Sunderland 1 Swansea City 3 match report: Sunderland’s surge ends but manager Gus Poyet will stay
Dyer, Emnes and Bony were on target for the visitors
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Your support makes all the difference.Gus Poyet met with the Sunderland owner Ellis Short before his side’s defeat to Swansea and insisted he will still be the club’s manager next season.
Poyet’s fallout with the hierarchy at the club during a 10-game run without a win had threatened to see him leave. He had been open to managing West Ham, if Sam Allardyce was sacked.
However, there appears to have been thawing of relations during a conciliatory meeting on Sunday morning. When asked if he would be in charge in August, Poyet said: “Yes. The rumours means you are doing something special:the way your team plays or the achievement. Before I didn’t have the Premier League experience, now I do. I had the meeting today with the chairman. He was one of the happiest people in England! It will be my pre-season, my players, my group, my mentality. Until now it works because I have been asked to save the club from relegation and we’ve done it all together. That was impressive. I asked a lot of the fans this year. My challenge is to give a lot next year. I want to work as hard as I can to make sure they don’t have another season like this one.”
Of course Sunderland ended a chaotic season with another loss, their 20th of the campaign. The white-knuckle ride their supporters have endured for nine of the most testing and traumatic months a season could possibly bring, had to end in defeat. The high has lasted five games and it has proved enough to throw a lifeline for another Premier League campaign. That came on Wednesday.
The highs then for Poyet were followed by jeers at half-time on Sunday, when his side trailed to fine goals from Nathan Dyer and Marvin Emnes. Dyer placed his left-foot shot cleverly above Vito Mannone into the corner of the Sunderland goal after seven minutes. A further seven minutes had passed when Emnes took a pass from Wilfried Bony, turned John O’Shea and repeated the trick.
There was a brief rally after the break as Fabio Borini headed an Adam Johnson corner past Gerhard Tremmel. Any hope of the season ending without another defeat were short-lived. Bony was too strong for Sunderland for most of the afternoon. In the 54th minute he took his time on the edge of the penalty area before cracking a shot past Mannone.
Sunderland’s supporters still celebrated. They may be reassured that Poyet appears to have resolved his problems with the club’s board to stay in control.
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