to O’Neill just what Sunderland have been lacking from the moment they decided to sell Darren Bent, a goal scorer of genuine quality.

The Scotland international has claimed 10 goals in his last 15 appearances at this level and his two in eight minutes in the second half proved the crucial contribution.

“It was a massive victory for us. Scoring goals is my job and I just have to keep doing as best as I can. We have always had the self-belief that we can get away from where we are,” said Fletcher, whose intervention earned Wolves successive home victories and a four-point cushion over their relegation rivals on a nervous and controversial occasion at Molineux, where Sebastian Larsson’s missed penalty was more crucial than Kieran Richardson’s second goal in 10 months which broke the tension.

O’Neill has waited patiently for the optimum moment at the Stadium of Light. His timing has been impeccable in all the career moves he has made in accepting jobs and he has never failed to leave a place of employment without making significant improvements.

He has been feted from all angles in terms of the impact he can make, but his work starts this morning and he will need all his galvanising qualities.

The sight of him sat in the director’s box at Molineux, flanked by long serving lieutenants Seamus McDonough and Steve Walford, resisting his jack-in-the box technical area passion, until he puts his match-day tracksuit on again next Sunday against Blackburn, must have been torture for the Irishman with seemingly limitless reserves of enthusiasm.

There were the odd TV camera shots of him threatening to leap to his feet with Sunderland near misses and McDonough and Walford will have been forced to pin him to his seat when Richardson finally broke the deadlock early in the second half with a goal which owed everything to the former Manchester United midfielder’s tenacity, fitness and lung capacity.

Richardson ran almost 100 yards from the corner of his own six-yard box to just inside Wolves’ penalty area, while Nicklas Bendtner and Stephane Sessegnon were linking to advance on Wayne Hennessey’s goal. The timing of Sessegnon’s pass was perfect and Richardson’s crisp strike from the angle beat the Wolves goalkeeper at his near post as Hennessey tried to anticipate a shot across him.

Breaking the deadlock in such a tense affair was always going to prove key, but the pivotal moment arrived in the 72nd minute when referee Phil Dowd awarded a penalty for Jody Craddock’s trip on Larsson, but TV replays confirmed the challenge took place outside the area and the Wolves defender made no contact with the Swedish international. Richardson revealed a T-shirt emblazoned with “I belong to Jesus” when he scored and there was some sense of divine retribution when Hennessey saved Larsson’s tame penalty.

It is hard to argue with Wolves manager Mick McCarthy’s sense that Sunderland “got what they deserved” for Larsson’s theatrics. Within 25 seconds Wolves swept the full length of the field. Wes Brown lost his footing in tracking the trajectory of Matt Jarvis’ cross and Fletcher made the Sunderland defender pay the ultimate price with a downward header past Kieren Westwood.

Westwood had previously made one outstanding first-half save, pushing Stephen Hunt’s shot from six-yards out over the cross bar, but on this occasion he was powerless to prevent the equaliser.

More controversy followed with what looked like a clear handball from Jamie O’Hara in setting up Fletcher’s powerful volley to win the game, but Wolves will argue they deserved their slice of good fortune, while O’Neill will have to believe that the fates will turn for him and his new team soon.