Chris Coleman stood utterly still in the technical area, with hands deep in pockets and shock etched across his face. Barely an hour had passed but, already, he was surrounded by banks of fast-emptying red seats and his first home match as Sunderland’s manager felt destined for inexorable defeat.
Perhaps buoyed by last weekend’s win at Burton Albion, the former Wales manager had breezily declared there was “nothing to be scared of” as his new charges attempted to win their first game for almost a year at the Stadium of Light, but he was soon stripped of such naivety.
Sunderland have now failed to record a home victory in 21 attempts since beating Watford here on 17 December last year and, well before the final whistle, Coleman had cottoned on to brutal Wearside realities. His body language certainly suggested he now truly appreciates the scale of the challenge he faces in preventing a team reduced to 10 men here after Callum McManaman’s sending off from tumbling into League One.
Along the way, Jaap Stam’s Reading all but banished their own relegation worries while simultaneously reinforcing their manager’s recently rather shaky job security by extending a mini revival and climbing deeper into the relative sunlit uplands of mid-table.
Sunderland are now second bottom and it was more than an hour after the final whistle when Coleman emerged from the dressing room. “We’ve had a little chat,” he said. “It’s a huge disappointment, a big blow. You can see the frustration here; every game that goes by without us getting three points is another door closed.”
Only three hours earlier, he had strode, smiling, out of the tunnel as optimists in the stands made bold predictions of a “new dawn”. Fears that it could be doomed to start on a false note began solidifying when Lee Cattermole was extremely fortunate not to be sent off for a second bookable offence. Featuring two needless fouls on Sone Aluko in as many minutes, that little cameo resulted in Cattermole receiving a yellow card for the first challenge before benefiting from subsequent refereeing leniency on Keith Stroud’s part.
McManaman was afforded no such generosity on the brink of half-time. Instead, the winger was sent off for a second bookable offence after blatantly using an arm to divert Adam Matthews’s floated cross beyond Vito Mannone, simultaneously reducing Coleman’s blueprint to tatters.
“I’m a little bit disappointed with Callum,” said Coleman. “It was a killer blow.” Matthews’s delivery had crept under the crossbar and might have gone in anyway. Not that Sunderland really deserved to be ahead at the end of a half in which they had retained possession quite well but lacked imaginative movement and attacking incision.
Although Stam’s side initially offered similarly limited threat, they would have taken the lead had David Edwards not miscued his shot and sent the ball ballooning over the bar from eight yards out when it seemed easier to score.
Edwards’s redemption arrived in the 53rd minute when, concluding a well-worked Reading counterattack, a swipe of his right foot beat Robbin Ruiter from six yards out, after Aluko’s initial shot had been blocked.
His goal was met by an amalgam of anger and defiance, with some locals subjecting Coleman’s players to a barrage of loud boos and others aiming to offer inspiration – or maybe console themselves – courtesy of rousing renditions of “Sunderland ‘til I die”.
Yet, as Stam’s players extended their lead, an eerie silence descended on the ground and a steady stream of supporters poured towards the exits. When Modou Barrow met Liam Kelly’s cross and sent a left-foot volley arrowing into the bottom corner, it was as if a switch had been flicked and any remaining vestige of home optimism extinguished.
Once an unmarked Barrow had again used that left foot to register his side’s third from close range, the latest Wearside inquest was already well under way.
Sunderland regained a sliver of pride when Leandro Bacuna felled substitute Joel Asoro – who contributed some extremely promising touches – and Lewis Grabban converted the resultant penalty, but, as Coleman acknowledged, the atmosphere had long since turned horribly flat.
“Something’s got to break for us,” he said. “And it’s got to break quickly.”
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