ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: Sunderland 1 Hull City 0TAKING THINGS personally and being thin skinned are generally regarded as undesirable human traits but they helped propel Sunderland to a vital victory on Saturday. Ricky Sbragia and his players were incensed by casual pre-match remarks from Phil Brown which they swiftly interpreted as constituting that cardinal football sin: "Disrespect."
Hull City’s manager – who fell out with Sbragia in January over Paul McShane’s recall from a loan stint on Humberside – told reporters: “Sunderland are in a predicament they won’t have been expecting having spent the money they did. Their plight is as rocky as anyone’s.”
So far so factual but sometimes the truth hurts and behind his sharp suits and permatan, Brown is nothing like as streetwise or media savvy as he might appear.
On Saturday morning a typically top-spun tabloid report suggested he had “taunted” Sunderland’s “expensive under-achievers” and by lunchtime the indignant but smartly opportunistic Sbragia was busy pinning photocopies of the offending piece – headlined “Black Cats are a Spent Force” – to the home dressing-room wall. Although Brown did not single out individuals, the article clearly touched raw nerves and a quick perusal was said to have left Djibril Cisse, Anton Ferdinand, Andy Reid and company shaking with rage.
In truth a nervy Sunderland passed badly but did seem unusually committed against a similarly unimaginative Hull who, nonetheless, proved a relentless threat at set-pieces. A draw might have been fairer but the win was sealed when, late in the first half, Reid whipped in a cross and an arguably offside Cisse headed the flicked on delivery beyond Boaz Myhill.
At the final whistle Reid said something unrepeatable to Brown before the visiting manager became embroiled in an unseemly exchange with Ferdinand.
His side’s latest defeat not only left Hull hovering on the edge of the relegation zone but saw yet more fuel poured on the personal bonfire of the vanities which began on St Stephen’s Day and now seriously threatens to consume Brown’s once highly promising managerial career.
He has never properly recovered from the extraordinarily humiliating half-time dressing down, delivered on the Eastlands pitch, he dished out to his team during a defeat at Manchester City on December 26th. Back then Hull were heading for Europe but a manager boasting one of the better tactical brains around instantly forfeited the hitherto fierce loyalty of several players. Even Brown’s rigid mask of denial regarding the incident seemed to be slipping a little on Saturday.
“Ask me about what I did at Manchester City when we’ve survived,” he said before reminding everyone that Sunderland are far from secure. “You can’t say we were the only side who lacked quality out there,” reflected Brown. “You can’t call that an inspired Sunderland performance.”
Unnecessarily churlish, if accurate, that barb seemed as ill-judged as his decision to spend most of last week in Portugal with his wife. All too predictably, Brown provoked ridicule by haranguing match officials throughout and making repeated, usually ludicrously false, accusations that Sbragia’s players were elbowing opponents and diving.
Goodness knows what Keane would have made of it. Perhaps significantly it is said that the Irishman has recently resumed telephone contact with Niall Quinn offering Sunderland’s chairman advice on avoiding relegation. That job, though, is now someone else’s and on Saturday Sbragia, for once, looked to be enjoying it.
GuardianService
