Lights go out on United

By JON MURRAY

THE Stadium of Light became the stadium of darkness and despair for Oxford United on Saturday as a shockingly inept defensive display against an irresistable Sunderland attacking force saw them crash to the heaviest defeat in their history.

The date of September 19, 1998 will be remembered ever more by those poor Oxford United fans who made the 500-plus mile round trip to Wearside.

They witnessed their team embarrassingly outplayed, overrun and totally overwhelmed by the occasion of playing in such an imposing arena as more than 34,000 fans lifted the home side with a crescendo of noise every time they ran forward with the ball.

There were so many individual nightmares among the Oxford players that it is easier instead to pick out the only two to do themselves justice - Martin Gray, the former Sunderland player, who tried manfully to stem the tide when all around him were drowning, and Paul Powell who at least had the bottle to run with the ball, take opponents on, and tried to tackle.

Gray said before the game that it was vital to stop Sunderland's dangerous flank players Nicky Summerbee and Alan Johnston but that was precisely what the U's failed to do.

Indeed, these two tormented Simon Marsh and Les Robinson to such an extent that the Oxford fullbacks had by far their worst games ever in a yellow shirt. Phil Whelan was not far behind in the lamentable stakes, looking slow and ponderous as red and white shirted bodies flew past him at will in the second half, and manager Malcolm Shotton must have deeply regretted his decision to recall Phil Gilchrist who was not sharp and, sadly and uncharacteristically for him, slipped by the end to the sorry level of those around him.

Sunderland, the highest scorers in the Nationwide League before kick-off and unbeaten at home for exactly a year, made light of the fact that they were without first-choice strikers Kevin Phillips and Niall Quinn, and the midfielder who took United apart last season, Lee Clark.

From the moment the teams entered the pitch to Prokofiev's stirring Romeo and Juliet, there was a gladiatorial feel about the contest.

The Oxford team, written off before the game by the north-east media and just about all the Sunderland fans, would have to be strong, or face being thrown to the lions.

Two goals down inside six minutes, they made a shocking start. They then began to play, might have pulled a goal back and were unlucky to concede a harsh penalty which gave Sunderland a flattering 3-0 half-time lead. But in the second period it became a rout. Peter Reid's team sliced through a paper-thin defence at will and honestly looked like scoring from every attack.

Oxford's defending was embarrassing. They backed off as the Sunderland players ran at them, heads dropped from the moment goal No 4 went in and the collective lack of character leads one to have serious doubts about their chances of surviving in this division this season.

Here's how the catalogue of catastrophes came about:

3 mins: Marsh and Powell are caught out by some clever wing play from Summerbee whose near-post cross is deftly flicked home by Michael Bridges.1-0.

6 mins: Michael Gray slams a free-kick straight through United's defensive wall, the ball going in off a post with Phil Whitehead rooted to his spot. 2-0.

35 mins: Summerbee chips a right-wing cross into the area and Johnston tumbles to the ground after a seemingly innocuous challenge from Robinson. Danny Dichio converts the penalty. 3-0.

53 mins: Johnston brushes off Robinson's weak challenge and threads a pass through for sub Alex Rae to slot past Whitehead. 4-0.

56 mins: Summerbee loses Marsh by cutting inside and passing to Bridges who fires in his second goal of the game. 5-0.

66 mins: United criminally fail to clear just yards from their goal and Dichio slams a shot between Whitehead and his near post. 6-0.

85 mins: Bridges leaves Whelan standing with a sharp turn and slices open Oxford's defence by delivering a pinpoint pass for Rae who drives past the keeper.

There might have been more. Whitehead, whose first seven touches of the ball included picking the ball out of the back of his net five times, went on to make two good saves, and Bridges hit the bar with a brilliant chip over the keeper.

Yet United should have got on the scoresheet during a 20-minute spell when they were on top in the first half, Dean Windass catching keeper Tomas Sorensen off his line with an audacious 40-yard lob that flew just over, and Andy Thomson having a shot saved when he should have scored following a clever Windass dummy.

Those misses became meaningless as Peter Reid's team drove on towards their biggest victory at the Stadium of Light and their biggest league win for 11 years.

Yet seldom since 1987 can Sunderland have come up against opponents so willing to put up the white flag of surrender.

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