Starting with the FA Cup tie at home to Notts County, this is Sunderland AFC in snapshot. Almost every week Pete Sixsmith offers his inimitable seven-word verdict on our games. When, rarely, Pete is absent, a supersub does it for him. The full archive – see link below – encapsulates the matchday experiences, from darkest gloom to sublime elation, of a fan who is usually there …
Jan 8 2011 FA Cup Third Round: SAFC (0) 1 Notts County (1) 2 Another humiliation at the hands of Magpies
Jan 5 2011 Aston Villa (0) 0 SAFC (0) 1 Take your pick between 1) Bob and Tim Chapman: * Aerial battle settled by Bardsley super strike or 2) Sobs: * Deserved battling win – but at what cost?
Jan 1 2011 SAFC (2) 3 Blackburn Rovers (0) 0 Comfortable rather than convincing against feeble opposition
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
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 …
Malcolm I could not agree more but all those “new faces” and old have been knocking on Bruce’s door saying we are not getting a fair crack of the whip and we deserve first team recognition.
They have a very strange way of showing it. When I had trials at county level schools rugby I played my heart out to show I was better than the then incumbents. As a seven handicap golfer I met Nick Faldo on many occasions as he was sponsored by a client of mine. I had the pleasure of playing him twice once with his caddy and Doug McClennand and once Howard Clarke both times I played to 3 over par, a feat I had never achieved before or since but it was the incentive that stimulated the concentration. If someone had offered me the players rewards I might have made three under par.
They are complacent with very little financial demarcation between playing for the first team of residing in the stiffs or on loan to lower teams to ensure games.
If Sir Niall still wants a reason as to why the ground isn’t packed each week he only need play this DVD over and over.
The effort and commitment of the players brought in to this game was non existent. Whilst I take your point Alan, for fans to fork out a large proportion of their income regularly, they want to see these highly paid individuals at least show some urgency and effort, this wasn’t the team that played Chelsea.
There were five players (Angeleri, Riveros, Da Silva, Colback, Reid) who ought to have been looking to secure their places in the team who all looked like they want away. After yesterday I’m not sure I want to see any of them in a Sunderland shirt again.
At least the other Magpies were humiliated too.
There is nothing remarkable in this result and the performance typifies Sunderland’s approach to playing what seems to be considered by certain team members lesser opponents.
There is little doubt that for some years our club, when playing the better teams in the footballing world, lifts itself by the bootstraps and will often put in performances which defeat or certainly scare their opponents. The quality of the performance and the will to win is all there and sometimes our fans are treated to quality moves from what remains a young and relatively inexperienced team that deserve a standing ovation..
It is not enough to say players are tired because this type of performance is all too frequent and anyway some of the teams beating us have played as many or more matches. What seems to me to occur is the “look at us, we beat Chelsea 3-0 syndrome. The team turns up and then for three quarters of the match almost poses in the way Joe Bugner used to, in the boxing ring. They have the physical assets the knowledge and the skills but without the effort you will never become champions.
Our club seems to think it can beat certain teams with one hand tied behind its back and it is our opponents who come out at the bell willing to burst their lungs to win.
We could and should have won that game and I am not seeking to demean our opponents efforts, which I respect and admire but what the hell did we expect? Did they seriously expect an Alex Rae team to come to our patch without a supply of over sized rockets stuck firmly up their fundamental orifices. Could our boys, who barely got out of first gear, seriously believe they could win without effort? Yes it seems they did believe that and do so time and again when we do not perform against lower teams and it is wrecking our season. Blackpool was not one of those cases we played our skins off but the players showed to me that the teams wages should be linked to them actually being able to score.
With the amount money professional footballers actually receive to wear our colours on match day it is hardly rocket science to expect them to be able to force saves out of goal keepers. What the hell are players like Reid, for whom, on his day, I have a very high regard, blazing over the bar with remarkable consistency. Thank god last week Heskey, for all his speed showed similar incompetence.
The players need to take a very long hard look at their lives and the need to put in the same effort against every team, from the first whistle that we put in against the top teams.