Ballard sent off for pulling hair as 10-man Sunderland draw 1-1 at relegated Wolves
Sunderland could only draw 1-1 at already-relegated Wolves on Saturday afternoon, a result that turned on Dan Ballard's straight red card for pulling Tolu Arokodare's hair and a Santi Bueno equaliser at the start of the second half. Nordi Mukiele's early header had put the visitors in front, but ten men could not finish the job at Molineux.
The opener arrived in the 17th minute. Granit Xhaka swung a corner in from the right, Mukiele rose at the far post and glanced his header into the far corner. Wolves, with third-choice goalkeeper Daniel Bentley standing in for the injured Sam Johnstone, had no answer.
Ballard's red flips the game
Seven minutes after Mukiele's goal, Ballard grabbed Arokodare by the hair and dragged him to the floor in a moment of needless aggression off the ball. The referee did not see it live; VAR sent him to the monitor and the straight red came out for violent conduct in the 24th minute. Sunderland had to play the rest of the game with ten, and Regis Le Bris's plans for managing a 1-0 lead were torn up.
Wolves smelled the chance. The leveller landed in the 54th minute when Hugo Bueno whipped in a corner from the left and his namesake Santi Bueno met it at the far post and headed it past Robin Roefs for his third Premier League goal of the season. Molineux roared as if the result still mattered to the league table, and for a few minutes after it nearly tipped further. Wolves out-shot Sunderland in the second half but Roefs and the Black Cats' back four held on for the point.
A draw that does little for either side
Wolves stay 20th and the result, 12 days after their relegation was confirmed on 20 April, ends an eight-year stay in the Premier League with a small piece of pride for Rob Edwards' players in front of their home supporters. Sunderland sit 12th on 47 points after the draw, three games left, and a European place now far enough away that other results need to drift the wrong way before this point looks like a missed opportunity.
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