“Excuse to moan”- Ex Sunderland striker Darren Bent issues verdicts on midweek celebration Vs Coventry City
Darren Bent has delivered his verdict on Sunderland’s midweek celebrations
Former Sunderland striker Darren Bent has suggested that he has “no issues” with the manner in the Black Cats celebrated their decisive late goal against Coventry City on Tuesday night.
Dan Ballard was the hero of the hour for Regis Le Bris’ side, netting a last gasp header that ultimately handed Sunderland a 3-2 aggregate victory and booked their place in next weekend’s Championship play-off final against Sheffield United.
In the immediate aftermath of the goal, the Stadium of Light descended into scenes of wild celebration, but former Black Cats defender Micky Gray took a dim view of the reaction on Wearside.
What did Micky Gray say about Sunderland’s celebration vs Coventry City?
Speaking as part of his commentary duties for talkSPORT at the Stadium of Light, Gray said: “Look, I don’t want to finish this on a bad note, but I don’t like to see the Sunderland players going and celebrating. I didn’t like that at the end. You’re not there yet, lads. You’ve got another game to go before you get to the final.
“Yeah, you celebrate because you’re getting to Wembley. But I think that’s it, you know. You stay as a group. But then all the supporters, which I didn’t like to see either, they started to, like, pile onto the pitch as well. The tannoy came across four or five times to tell them to get back in their seats. You know, the pitch is for the players, basically. So it took a little bit of time to get the supporters back into the stands.
“Look, they’re overjoyed. They’re overwhelmed. Of course they are. They’ve over-celebrated a little bit. But then the players go across to the supporters at the end, and they’re all celebrating, jumping around. There’s a couple of them that got sunglasses on their face and everything. Look, you’re not there yet.”
What did Darren Bent say about Sunderland’s celebration vs Coventry City?
For his part, however, former Sunderland forward Bent was much more sympathetic. Addressing the debate on talkSPORT, he said: “Come on… Like, they scored an equaliser to send them through in the last minute of extra time. It wasn’t like it was midway through, do you know what I mean? You’re talking about the very last stage of extra time.
“I mean, everyone thinks, ‘Oh my goodness, we’re going to penalties. We’re going to penalties, that’s it. It’s a lottery’. And then someone pops up with that. I’ve got no issues with the over-celebrating.
“I think so many times nowadays, everyone looks for an excuse to moan about someone celebrating. Someone scores a last minute winner… We’re already talking about VAR taking the passion out of football, but then when there is passion in football, you get these situations where people go, ‘Ah! Over-celebrating! Too passionate!’
I know they’ve still got the final against Sheffield United, who are a really good team, by the way, to get past. But to just get there is incredible. I think Coventry are the better side over the two legs, but don’t go through. And just to score a winner, an unorthodox header, by the way. It wasn’t routine. It’s unorthodox, but it goes in the net.
“The celebrations. I mean, I’ve seen celebrations like that, when people have scored the winner in a normal game, a Premier League game. I’ve been involved in ones where we’ve celebrated like crazy for a winner in a normal Premier League game. But a goal to send your team to Wembley, with the chance to go up again…
“It’s the last minute of extra time, virtually. And as to the header, I mean, I still now, as you said there, I’ve looked at the header, I don’t know how many times. I don’t know how it goes in. He doesn’t even look at the ball.”
