English Premier League – Half time review: Sunderland F.C versus Bolton Wanderers
It was Bolton Wanderers, who had the brighter start of the two teams as they fashioned their first chance of the match in the 8th minute of the encounter. It was Matthew Taylor who broke forward down the left hand side,
the ex-Portsmouth player went past the Sunderland right back before sliding in the pass to Kevin Davies but the striker spurned the chance as Sunderland’s back four cleared the ball away. It was a woeful miss as Davies should have given his team due to the
quality of the chance that had fell his way.
In the 10th minute of the match, Darren Bent went down with injury as Gary Cahill crashed into the Englishman and caught him on the ankle. The game was stopped by the referee as Bent went out for a check-up while Sunderland
continued the match with 10 men on the field. Bolton Wanderers were setup to play on the counter attack as Sunderland, the home side ushered themselves forward on every possible situation. In the 12th minute, it was Kieran Richardson who slipped
a wonderful ball to Danny Welbeck but just before the young striker was about to make contact with the ball, Cahill slid in and nicked the ball away from Welbeck.
In the 13th minute, Sunderland were on the front foot yet again as this time the ball fell to Darren Bent inside the Bolton penalty area. Nonetheless, the striker was wayward with his finish as Bolton breathed a sigh
of relief. Despite the fact that Bolton started the match off brightly, it was Sunderland who gained a foothold during the middle stages of the first half as their front three along with Jordan Henderson in midfield did a marvellous job of retaining ball possession.
In the 31st minute of the match, Sunderland finally took the lead as Daniel Welbeck connected brilliantly with a diving header after Darren Bent’s shot was spilled by Bolton’s goalkeeper. In the 40th minute
of the match, Stuart Holden was tackled by Lee Cattermole. It was a bad challenge by the Englishman who was rightly booked by the referee as the first yellow card of the match went to the Sunderland midfielder.
The first half of the match therefore came to a conclusion with Sunderland in the lead as Bolton were largely second best in the first period of the match at Stadium of light.
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