Sunderland vs Aston Villa match report: Jermain Defoe double deepens Remi Garde's troubles
Sunderland 3 Aston Villa 1
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Your support makes all the difference.There were a dozen or so Aston Villa supporters standing around the team bus on to which filed the club’s players, after their 14th defeat of the season.
“You’re not fit to wear the shirt,” was the supporters’ serenade. It sounded right. This latest loss, against a similarly hapless, badly run club, left them seven points adrift at the bottom of the Premier League table.
Villa were woeful yesterday, architects once more of their own downfall. Micah Richards was responsible for Sunderland’s first, needlessly attempting to block a shot from Patrick van Aanholt that was flying wide and instead steering it past his own goalkeeper.
In the second half, Rémi Garde’s side did score a fantastic goal through Carles Gil, who volleyed an Adama Traoré cross past Vito Mannone. But in the 72nd minute Joleon Lescott gave Jermain Defoe too much space, and the former England forward struck a sweet shot into the corner of Brad Guzan’s goal.
Only when Defoe added the definitive third goal in injury time did Sam Allardyce celebrate, raising his arms into the air in triumph, but the situation remains bleak.
“It’s dire still, don’t worry about that,” said Sunderland’s manager. “We’re a long way off getting safe. In terms of resilience and picking up points we have to go on a run of games where we’re undefeated, get draws and the odd win.
“We cannot afford to lose four or five on the trot again. This win does not change the fact we need to get players in. I’ll do my very best to get that quality player in.”
After the game, Garde snubbed the offer of a handshake from Allardyce. He said: “I would have preferred that Mr Allardyce came to me before the game to say hello. I found it quite easy to come after the game and say, ‘Well done’. But I don’t want to do too much. I was upset probably by the result, but that’s it.”
He added: “It’s like in every game, we’re missing quality sometimes. We are not able to put our opponent under pressure for a long time. This is a position where you have to use a lot of strength and you lose some strength.
“We had a target [six points over Christmas]. We didn’t achieve it, but there is still light in front of us. There are games to play. We only have one direction, and that is to work more and to fight to try to win games.
You never know in football. I feel that the players deserve better than we have currently.” The club’s supporters did not agree.
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