Sunderland 0 Everton 1
Scorer: Johnson (55m)
Sunderland Stadium of Light
Attendance: 42,595
Barclays Premier League
Sunday March 9, 2008

Another lacklustre performance from Sunderland sent us to another defeat, as a second half goal from Andy Johnson proved to be the difference at the Stadium of Light today.

Roy Keane made three changes to the side that drew with Derby last weekend, with Danny Collins, Grant Leadbitter and Anthony Stokes coming into the side at the expense of Danny Higginbotham, Andy Reid and Michael Chopra - with only Higginbotham missing out on the squad altogether.

Sunderland started off well, but didn't create any decent chances, as Kieran Richardson saw an early cross headed away by Phil Jagielka, before Danny Collins had to race back to clear away a cross following some neat work between Joleon Lescott and Mikel Arteta.

The first decent chance of the game fell to Everton on 16 minutes, when Craig Gordon easily saved Jagielka's header from a corner kick, shortly before a free kick from Arteta was hugely overhit and went away from Tim Cahill.

Sunderland had Everton on the backfoot on 24 minutes when Stokes kept in a deep cross from Daryl Murphy, who was having something of a stinker today, before the resulting cross from the former Arsenal man was finally cleared away by the Toffees.

Everton nearly took the lead in first half stoppage time when Stokes hooked away Tim Cahill's header off the line, before Andy Johnson fired a loose ball over the bar to mark the end of a scrappy opening period.

Michael Chopra replaced Stokes at half time, and Sunderland nearly scored shortly after the restart, only for Jones to narrowly miss Murphy's cross as the Trinidad and Tobago international still waits for his first goal of 2008. After having a few more crosses saved, Sunderland fell behind, as the Toffees' first half pressure resulted in a goal.

The goal came on 55 minutes, when a cross from Arteta found Andy Johnson, whose backward header across the face of goal caught out Gordon, as the ball went into the back of the net.

From there, Sunderland scrambled to get back into the game, with Tim Howard rushing to collect the ball after Steven Pienaar's clearance rebounded off of Phil Bardsley, before Daryl Murphy came off to a standing ovation. Not because he had a good game - because he was coming off! Murphy had been given some stick from the home fans for generally looking like he wasn't interested on the left wing again.

Sunderland had a penalty claim turned down when Kieran Richardson was shoved in the box by Jagielka, but Sunderland just looked toothless up front - and even the introduction of Rade Prica to create a two man attack (Jones had been up front by himself, for God knows what reason) didn't help.

We did see Kenwyne Jones have an header cleared off the line in stoppage time, but in the end Johnson's goal was enough to hand us our first home loss since Boxing Day as we get sucked back into the relegation fight.

Sunderland: Gordon, Bardsley, Evans, Nosworthy, Collins, Stokes (sub 46, Chopra), Leadbitter (sub 75, Prica), Whitehead, K Richardson, Murphy (sub 67, Reid), Jones. Subs: Fulop, McShane.

Everton: Howard, Hibbert, Yobo, Lescott, Neville, Jagielka, Arteta, Cahill (sub 87, Rodwell), Pienaar (sub 81, Baines), Johnson, Yakubu (sub 87, Anichebe). Subs: Turner, Gravesen.