On This Day (18th Dec 2010): Welbeck Sends Sunderland Sixth

Steve Bruce was beginning to put his stamp on this Sunderland team around this time in 2010. With Sunderland rising to sixth in the table, the club were looking towards the European places rather than the opposite direction thanks to the rich vein of form they were displaying.

The signings of Danny Welbeck and Asamoah Gyan proved to be shrewd pieces of business as Bruce opted to play the three of them up top as we took on Bolton Wanderers on this day in 2010.

Along with Sunderland, Bolton were the season’s surprise package as Owen Coyle’s team sat side by side with Bruce’s team in the table. Whilst Bolton’s recent success was due to the attacking style of football that he wanted to play, Sunderland’s solidity at the back was being touted as one of the best in the league, where they earned their ninth clean sheet of the season in this win.

For the game itself, Bolton were certainly playing all the football early doors as they created some decent chances and put the Sunderland side on the back foot. They were denied early on when a Kevin Davies shot hit team-mate Johan Elmander after good work down the left by Matt Taylor.

For the home side, Kieran Richardson created Sunderland’s first real opening, bursting into the area and beating Knight, only for Cahill to rescue the Trotters with a last-ditch tackle.

Sunderland were growing into the game, and when a Jordan Henderson cross found Darren Bent, who stretched his body as far as it could to bring down the ball before shooting, the home side were fortunate the rebound fell at the head of Welbeck, who nodded it into the net to put us one up.

Soon after, one of the best seasons at the Stadium of Light occurred when our goalkeeper Craig Gordon saved a header by Zat Knight in a stunning piece of goalkeeping, as the Scot showed stunning reactions to tip the ball over the bar from the defender’s side-footed effort from less than five yards out.

With John Mensah going off injured in the first half, Sunderland had to reshuffle their back line but still resisted the pressure from Bolton’s striker Elmander and Davis in particular as the game became tempestuous and tempered as some heavy-hitting tackles went in.

One – to the shock of nobody – was central to this as Lee Cattermole found himself very lucky not to be sent off in the second half. After picking up a yellow in the first half for a tackle on Stuart Holden, Cattermole conceivably been sent off for a late tackle on Johan Elmander, much to the frustration of Coyle in the Wanderers dugout.

“I don’t ever want to see a player sent off, but Lee was on a yellow card and clearly caught Johan and was nowhere near the ball,” Coyle told the BBC.

In the opposite dugout, Bruce admitted we might have “got away with one” which in many ways made the win all the sweeter as Sunderland finished the game in sixth place after a sensational run of form saw them climbing up the table at an impressive rate.

However, Bruce was not feeding into the positive vibes that were going around his team at this time, as the manager somewhat played down the hype.

“One thing I have learned is to never get carried away,” added Bruce. “We have a good squad of players. I have said all along that getting in the top 10 is the aim and that remains so.

Unfortunately for the entire club, Darren Bent’s transfer to Aston Villa in the January transfer saw the wind taken out of their sails and led to the team sliding down the table at an alarming rate before a late season ressurection led to the team finishing tenth.