Sunderland 3 Spurs 1: ecstasy (at last) Observed

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Pete Sixsmith knows no rest. No sooner had he left his seat in the East Stand after yesterday’s scintillating game than The Observer came on the phone for a verdict . As usual, we include the opposing supporter’s appraisal too …



THE FANS’ PLAYER RATINGS AND VERDICT


PETE SIXSMITH
, SalutSunderland.com

A wonderful game of football, by far the best at home this season. We deserved to win and it could have been 6-1. There were several strong performances and our young midfield trio of Cattermole, Henderson and Meyler showed great promise. Spurs played their part in a game that would have had the neutrals purring, but which had me going through all possible emotions: ecstasy, frustration, fear and finally joy. Safety is now assured and Bruce has a solid spine of Gordon, Turner, Cattermole and Bent to build on. Spurs seemed to have next week on their mind and I don’t think they will finish fourth.


The fan’s player ratings Gordon 9; Ferdinand 7, Turner 9, Da Silva 8, Richardson 8; Malbranque 8 (Zenden 78 7), Meyler 7, Cattermole 7; Henderson 8, Campbell 8 (Bardsley 89 n/a), Bent 7 (Jones 78 7)


DAVE MASON
, Observer reader

The back four was awful without Dawson. We were completely without organisation and leadership on the pitch in the first half. We then had an example of what an infantile idiot Bent is. All he had to do was poke the ball over the line – perhaps Harry’s wife could have scored just as easily. We had all the hand signals from him, the ‘yap, yap, yap’. Pathetic. We got outfought but we were a bit better when we made changes at half-time. Assou-Ekotto and Bentley were awful but Crouch made a difference. It looked more like a battle for seventh than fourth. The season rests on our next three games in six days.

The fan’s player ratings Gomes 7; Walker 6, Bassong 5, Kaboul 4, Assou-Ekotto 3 (Kranjcar ht 5); Bentley 3 (Defoe ht 6), Modric 6, Palacios 6; Bale 5, Pavlyuchenko 4 (Crouch 71 6), Gudjohnsen 4

11 thoughts on “Sunderland 3 Spurs 1: ecstasy (at last) Observed”

  1. Finally made it to a game after getting stuck in roadworks at Huntingdon and missing the B’ham game – but this time, ended up driving a coach of East End wide boys on a 3-day footy tour of Sunderland (training at the Academy/Stadium tour/match ticks/Shutter island at the pics etc). The game created a few more Sunderland fans and they bought shirts in their Club Shop trip (probably nicking a few as well).
    I also agree with the 6-1 potential if the 2 pens had gone in and the goal had stood, and Campbell being fouled on the edge should have been a pen and a send-off. I saw Lee Mason training at the Academy that morning and wished him well – and can’t argue with 3 pens in one game, every one correctly called. Pity about Ferdy’s goal (he followed my coach back to the Stadium at lunchtime waving at the ‘London Essex’ caligraphy on the back), I thought Mason gave the goal and was then alerted over his mike by the Assistant. Glad someone else saw Crouch’s climb on Turner’s shoulders.
    I thought Henderson was truly outstanding and surprised that no-one has mentioned Da Silva’s performance. Catts was teriffic after his card and seemed to realise that it is better to stay on your feet – he put in a strong and mature performance. Also, Spurs were crap. Gomes apart, I can’t remember anyone standing out. Their fans were good though and helped create a fantastic atmosphere.
    It was a weekend where the Club sold itself well at every level – the Academy coaches were excellent and the East End lads were well looked after by everyone (including me).
    Happy days.

  2. Telboy is right and wrong at the same time. Leaving aside the bit The Observer cut out, the truth is that 6-1 types of result often occur by accident, ie don’t truly reflect balance of play. I didn’t see Spurs v Wigan but was it really a 9-1 sort of game, or more a 4-0 except that everything went right for Tottenham? If everything had gone right for us on Saturday, we’d have won 7-0 (Bent scoring his missed penalties, Jones not fluffing an easy chance, Ferdinand’s effort being allowed to stand, Crouch penalised for fouling Turner), and the scoreline would have been ludicrous. But 3-3 would have been a travesty, too, and I’d say a win by a two-goal margin was, in the end, about right.
    Bill is right and right. We were fighting for our lives and better players than Bent miss penalties – but 23 goals in a team that’s been as bad as us for most of the season suggest he’s still a very good player.

