More lessons to be learned before it's too late

A year on the Wear:AS A BEATING it will take some beating: November 24th, 2007, Everton 7 Sunderland 1. There have been some chewy moments for Wearside this season but that afternoon at Goodison Park saw bottom lips bitten like never before, or since. Sunderland had won none of their previous seven matches and the Everton pummelling returned them to the relegation zone. Fans used the phrase "the honeymoon's over". So when David Moyes's side arrive at the Stadium of Light tomorrow, they will bring with them meaningful, painful memories as well as an obvious goal threat.

At Goodison Park, Sunderland were four months into a new Premier League season, the club's first under Roy Keane, Niall Quinn and Drumaville. The players' heads were as droopy as form as the full scale of the embarrassment dawned in the dressingroom. Something had to be done. Keane dropped his goalkeeper.

Now after a seven-goal mauling, any goalkeeper is scrutinised. The added difficulty for Keane was that Craig Gordon was not responsible for many of the goals at Everton, or for the majority of them, plus at €12 million he was Sunderland's record transfer just a few months earlier. But Gordon had not been convincing for some weeks and Keane, to use his word at the time, "rested" him. A delicate word for a delicate situation.

It was a big call but that is what Keane is paid rather well to make. "I hope leaving him out has proved to be a good decision," Keane said of Gordon yesterday. "You would have to ask him but we felt it was the best thing for him over the long term. I felt at the time it was a good decision."

It had instant justification in that Sunderland kept a clean sheet the following week against Derby. Sunderland also scored, in the 90th minute. A 7-1 defeat had been followed by a 1-0 win.

Another three weeks passed before Gordon was back in the team. That was at Reading where Sunderland lost to an injury-time "goal" from Stephen Hunt that Gordon looked to have prevented crossing the line. More of which later.

Gordon's season had bottomed out at Goodison Park. Given the scoreline, it would need to have done so. There was a four-goal lesson from Manchester United at home over Christmas but when El-Hadj Diouf scored for Bolton on December 29th, it was the last goal Gordon and Sunderland have conceded in the Premier League at the Stadium of Light.

There have been only three home games since then, but it's early March. In pressing times, it's a stat worth clinging to.

When speaking of Gordon yesterday, Keane mentioned Raimond van der Gouw, Keane's old colleague from Old Trafford, who is Sunderland's goalkeeping coach. "Raimond says he would not swap him (Gordon) for anybody. Yes, he is inexperienced and he will make mistakes and I hope he was down after Everton because I was down and everybody was down. But I remember the way we bounced back the following weekend."

Gordon is not the sole reason for defensive improvement since. Keane's back four at Everton that day was Dean Whitehead, Paul McShane, Danny Higginbotham and Ian Harte. Tomorrow it will be Phil Bardsley, Nyron Nosworthy, Jonny Evans and Danny Collins. Those omitted could not argue that a change of personnel was not required.

"It's all a learning experience," Keane said of Goodison and subsequent developments, "and in defence of players I got the call wrong. I picked the wrong team and the wrong shape and should have changed it. But my attitude was, even at 5-1, we could still win 6-5. As naive as I was, and I still am, I still thought we would get back in game, although maybe at 6-1 I thought we wouldn't.

"That was reality check for me and we got a hiding that day against a much better team. There is no shame in that. But it is gone, which is the beauty of football. You move on."

Moving on from last Saturday's 0-0 at Derby is what most Sunderland supporters would like to do, it's just that after Everton it is Chelsea then Aston Villa. Three of the current top six in the space of three weeks. There is a reason why none of the five members of the "punters' panel" in the local paper think Sunderland will win tomorrow. You can feel anxiety tightening like the buttons on a coat.

Four did at least opt for a draw. That would be acceptable but at some stage Sunderland are surely going to have to overcome a team from the top six. Of the present top 10, only Portsmouth have been beaten.

Keane concurred. "We will have to beat a top six team. What has given us a chance is beating teams around us, but we need one result that surprises everybody. We have not done it away from home."

Which brought Keane back to Michael Chopra's disallowed goal at Derby, and that led onto Collins's disallowed goal against Villa, Hunt's goal for Reading and Portsmouth's penalty at Fratton Park.

"I have been disappointed with the attitude shown towards the club," Keane said of referees and linesmen. "I've been told by people in football that things will even themselves out but, the way things are going, they won't. All we are asking for is fairness and we have not been given that. It has cost this club four or five points."

Four or five more points now and Sunderland could start planning for the summer. But they can't. They don't know where they'll be. Asked about Cobh Ramblers and their game last night at Finn Harps, Keane said: "I saw them a couple of times last season when they were going for promotion. It is going to be a tough season for them, although they have some good young lads coming through." With a rueful smile he added: "It's tough for any team that gets promoted."