STUPID STALTERI!!
HE COULD HAVE JUST CLEAR THE BALL UP FIELD OR KICK THE BALL OUT FOR A CORNER BUT HE CHOSE TO SHEILD IT BACK & THAT CAUSE US A VICTORY.
SELL HIM PLEASE....TO MANY SCHOOL BOY MISTAKES.....
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Substitute Daryl Murphy fired home the first senior goal of his Sunderland career a minute from time to dent Tottenham's Champions League charge.
The Irishman came off the bench to cancel out Robbie Keane's 38th-minute opener and grab a point for his side which takes them into double figures for the season, although Jermaine Jenas could have broken Wearside hearts but fired over in injury time.
Spurs were not significantly better than their hosts but they looked to have made their class tell in the areas that mattered before Murphy intervened, although Liam Lawrence and Kevin Kyle both went close as the home side rallied after the break.
Mick McCarthy's side have now gone 14 league matches at the Stadium of Light without a win, collecting only four points, but much of that was forgotten on the final whistle as the red and white faithful at last had something to celebrate.
In reality, Sunderland's future has been in little doubt for some time - they are heading back to the Coca-Cola Championship barring a recovery of miraculous proportions and they will be there sooner rather than later.
Even McCarthy admitted in the run-up to the match that, although he has not given up hope, his main focus now is to better the record low 19 points with which they slipped out of the top flight three years ago.
Sadly for him, even that could be a tall order.
The Black Cats' problems were illustrated graphically inside the first 45 minutes of this contest: they did not play particularly badly but they lacked the pace and guile to consistently hurt Tottenham.
Spurs were neat and tidy with Michael Carrick barely having to break sweat to control the central midfield battle and with Jenas and Aaron Lennon buzzing behind the lively front two, were always a threat without ever really finding top gear.
However, when they did so it was with devastating effect - Defoe racing away after 38 minutes with the help of a generous offside decision to deliver an inch-perfect cross just ahead of Kelvin Davis' dive for Keane to side-foot home.
Keane had earlier passed up two good opportunities and Lennon had forced a good save from Davis but there were half-chances too at the other end as Tommy Miller, Julio Arca and Jon Stead, still looking for his first Sunderland goal, all went close.
McCarthy and chairman Bob Murray have this week presented a united front after suggestions, fiercely denied, hat the club had planned for relegation all along.
But the home supporters left little doubt about their feelings with a large section offering a sustained chorus of ``We want Murray out'' even before the goal.
Christian Bassila made way for 20-year-old Grant Leadbitter at the break and the Black Cats started in positive mood with Lawrence having a weak left-foot shot hacked away and Kyle and Stead both making their presence felt.
Sunderland were enjoying plenty of possession but doing little with it and as time wore on so did their chances of clawing their way back into the game.
However, they went within inches of an equaliser after 62 minutes when Stead broke into space on the left and saw Paul Robinson fail to collect his low cross, although unlike Keane, Lawrence could not convert the loose ball.
Jol moved swiftly to replace the flagging Edgar Davids with new signing Danny Murphy and he introduced Mido, back from his ill-fated trip to the African Nations Cup with winners Egypt, for Keane with 20 minutes remaining.
His intent, presumably, was to puncture Sunderland's growing momentum, and the disruption served to do just that as the visitors regained a foothold in the game.
Daryl Murphy, a 75th-minute replacement for Lawrence, forced a regulation save from Robinson within seconds of his arrival but Kyle should have done better when he sent a stinging half-volley wide seven minutes from time.
But Murphy got his reward with a minute remaining when he muscled his way past Paul Stalteri on the left and drilled the ball under Robinson for snatch a point.
Jenas might have won it at the death but he fired high over on the turn to leave the Sunderland fans with something to cheer.
Martin Jol admitted Tottenham had suffered a blow to their Champions League credentials after allowing two points to slip from their grasp at lowly Sunderland.
Spurs had looked on target to cement their fourth place in the Barclays Premiership table when Robbie Keane fired them ahead with 38 minutes gone at the Stadium of Light.
They survived a second-half fightback in which Liam Lawrence and Kevin Kyle both passed up glorious opportunities to level, but substitute Daryl Murphy snatched a point for the home side with a minute remaining to deny the visitors victory and dent their European aspirations.
'Of course,' Jol said when asked if their cause had been damaged. 'All the teams around us have dropped points and you need a cushion because we have a very difficult programme ahead of us.
'But we are stronger than we were, so hopefully we can learn from this and win against teams like Wigan next week or Blackburn, and then we have Manchester United and Everton away, so it will be tough enough as it is.
'We will have our disappointments because we are still not a top side.'
Jol, however, admitted that as long as his side's lead was restricted to just one goal he was never confident the points were safe.
'It's a game played over 90 minutes-plus, so you always know every team in the Premiership is always capable of scoring one goal,' he said.
'You have to kill them off, and if you can't do that because you are not playing well or you don't take your chances or whatever, it's always a case of scoring the second goal, and we didn't do that.
'I have to say it was difficult to play our own game. In the first 20 minutes, we tried to play through the spine of field with (Michael) Carrick and Edgar (Davids), and when we scored the goal, that's exactly what happened, so it was good.
'But sometimes you have to play it forward a bit quicker and then support. But having said that, I think they had one chance, Sunderland, the ball going across the goal.
'But when you only score one goal, the other team is always capable of scoring until the 91st minute.'
It is perhaps a measure of the progress Spurs have made under Jol they were so disappointed with just a point from their trip to Wearside, but the manager did not agree.
'You can look for positives all the time, but the thing is we were playing against Sunderland, who are probably relegated already, and that is maybe the only danger you have got,' he said. 'There is nothing to lose for them.
'They played the two big men up front, maybe for the first time, but I think we coped with that, so it was no problem.
'We pressurised the ball all the time but then, in the 89th minute, we forgot to pressurise the ball and it went to the space and we were beaten.'
Black Cats boss Mick McCarthy was delighted to see his players, who have not won at home in the league all season, come away with something for their efforts.
'Up until the scored it looked like being a 0-0 draw all over,' he said. 'I don't think they threatened us, we'd been equally as good as them.
'But that's the difference between the sides that are above us and us, the fact that when they get their opportunity rolling across the box, they scored; when we had one in the second half, we didn't.
'But I thought we were worth a point.'
The draw took Sunderland's points tally into double figures, way short of safety, but at least providing a psychological boost.
'The more points we get, the better we will be, that's all,' said McCarthy.
