On This Day (19th September 2001): Sunderland lose mid-week clash to Spurs!
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In the battle of the former England internationals, Glenn Hoddle came out on top as his Tottenham side saw off Peter Reid's Lads at the Stadium of Light
Sunderland's unbeaten start to the season ended on this day in 2001, as Glenn Hoddle's team came to the Stadium of Light for a Wednesday night clash, and took the three points back to London.
On a typically windy and wet night in the North East, Tottenham were full value for their win with Peter Reid's team only beginning to play after the damage was done.
However, despite Spurs clearly being the better team, they struggled to break down a resolute and sturdy Sunderland defence.
As a matter of fact, we almost took the lead a minute into the game when Julio Arca smashed in a left-foot volley which goalkeeper Neil Sullivan pushed, one-handed, over the bar for a brilliant save.
It took a stroke of luck for the away side to take the lead, with the wind coming to the assistance of Christian Ziege whilst leaving our goalkeeper Jürgen Macho absolutely stranded.
With 26 minutes gone, the German picked up possession wide on the left and swung in a right-foot cross, only for the swirling wind to catch the ball and float it over the head of Macho.
The goal silenced the Stadium of Light and left an animated Macho evidently raging with himself for his error.
In fairness to Macho, he wasn't helped by a suspect performance by young Sunderland defender George McCartney, who struggled throughout the game with the fans getting on his back somewhat.
The Londoners did go further ahead in the 51st minute when Simon Davies scorched past Bernt Haas to centre perfectly from the left for Teddy Sheringham to head home from just outside the six-yard box.
With the second goal going in, Reid whipped McCartney off the pitch and replaced him with Darren Williams, which was probably for his own good, but we only started to really get going after the second goal went in.
Kevin Kilbane's centre from the left was headed across by Niall Quinn for Kevin Phillips to put an overhead kick narrowly wide, before Gavin McCann brought a goal-line save from Sullivan with a stinging twenty-yarder.
Sunderland's persistence eventually paid off in the 78th minute, when Phillips latched on to a back header to smash home a first-time right foot shot.
This goal shook Spurs and gave the home side life, as Lilian Laslandes came on and Sunderland threw bodies forward and pumped balls into the box, hoping for something to pay off.
Spurs were edgy and fragile and we could smell a late equaliser that looked very unlikely earlier in this game.
In a thrilling finish, we had a penalty appeal for handball turned down before central defender Chris Perry cleared off his line right on full time.
Spurs held on…just.
FA Barclaycard Premiership
18 September 2001
Stadium of Light
Attendance: 47,310
Sunderland 1 (Phillips 79')
Tottenham Hotspur 2 (Ziege 26', Sheringham 51')
Sunderland: Macho, Haas, Gray; McCartney (Williams 57'), Craddock, Arca; Schwarz, McCann (Laslandes 78'),Kilbane; Phillips, Quinn
Subs Not Used: Kennedy, Thirlwell, Bellion
Tottenham: Sullivan, Taricco, Perry; King, Ziege, Freund; Poyet, Anderton (Leonhardsen 79'), Davies; Sheringham (Rebrov 69) , Ferdinand
Subs Not Used: Keller, Etherington, Thelwell
Referee: Paul Durkin (Dorset)
