Middlesbrough's forgotten man Szilard Nemeth served up a reminder of his
talent with a gilt-edged double to condemn Sunderland to derby defeat.
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Goalscorers Nemeth and Maccarone celebrate after they combined for No.3
(AlexLivesey/GettyImages) |
The Slovakian international, who has for so long had to live in the shadow of
Croatian Alen Boksic and record singing Massimo Maccarone, returned from a
hamstring injury to stake his claim for first team football with a match-winning
display.
Nemeth opened the scoring with just 16 minutes gone, pouncing on a slip by
Thomas Sorensen after Maccarone had chanced his arm from distance.
Having seen his Italian strike partner double his side's advantage with a
bullet header before the break, he then sealed the points with a beautifully
taken third goal with 66 minutes gone.
Had it not been for the heroics of Sorensen, who atoned for his earlier error
with a fine stop to deny the former Inter Bratislava front man a hat-trick, he
would have capped a fine evening's work by collecting the match ball.
Boro's performance was good enough to send the vast majority of a crowd of
32,155 home with smiles on their faces as Sunderland's derby misery continued.
The Black Cats, who took just one of the 12 points on offer against their
north-east rivals last season, worked hard throughout, but never really tested
Mark Schwarzer on a night when the injured Kevin Phillips was badly missed.
Guest of honour Brian Clough scored goals in abundance for both Boro and
Sunderland during his glittering playing career, something neither club has done
with any great regularity in recent times.
In a bid to rectify that situation, respective managers Steve McClaren and
Peter Reid spent the summer attempting to add striking talent to their
respective armouries, the Teessiders breaking their club record fee to recruit
22-year-old Maccarone and the Black Cats pouncing just ahead of the transfer
deadline to add Tore Andre Flo and Marcus Stewart to the pay roll.
Reid's investment looked all the more timely in the hours leading up to
kick-off when it was revealed that star hitman Phillips will be sidelined for up
to six weeks after surgery on a hernia.
But it was his opposite number who was able to bask in the warm glow of at
least half a job well done when Alan Wiley's whistle brought a temporary halt to
proceedings.
Nemeth pounced on Sorensen's error as he failed to hold Maccarone's
16th-minute long-range effort.
But better was to come eight minutes before the break when the Italian helped
himself to his third Boro goal by powering home a header from Franck Queudrue's
driven free-kick to make it 2-0.
Few would argue that the Teessiders deserved their lead, although Sunderland
will play worse this season and not suffer as badly.
The difference at both ends of the pitch was simply that the Teessiders were
the more decisive.
Maccarone, Nemeth and Joseph Job managed to create space for themselves where
Flo and Stewart could not as Matt Piper and Thomas Butler prospered on the
flanks.
Gareth Southgate, Ugo Ehiogu and Colin Cooper consistently got to the ball
ahead of the men they were marking, where Joachim Bjorklund and Phil Babb could
not.
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Stephen Wright tugs back Marccarone
(MichaelSteele/GettyImages) |
Claudio Reyna, who found himself fighting back the tide in central midfield as
the impressive Jonathan Greening and Geremi prompted from deep, saw a
39th-minute free-kick deflected wide with Mark Schwarzer stranded, but that was
as close as his side came to grabbing a lifeline before the break.
There was never any doubt that Reid's side would come out with all guns
blazing after the break, and they gradually built up a head of steam to suggest
that there could be a twist in the tail.
Flo twice headed wide form Reyna corners when he should perhaps have done
better, but the home side for once looked less than rock solid at the back.
In the meantime, Job had served warning of his side's ability to break at pace
when he linked up with Queudrue and Nemeth to force an excellent save from
Sorensen with a well-struck shot.
But with the Black Cats throwing caution to the wind, they were undone again
with 66 minutes gone as the Teessiders turned defence into attack at blistering
pace.
Maccarone picked up possession inside his own half and headed towards goal
before spotting Nemeth surging through the middle completely unmarked.
The Italian's pass was weighted to perfection to allow his strike partner to
draw Sorensen before lifting the ball over him and into the empty net.
It could have been 4-0 within two minutes when Nemeth turned Babb and
Bjorklund inside out before sending in a curling shot which Sorensen turned away
superbly, but there was simply no way back for the visitors.
Schwarzer dived full length to claim a Reyna free-kick 10 minutes from time
and kept out a Stephen Wright drive at the death, but that was as difficult as
his evening's work got.
Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren saluted goal hero Nemeth. 'He never complained last year when it was a frustrating year for him and the
start of this year has been frustrating,' he said.
'We always say when you get an opportunity, make sure you take it, and he did
tonight. He played against Southampton and did ever so well, went away with Slovakia,
got injured, came back and wasn't quite fit.
'But I had no hesitation in putting Szilard in, and I thought he had a
tremendous game.'
But if it was Nemeth who claimed the headlines, it was Boro's overall
performance which was most pleasing for McClaren.
'A win is a win and three points is tremendous, but to do it in a local derby
makes it extra-special, obviously,' he said. 'We started the game very well,
but we scored at the right times this week.
'They looked as if they were just getting into it and bang, we scored, they
were just getting back again and we got the second.
'Two-nil at half time, we think that's a dangerous position to be in. To be
fair to the players, we said go out there and go for it, and probably in their
best spell, we broke away and got the third and really sealed the game.'
Sunderland boss Reid was in subdued mood: 'We had plenty of possession and the goals came at the wrong times for us,
and from our point of view, were bad goals.' he said. 'My two wide men had a
lot of the ball and put a lot of crosses in, but we didn't get on the end of
anything.
'The first goal killed us and then the one before half-time, it's very
difficult to come back from two down.
'The third goal, we had nine players in the box and we leave ourselves
wide-open. We lost a bit of discipline in our play chasing the game and you
can't afford to do that at this level.'
Keeper Thomas Sorensen will have to accept part of the blame for the first
goal after spilling Maccarone's initial shot, but Reid said: 'The only thing
with keepers is when they make a mistake, invariably it's a goal and that really
highlights it.
'But we let the boy turn and get in a great shot, that was the first mistake,
Thomas made a mistake and then the boy Nemeth got on the end of it.'
It proved a bad day all round for Reid, who had earlier revealed that he will
be without star striker Kevin Phillips for up to six weeks after he underwent
surgery on a hernia problem.
'It's not the same side as last time, but he was feeling it,' he said. 'He
went to see the specialist yesterday. I thought he was just having an
examination, but got a phone call to say that it was a hernia and made a quick
decision.
'We've got a two-week break with the Slovakia game coming up, and that was in
our minds as well.'
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