Sunderland thumped bottom-placed West Brom 4-0 with two goals coming from Kenwyne Jones.
Caretaker manager revels in home debut
Sunderland thumped bottom-placed West Brom 4-0 with two goals coming from Kenwyne Jones to finish off a miserable trip to the North East.
The Baggies were thrashed as Sunderland claimed the much-needed three points in the relegation battle and gave caretaker manager Ricky Sbragia a dream home debut for the Black Cats.
By half-time the Albion were on an uphill battle as two goals from Jones in as many minutes and an Andy Reid header stunned the away side.
The second-half began even more miserably for West Brom as a cross into the box hit substitute Roman Bednar's elbow and Djibril Cisse powered the spot kick down the middle sending Scott Carson to the right for 4-0.
Sbragia made a couple of changes from the side which narrowly lost to Manchester United as Kieran Richardson was handed the captaincy and put in a performance Roy Keane would have been proud of.
Confidence
Despite losing their last four matches, Sunderland looked full of confidence from the start as Cisse collected Steed Malbranque's ball down the right and crossed for Jones to shoot straight at Carson.
West Brom had been warned but Sunderland took the lead in the 22nd minute when Jones met Reid's cross with a powerful diving header.
The celebrations from that goal had barely died down when Carson parried Cisse's initial effort, but the striker battled on and pulled the ball back into the danger zone. After a goalmouth scramble with a superb save on the line from Carson, Jones followed-up to make it 2-0.
Cisse again shot straight at Carson under pressure from Abdoulaye Meite as the hosts piled forward and the home side's immense pressure resulted in a third in the 40th minute.
Malbranque curled in a teasing cross towards the far post and Reid was perfectly positioned to head home back across Carson.
With Luke Moore isolated up front for Albion, boss Tony Mowbray made a double change at the break and sent on striker Roman Bednar and South Korea midfielder Do-heon Kim.
Penalty
But Bednar made an impact at the wrong end as he handled Malbranque's free-kick in the penalty area after 47 minutes.
Referee Lee Mason pointed to the spot and Cisse smashed the penalty past Carson to wrap up the points.
Sunderland showed no sign of letting up and Cisse shot over with just the keeper to beat. Jones was denied a hat-trick when Carson blocked his shot with his foot and Reid shot wide from the rebound.
Carson again had to make a smart 72nd-minute save from the relentless Cisse as the Black Cats crept out of the relegation zone with a 4-0 win.
| Sunderland |
Team Statistics |
West Bromwich Albion |
| 4 |
Goals |
0 |
| 3 |
1st Half Goals |
0 |
| 11 |
Shots on Target |
3 |
| 7 |
Shots off Target |
3 |
| 0 |
Blocked Shots |
10 |
| 1 |
Corners |
11 |
| 10 |
Fouls |
18 |
| 4 |
Offsides |
1 |
| 1 |
Yellow Cards |
2 |
| 0 |
Red Cards |
0 |
| 72 |
Passing Success |
79.4 |
| 24 |
Tackles |
10 |
| 70.8 |
Tackles Success |
80 |
| 48.8 |
Possession |
51.2 |
| 44.7 |
Territorial Advantage |
55.3 |
|
