Matchday Musings: Sunderland stung by the Hornets in a frustrating stalemate

09/02/2025 07:00

After a dramatic draw with Watford, Sunderland's unbeaten home streak hangs by a thread. Le Fee's magic and Cirkin's late equaliser salvage a point, but defensive lapses jeopardise our promotion hopes.

Following a statement victory down on Teesside on Monday night, there was a collective sense of optimism that we could use our first win at the Riverside in 20 years as a launchpad for the remainder of the campaign. With Sunderland's own French General in Regis Le Bris looking to instil a Napoleonic, siege mentality as we enter the business end of the season, there was no better place to pick up that baton than at the home we've converted into a fortress.

Tom Cleverley's Watford were Saturday lunchtime's visitors, a side who'd got the better of us in the reverse fixture in September. Having been in and around the play-off picture earlier in the campaign, the Hornets had picked up just one win since the turn of the year.

With Jobe watching on from the stands, having sustained a knock during Monday's clash with Boro, Salis Abdul Samed deputised in midfield alongside Dan Neil and Chris Rigg. Aside from the inclusion of Samed, we remained unchanged.

The opening exchanges were, by and large, forgettable. There was a flatness to both sides, and while this could have been expected from Watford, this was certainly not the buoyed performance we were anticipating from the XI in red and white. Foreseeably, we began to utilise the talismanic Enzo Le Fee down the left, whose deftness and seemingly effortless touch consistently had Watford defenders helplessly back-pedalling. It came as no surprise that the deadlock was broken via some Le Fee stardust, having pinged a wicked in-swinging corner which found Trai Hume, whose resulting ball across was met by the head of a swooping O'Nien to nod into an empty net.

We continued to press on after opening our account for the afternoon, with Le Fee front and centre. The 24-year-old's brilliantly delayed cross, reminiscent of his ball to Isidor on Monday, had both Dan Neil and Chris Rigg queuing up. Unfortunately, Rigg's goal-bound effort was superbly blocked by Watford's centre-half. That was to be our last meaningful chance of the first 45 minutes.

Beyond the 20-minute mark, Watford established themselves as the side in the ascendancy. Georgia international Georgi Chakvetadze and Imran Louza started to dictate, and in the 42nd minute, a superb ball in from Dele-Bashiru found the head of Doumbia, whose header was parried by Anthony Patterson, who'd had very little to do up until that point. Our shared relief was painfully short-lived as Dennis Cirkin's subsequent challenge on the reactive Doumbia took all player and no ball. Penalty Watford. As he had done at Vicarage Road earlier in the season, Bashiru stepped up and beat Patterson from the spot. 1-1. While the timing was cruel, the equaliser had been coming. Lapses in concentration at the back and self-inflicted errors meant that, once again, we were conceding a very avoidable goal.

We've become all too accustomed to seeing Le Bris' calming half-time dressing room sermons translate into near-immediate responses. As such, we found ourselves in unfamiliar territory when Louza bent a pinpoint long-range effort with all the precision of a World Cup qualification-hunting David Beckham into the top corner. Scoring on either side of half-time, Watford had flipped the script, overturning their initial deficit in the space of four minutes.

Now chasing the game, Le Bris uncharacteristically opted for a double change before the hour mark, with the introduction of Ian Poveda and Milan Aleksic, who replaced Samed and Patrick Roberts.

Like Plymouth had done a fortnight previously, Watford were doing a number on us: sitting deep, absorbing our pressure, and restricting our chances. Despite the additions of Poveda and Aleksic giving us more dynamism going forward, Watford remained resolute defensively. Not only was our unbeaten home record quickly slipping through our fingertips, but our automatic promotion aspirations seemed to be disappearing into the abyss.

In the 89th minute, when the hope of a last-gasp leveller was drastically evaporating, an atypically unconvincing Le Fee corner was knocked on by Wilson Isidor at the front post, finding Cirkin, who knocked it in to draw us level. And breathe, sort of.

With five minutes of added time, the pursuit of three potentially invaluable points was back on. When Eliezer Mayenda slipped Isidor in on goal, you'd have bet your house on him finding the back of the net. Infuriatingly, Egil Selvik in the Watford goal had other ideas, timing his charge expertly before smothering Isidor's shot. This wasn't to be the end of Sunderland's 11th-hour assault, as Milan Aleksic was also presented with another glorious opportunity in stoppage time, only to be denied by Selvik again.

When the full-time whistle blew, I felt somewhat conflicted. While we had managed to salvage a point from the jaws of defeat, this wasn't a game anyone would have earmarked prior to kick-off where merely "salvaging a point" was enough. This was a game we could and should have seen off. Like the game against Argyle, we weren't completely at the races, frequently beaten to second balls and susceptible to costly, ill-advised decision-making in our defensive third.

Of course, this isn't completely cut and dry. While we dropped points at home against a side who are at war with their owners, we demonstrated character, belief, and resolve to hang in there until the very last as we sought to breach Watford's stern rearguard. Moreover, we certainly have just cause to feel aggrieved by the sheer nature of the goals conceded; with the first being a penalty and the second being a freak moment of pure brilliance that few keepers would have laid a glove on. Though, this result now means we are now five points off Sheffield United in second, leaving us little to no room for error between now and the end of the season.

Jobe's absence was felt considerably. The old adage of not appreciating what you have until it's gone ran so very close to the bone on Saturday. His influence in the Le Bris system is integral, and his ability to turn defence into attack on a sixpence is the faculty few possess in this league. Defensively, we were shaky again, with Chris Mepham and Cirkin looking particularly off-colour. Wednesday's game with Luton is shaping up to be somewhat of a season-definer. Anything other than a win could see us cut adrift from the top three by as many as eight points.