Sunderland 2 - West Ham 2: Pressure piles on Advocaat as Black Cats waste two-goal lead

Dick Adovcaat could quit Sunderland despite this draw

SUNDERLAND threw away a two-goal lead to pile even more pressure on under-fire manager Dick Advocaat.

 

The Black Cats went ahead through Steven Fletcher and Jeremain Lens’ delightful chip but ended the game with 10 men as West Ham rallied.

Carl Jenkinson popped up at the far post to halve the deficit seconds before the break and Dimitri Payet equalised three minutes after Lens saw red.

 

The result ends Sunderland’s four-game losing streak and lifts them off the bottom of the table but will offer little relief for Advocaat.

For the Sunderland boss went into this game insisting he would not quit his post after speculation increased this week that club officials had sought a replacement manager.

 

Yet the Stadium of Light crowd were jubilant just 11 minutes in when Flecther peeled off his man to blast home a well-worked free-kick routine from the left edge of the box.

And the Black Cats doubled their lead thanks to Lens’ sublime chip - the Dutchman catching goalkeeper Adrian off his line to clip in off the crossbar.

 

Dimitri Payet (right) scored West Ham's equaliser at the Stadium of Light

But Jenkinson’s leveller - the full-back steaming in to make contact with a cross from the left - injected nerves in the Sunderland dressing room.

And their resolve crumbled once Lens hacked down Winston Reid to earn his marching orders.

West Ham immediately sought a leveller and found it when Costel Pantilimon fumbled a long-range effort right into the path of Payet, who obliged to bag his fourth goal of the campaign.