Sunderland 0 Chelsea 1
Scorer: Terry (10m)
Sunderland Stadium of Light
Attendance: 44,679
Barclays Premier League
Saturday March 15, 2008

Sunderland turned in an improved performance from last weekend, but still came away with a home defeat, as John Terry's only goal was enough for Chelsea to squeak out a victory.

Roy Keane sprung a surprise before the match, when Kieran Richardson, Daryl Murphy, Anthony Stokes and Michael Chopra all disappeared from the squad, sparking rumours of a fresh bust-up. In their place, we saw Andy Reid start on the left, while Carlos Edwards made his first team comeback from his broken leg.

Chelsea just about edged the early exchanges, with Salomon Kalou forcing Nyron Nosworthy into a clearance in the opening minute, before Collins and Bardsley got in on the act to cut out crosses.

We saw ourselves in the familiar position of having a penalty appeal turned down in the eighth minute, when John Terry appeared to send Roy O'Donovan on a fall in the box... and just two minutes later, Terry got his name on the scoresheet, when he beat Kenwyne Jones to head Frank Lampard's corner past Craig Gordon.

Sunderland went on the attack straight away, with John Obi Mikel denying Grant Leadbitter a shot on goal following some set-up play from Jones and O'Donovan, before Didier Drogba saw a 25-yard effort go well off target. Carlos Edwards managed a pop on goal on 23 minutes when Andy Reid's cross fell to the returning Trinidad and Tobagan winger, only for him to put his shot just over Carlo Cudicini's bar.

Cudicini had to be alert four minutes later to keep out Andy Reid's 20 yard free kick, as Sunderland threw the kitchen sink at Avram Grant's side, before a Chelsea attack came to an end when Michael Ballack handled the ball as he attempted to control Bardsley's poor clearance.

Another Reid free kick was headed just off target by Jones, before a chase between O'Donovan and Cudicini for a Danny Collins through ball nearly sparked a confrontation as the Irishman narrowly avoided Chelsea's Italian keeper.

Sunderland kept it up in the second half, having to contend with the odd bit of Chelsea pressure, with a miskick by Andy Reid almost setting up Leadbitter for another shot on 53 minutes. The number of clear chances for the Lads decreased a little bit, as Carlos Edwards was taken off, having played his second hour of football in a week.

Danny Collins' cross failed to meet a Sunderland man after he'd been set up by a great cross-field pass by Leadbitter, before we suffered a scare when Didier Drogba's cross narrowly missed Lampard at close range.

Kenwyne Jones missed his second golden chance of the game, nodding a lofted pass from substitute Dwight Yorke straight at Cudicini, having sandwiched himself between Chelsea defenders Terry and Alex. Jones is still waiting for his first goal of 2008, and with performances like this, he'll still be waiting...

Ian Harte came on as our last substiute, and almost set up the equaliser, only for his cross towards Bardsley to be cut out, after Jones had missed another header, as the Lads' hard work didn't produce the desired result.

You can definitely say that Roy Keane and his men had a right to be proud after this performance!

Sunderland: Gordon, Bardsley, Collins, Evans, Nosworthy, Edwards (sub 62, Prica), O'Donovan (sub 73, Yorke), Whitehead, Leadbitter (sub 85, Harte), Reid, Jones. Subs: Fulop, McShane.

Chelsea: Cudicini, Ferreira, Alex, Terry, A Cole, Mikel, Ballack (sub 73, Essien), Lampard, J Cole (sub 82, Wright-Phillips), Kalou, Drogba. Subs: Hilario, Carvalho, Shevchenko.