Bent strike downs Liverpool

Liverpool's season went from bad to worse as they lost 1-0 at Sunderland, their fourth defeat in the Premier League.

Sunderland grab victory at Stadium of Light

Liverpool's season went from bad to worse as they lost 1-0 at Sunderland, their fourth defeat of the campaign. The only goal of the game arrived just five minutes in as Darren Bent lashed the ball home - although Liverpool will be ruing the freak nature of the goal as the ball deflected off a beach ball which had been thrown onto the pitch by the visiting fans. Whilst the goal was lucky, the win was anything but as Sunderland should have won by more and Bent could have easily had a hat-trick. Indeed it was not until injury-time that Craig Gordon had a save to make in the Sunderland goal. The win also lifts Sunderland into seventh, above Liverpool who now find themselves dropping to eighth. With the injured Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres missing, they were a shadow of the side which pushed Manchester United so close last season as they slipped to their fourth league defeat of the campaign despite a late, late rally. After their side's heroics at Old Trafford a fortnight ago, when only a late Anton Ferdinand own goal gave the reigning champions a point, the Wearside faithful arrived believing a win over one of the Premier League's traditional powers was a distinct possibility. And if they needed further confirmation that it could be their day, they had to wait only five minutes.

Early goal

There was nothing fortunate about the way Andy Reid and Steed Malbranque combined to open up the Reds down the right, and when the ball fell for top-scorer Bent, fate intervened. Pepe Reina thought he had the striker's shot covered and could only look on in horror when it hit the beach ball and flew past him into the net. Sunderland sensed an opportunity and could have been out of sight by half time. Bent could have doubled the lead but he headed a 22nd-minute Reid cross straight at Reina and then glanced Phil Bardsley's driven ball wide of the far post seven minutes before the break. Liverpool repeatedly found themselves under pressure as Reid, Lee Cattermole and Steed Malbranque got forward to support strikers Bent and Kenwyne Jones as a back three of Jamie Carragher, Martin Skrtel and Daniel Agger were swamped by red and white shirts. But they managed to survive further mishap and gradually eased their way back into the game, although without ever putting Craig Gordon's goal under extreme pressure. The Scotland international had to block Ryan Babel's 13th-minute shot on the turn at close quarters and was happy to see Fabio Aurelio's 27th-minute free kick fly wide, but he was otherwise largely untroubled. Bruce made a change at the break when his only specialist left-back, George McCartney, failed to re-appear, prompting a reshuffle. Ferdinand moved across from centre-half as Lorik Cana dropped into central defence to accommodate teenage midfielder Jordan Henderson. The newcomer almost made his mark within two minutes when his shot was blocked by Carragher, in the eyes of the home side with his arm, but Mr Jones waved play on. Reina kept his side in it with 55 minutes gone when he blocked Bent's effort after the striker had run onto Jones' pass and rounded him.

Woodwork

The goalkeeper needed the help of the woodwork six minutes later after Bent capitalised on more poor defending, but saw his shot come back off the foot of the post. Bruce and Benitez became embroiled in an angry touchline spat as the injured Jones was treated at length on the pitch before, like Cattermole minutes earlier, leaving on a stretcher. Malbranque was denied by Carragher's last-ditch block but Yossi Benayoun squandered a glorious opportunity to level two minutes later when he fired high and wide from 16 yards. Benitez threw on strikers Andriy Voronin and David Ngog in a desperate effort to rescue a point, and deep into seven minutes of stoppage time Gordon had to make a fine double save from Dirk Kuyt and Ngog to deny Liverpool an undeserved point.

Sunderland	Team Statistics	Liverpool
1	Goals	0
1	1st Half Goals	0
3	Shots on Target	4
7	Shots off Target	11
5	Blocked Shots	4
1	Corners	7
21	Fouls	18
4	Offsides	0
2	Yellow Cards	1
0	Red Cards	0
65.4	Passing Success	78
27	Tackles	28
63	Tackles Success	75
31.1	Possession	68.9
49.6	Territorial Advantage	50.4