First of all, a happy new year to all Salut! Sunderland readers. Kevin Hughes makes* a welcome return to the Who are You? hot seat to talk about his beloved but exasperating Aston Villa …
John McCormick writes: This morning some alleged reds were giving me stick down here, prophesying Coates being rubbish and a score of 4 or 5 nil, among other things. My worry was not that these poor, deluded fools, who cling to the belief that they’re still a top club and that Anfield is a decent stadium (they should try going to it, perhaps), might be right but that without Kaboul and O’Shea we wouldn’t be able to stem the advance of even a mediocre attack. And we couldn’t. We weren’t as bad as recent scores suggest, but we still lost. How badly? We’ll have to wait for Pete Sixsmith’s more considered analysis to answer that, but for now here’s his instant post match verdict, delivered in seven words, no more, no less:
Just a spot of fun with a serious subplot. Whenever Liverpool visit the Stadium of Light, it offers an opportunity to recall the most accomplished dive many of us have ever seen. And what is more, it worked, fooling a seasoned ref and gaining Liverpool a draw.
Dave Usher: ‘every Saturday night I get texts from my SAFC-supporting brother-in-law ripping into Shearer, Newcastle, Cheryl Cole and Ant & Dec and moaning about whatever crappy result you’ve had
Dave Usher is a Liverpool supporter with a Sunderland family connection, as you shall see. He runs The Liverpool Way fan site and is one of Monsieur Salut’s blogging colleagues at ESPN FC. He quite likes what he has seen of Jeremain Lens, used to rate Steven Fletcher and wants none of our centre backs for Liverpool …
That slice of hopeful humanity known as Sunderland supporters will once again demonstrate monumental patience on Wednesday and troop through the Stadium of Light turnstiles to see what the Lads can muster versus Liverpool.
Perhaps some of us are too hard on them. They are professionals, broadly doing their jobs to the best of their abilities, individually and collectively.
