For 79 minutes, Sunderland defended and didn’t appear at all like they were going to score. For 79 minutes, Crystal Palace kept shooting and shooting but couldn’t score. Crystal Palace would pay for not scoring in the most cruel of ways.
Call it a lack of communication, indecision making or a mix of the two, but a borderline bonehead play by Palace defender Scott Dann and goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey led to Sunderland striker Jermain Defoe to take his one and only chance into a wide open Crystal Palace goal to win 1-0 and be within a point of getting out of relegation.
I’m still trying to figure this out but it appeared that Dann was trying to block Defoe to get Hennessey to clear the ball and Hennessey was holding back for Dann to pass the ball to him and he would clear the ball. It wound up being that Defoe bolted in and moved Dann into Hennessey and grabbed the ball to get the goal.
This kind of scrappiness is definitely what Sunderland and Sam Allardyce needed. They are desperate for points and these three away points will be vastly cherished.
