Martin’s Musings from The Hawthorns: West Bromwich Albion simply better

It sounded, from Benno and Barnes’s commentary, as bad as it got under McCarthy, Keane, Sbragia or Bruce. Martin O’Neill was left with the duty of composing his first post-match e-mail as manager of a comprehensively beaten Sunderland. See also Sixer’s Sevens: from ecstasy to embarrassment

Click here for the Martin O’Neill ‘Team of all Talents’ mug: £9.50, post-free for UK buyers, from the Salut! Sunderland Shop


Dear Colin,

Today’s defeat was very disappointing indeed.

We were second best throughout the entire first half, which is unusual for us.

It didn’t get that much better in the second half – we did really try, we took some risks, but we were well beaten by a side who were better than us on the day.

Their early goal set the tone for the game but it shouldn’t have done.

We have come back from adversity in the past and been able to pull ourselves out of similar situations.

It was a sloppy goal for us to concede but we should have done better throughout the rest of the half; we allowed them to turn and twist and we gave them far too much time on the ball.

This time last week we were applauding ourselves for a really great effort against Arsenal in the cup and we have to keep performances like that going – we can’t afford to take rests.

We have to digest this defeat; it’s been tough to take.

It’s very difficult to criticise the players, they’ve put their heart and soul into these matches and have done very well in recent weeks. We have to keep going.

It was to our credit that we didn’t close the game up at 2-0 and just say that’s it, damage limitation – it’s not in our nature and I don’t want it to be.

All the best,


Martin O’Neill

Jake weeps ...

* See Kartun Malaysia’s Flickr images at this link

6 thoughts on “Martin’s Musings from The Hawthorns: West Bromwich Albion simply better”

  1. We have played really well in every game of the last 13 and Saturday was the one blot on our copy book, as equally good as the back four were last week they were terrible this week. The centre pairing were so bad they caused everbody to be pulled out of position. I think it was just a bad day, forget about and move on, but next week will be a huge test. Did we not give WBA the respect they deserved? We looked tired or at least did not burn up the same amount of energy expended against Arsenal were we complacent YES I think we were. Sort it our Martin we trust you.

  2. Get a grip lads; come on. That had to happen some time. It is a bump in the road. I’m just grateful that it happened this weekend and not next. Awful performance and we were lucky to just lose 4-0 in my humble view. WBA haven’t played like that at home this season, or probably for many a season. Until yesterday they had scored the lowest number of home goals in all divisions. They looked like Barcelona in the first half particularly.We’ll be stinging from this all week now, so………

    Bring on the Mags!

  3. Wheels came off the wagon in spectacular fashion,football is a strange game.Let’s hope this is out of the way now, we cannot face another thrashing at the Sports Direct Arena next week.

  4. Sounds as if we got a good stuffing at WBA.I suppose it was going to happen at some time ,and it just goes to show that silk purses cannot be made form sows ears.

    So where does that leave us?I think that MON has managed to get the squad performing to the level that it should be at given the players…..mid table.Now comes the crunch. Are they capable of any more? The derby game will tell us. I think we will see a few changes . Bridges in, Campbell in and maybe Bendtner. Meyler to stiffen the midfield alongside Cattermole maybe?You tend to learn more form your defeats than your victories. The derby will give us some idea as to who will be with us next season.

  5. WHOOPS! M.Salut knows he has wrongly put up my graphic from last week, but he is out drowning his sorrows (and covering up his red face) so is unable to remove it at the moment. When he gets home, if he is not TOO refreshed, he will correct his mistake. By the way, HA’WAY THE LADS!

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