  3. I said it could have been 6-1, not it should have been. Two missed penalties and a disallowed goal = 6. I also said that it could have been 3-3, but The Observer edited that out. It was still a damn fine game of football though!!!!

  4. We’d all like to know that, Telboy. Mind you, our lives DID depend on it.
    As for “no top player should really miss” a penalty — tell that to David Beckham.

  5. I don’t think that there should be a Spurs fan that should deny that Sunderland were the better team yesterday. But 6-1 ? Come on Petesixsmith. How do you think your keeper got a 9 ? Because he stopped at least 4 good chances Spurs had in spite of their poor performance And as for Bent, enjoy your deserved revenge. But one goal was a bundled effort and the other was a penalty, which no top player should really miss. And he missed TWO!
    What I would like to know is how a team plays so much crap against Liverpool and the next week play as if their very lives depended on it

  6. After all the intelligent comments left by Tottenham fans in recent days, Malcolm, it seemed only right to give a little space to the hard of thinking. It’s a care in the community initiative.

  7. Well DBOTWHIAAHIAC it is nice to know that you are tracking an opposition website to post your puerile comments. Truth is we all see a game from a fan’s point of view and it is not always easy to be unbiased but most posters on this website try to have some semblance of objectivity. Yesterday your side were well beaten by the team that played better on the day.

    Mason blew against Sunderland players for several tackles that didn’t look like fouls to me. Even one when he had his back to the Spurs player who fell down. Cattermole may or may not have made contact when he was booked though it looked from my seat that he only tackled fresh air. Maybe the yellow was for intent. But no way was Mason seen as a friend of ours.

    Your team are in a better position than ours because over the season you are have been more consistent. There is no doubt that we have played poorly on several occasions this season and this is reflected by the fact we are below teams like Birmingham and Stoke. Yesterday there were still signs of our fragility but we deserved to win. Campbell’s header just wide, Jones airshot and subsequently Zenden’s miss, Ferdinand’s perfectly good goal disallowed because your goalie didn’t get up quickly enough, all showed our dominance. Crouch was leaning on our defender when he scored and only Defoe was a threat on the two occasions he got through.

    Thankfully there are some Spurs fans posting readable, welcome and constructive comments.

  8. If you can’t comment under your real name then don’t bother commenting at all. No doubt you’ll be on a Pompey website next week using the pseudonym “(Insert name of random Pompey player) Only Tries etc etc), you’re pathetic. The whole country wants Pompey to beat your lot next week.

  9. Here we go again.

    On a whole, yes, Tottenham are a better team than Sunderland – well observed.

    However, yesterday, there wasn’t one Spurs player on that pitch who was better than their opposite number. Sans maybe Gomes for his two penalty saves, and even then Gordon made some incredible ones himself.

    To call us a one ‘child’ team as you put it, is stupid, as we scored from another source (a substitute) no less, and our goal keeper was once more in imperious form when actually tested – and this was behind a defence that lacked Hutton and Mensah, two of our usual starts.

    Granted your team was weakened as well, but then our midfield of Henderson (younger than myself I should point out), Meyler and Cattermole are incredibly young but played as if they’ve been together for years. Meyler may be a lasting legacy of Keane’s.

    It’s fans like you that drag the reputation of an entire club down and feed us ammunition to actually want to dislike you. I’m sure some other Spurs fans will come in with some actual knowledge of the sport, condem you, tell us how well we played and we’ll all have a nice discussion. Until then we’ll have to make do with you.

    Still, you’re keeping the website nicely afloat with your contast hits I suppose.

  10. Lee Mason was your best player

    Spurs are better than Sunderland and they DESERVE to be in a higher league position than your shitty one child team

  11. So 50% of their review is actually talking about us?

    Fair enough. We deserved to win and all the plaudits that come with it. Bent probably went over the top, but any sympathy I felt quickly vanished when someone threw a full bottle of coke at him – something unsurprisingly omitted from their review I see.

    We out played, out fought and out thought them and got a deserved three points. Bent had a lot of emotion running through him but he did wish them all the best of luck afterwards too.

    Harry was also in pretty passive mood which was a shame, he didn’t seemed worked up at all. Ah well, good win for the lads, fully deserved.

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