Back to the Stadium of Light where a hatful of missed chances left us goalless at half time, and then mugged twice as wastefulness continued, our midfield and defensive play rediscovered old failings and Blackpool showed better movement. This is Sunderland AFC in snapshot, the most recent of Pete Sixsmith’s inimitable seven-word verdicts on each of our games. The full archive – see link below – encapsulates the matchday experiences, from darkest gloom to sublime elation, of a fan who is usually there …
Dec 28 SAFC (0) 0 Blackpool (0) 2 Miss chances, you lose matches. That simple.
Dec 26 2010 Manchester United (1) 2 SAFC (0) 0 United simply miles better than we were
Dec 18 2010 SAFC (1) 1 Bolton Wanderers (0) 0 Marginally the better team. Merry Christmas all
Dec 11 2010 Fulham (0) 0 SAFC (0) 0 Unambitiously scrappy draw, but Mensah was immense
Dec 5 SAFC (1) 1 West Ham United (0) 0 Made hard work of beating relegation certainties
Nov 27 Wolves (0) 3 SAFC (0) 2 Points thrown away by totally inept defending
To see Sixer’s Sevens in full, click here. If an asterisk precedes the comment, the words that follow are the work of someone else because Pete is for once absent from the game or his verdict has been delayed …
I agree Martin. Not only that but we don’t seem to be able to get back when we go behind, but to concede two like that is unforgivable. We don’t have the players to come on and change things around. The exception is probably Zenden, but I suspect that 2 games in a week may be too much for a 34 year old pair of legs these days. Malbranque came on and produced what Malbranque consistently provides; ie nothing whatsoever. Time at Sunderland must be running out for him. He looks as if he’s wearing diver’s boots in a sea of treacle. He’s always busy and involved but nothing ever results from his endeavour. Not even the occasional goal.
Gyan was pretty awful again and only marginally better than Bent who looks well off the pace.
Absolutely gutted. Can’t get over it. Aside from Chelsea we don’t seem to be able to take matches by the scruff and see it through. Missed chances or not, we should have won this game by a long mile.
It might be time to debate whether Gyan is worth 13 million, because recent evidence suggests he’s not worth 4. He was the worst player on the pitch at OT and today he wasn’t much better. He has to start delivering soon, or questions will be asked.
Gutted!!!
Ouch! This is the one I feared even more than the ManU game.