Sunderland 0 - West Bromwich Albion 0

Date:	Saturday 2nd April 2016
Competition:	Barclays Premier League
Sunderland: 5.4
WBA: 4.8	Foster 8.0, Dawson 5.3, McAuley 6.1, Evans 5.7, Chester 4.7, Sandro 6.1, Yacob 5.7, Gardner 5.1 (McClean, 70 4.6), Fletcher 4.1, Berahino 3.9 (Leko, 78 4.1), Rondón 5.3 (Anichebe, 81 3.3) Unused subs: Myhill, Olsson, Lambert, Pritchard Manager: Tony Pulis 4.1
Referee:	Roger East (Wiltshire) 4.2
Attendance:	45,144 Home Fans 5.5 Away Fans 5.5

Summary:

Albion secured the "magic" 40th point (which neither guarantees safety from relegation nor may actually be needed for safety) with a goalless draw at the Stadium of Light. According to Tony Pulis, Stephane Sessegnon vanished somewhere on his way back from International duty and was left out of the squad with Sandro making a rare start in an even more defensive lineup than usual.

And defend they did, while Sunderland failed to turn their dominance into goals, thanks in part to a world class performance in goal from Ben Foster.

The point keeps Albion in eleventh place, four short of Chelsea in tenth.

Brendan Clegg:

Coming up against a terrible Sunderland side that have been in the bottom 3 all season and who haven't kept a clean sheet in 17 games and despite the fact we are already safe regardless of the mythical 40 points total everyone goes on about - Tony Pulis rocked up with 4 centre backs protected by 4 defensive midfielders and then got us to defend for our lives for 90 minutes.

Never mind that 'howling mad' McClean or Pritchard could have given us width or creativity.

Never mind that Poco could've given us a bit of balance - he made the fatal error of playing well and getting an assist the last time we saw him, silly boy.

Never mind that it's no shots on target in 2 games against teams who otherwise cannot defend.

There is nothing else to report. Cheers Tony, magic.