Sunderland secured a much needed point after scoring late in a 2-2 draw against struggling Crystal Palace at the Stadium of Light.
The Black Cats took the lead in the 36th minute through a goal from Dame N’Doye, who took a long shot which found its way past Wayne Hennessey after taking a massive deflection off Palace defender Scott Dann.
Struggling to find any consistent momentum going forward the visitors struck back and took the lead themselves through two quick goals from former Sunderland striker Connor Wickham. The first came in the 60th minute after a burst down the wing from Wilfried Zaha who played the ball across to Yannick Bolasie. Bolasie passed to the feet of Wickham with a perfectly weighted through ball, then able to turn and blast the ball past Vito Mannone.
Six minutes later Wickham had a double and Palace had the lead. Jordon Mutch whipped in a corner that found Dann, heading down to the striker who was open in the six-yard box and was again able to hit the net.
It looked as if Palace would finally be able to secure their first win since the 19th of December, until Fabio Borini struck in the dying embers of the game. DeAndre Yedlin found Borini on the edge of the box near the sideline and the Italian took the shot on much to the surprise of the Palace defence.
The Eagles’ search for their first win of the calendar year continues with a return home to face a team they have a good recent record over in Liverpool. while Sunderland face an away trip to take on Southampton.
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Palace finally have strikers scoring
The one positive that Palace can take on from not only this game but also the previous match against West Bromwich is that Wickham has finally found his scoring boots again. After having only scored one goal, which came from a penalty, in the first two thirds of the season, he has now recorded four in the last two games.
This was one issue that Alan Pardew has had for the entire season and was the main reason that Emmanuel Adebayor was brought in for free in the January transfer window. Knowing that he has competition for his spot in the team may be the factor in the revival of Wickham, finally finding the form that will guarantee him a starting spot in the side.
He will take some confidence from these last two games, especially being able to have an impact against his former employers and should look to continue this form to try and right the ship for Crystal Palace, who actually have the worst record in the Premier League since the start of the year after what was a really promising start to the season.
Can Sunderland avoid the drop?
The goal from Borini secured a point that saw the Black Cats move above Norwich and Newcastle and out of the drop zone on goal difference, however, their neighbours do have two games in hand. Given that Sunderland did find themselves going from one goal up to being one goal down in less than 10 minutes it would have been easy to see Palace be able to run away with the game and increase the gap, yet Sam Allardyce should be able to take some confidence in his sides ability to bounce back and get the goal back.
Although his side does only have one win in the last seven they had been struggling in the relegation area now for six weeks, they have now shown that they have the strength to possibly fight the battle that they have in front of them.
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