Sunderland achieved yet another clean sheet over the weekend as they took on Karl Robinson’s Oxford United. The win marked Sunderland’s seventh clean sheet in eight games.
Despite losing the match, Oxford had 55.3% of the possession and registered 10 shots to Sunderland’s six. However, only three of Oxford’s shots were on target, with Sunderland blocking five and the home team missing two.
After the match, Roker Report commented on Robinson’s post-match interview, where he claimed that his side deserved to win the game.
This caused many Sunderland fans to mock Robinson for his sour grapes. Possession isn’t everything and they think he misjudged the game completely. At the end of the day, they are looking at the final scoreline.
https://twitter.com/DaveBetamax/status/1229368218042675200
Regardless of whether or not they dominated and “deserved” to win, they didn’t! We scored, they didnt, end of!
— Gareth Cairns (@GarethCairns) February 17, 2020
Doesn’t matter what he says. Sour grapes. We got the three points by scoring and by stopping them from doing so. Winning the possession stats is irrelevant. The object of this game is to score goals. Doing so defines the winner. Failure to do so defines the loser.
— Rob Jones (@reddwharf) February 17, 2020
Doesn’t matter. We won. They lost
— Sergeant Walnuts (@Mardybum2000) February 17, 2020
If you don’t score you don’t win it’s not rocket science
— Keith Blanchard (@grumpyblanch) February 17, 2020
i listened to it on the radio at work and it sounded like a close game. yeah they had their moments, but so did we…
— Paul Anderson (@Junior_HHF) February 17, 2020
Is there any truth in Karl Robinson's comments?
Maybe a little
Not a chance
What do we think?
Phil Parkinson and the Sunderland players are likely unbothered by Robinson’s comments. Should Sunderland achieve promotion, there is a chance the two sides won’t play again for a while. Sunderland are currently sitting in a playoff spot, just three points behind automatic promotion. Oxford are sitting outside of a playoff spot.
There is still a while to go in the league, however, so much can change in the next few months.