At half time, Pete Sixsmith, custodian of the seven-word matchday verdicts that appear here as Sixer’s Sevens, was down to five words: ‘competent enough against modest opposition.’ After two misses, Emanuele Giaccherini had scored with a clinical half-volley from a fine Lee Cattermole cross. All the players celebrated, which Nick Barnes and Gary Bennett interpreted in positive terms on BBC Radio Newcastle as if to suggest they’d have been squabbling among themselves under PDC. After one or two moderately uncomfortable moments in the second half, but much more Sunderland pressure, Valentin Roberge headed home to put the game beyond Posh. Bravo Kevin Ball and, for an impressive game before he went off tired, Giaccherini. ‘Comfortable,’ said Benno. ‘Solid,’ said Sixer …
(2013-2014)
September 24 2013 Capital One Cup 3rd Round: SAFC (1) 2 Peterborough United (0) 0 A solid performance without any touchline histrionics
September 21 2013 West Bromwich Albion 3 (1) SAFC 0 (0) Coach looks completely out of his depth
September 14 2013 SAFC (0) 1 Arsenal (1) 3 Performance far better than the result suggests
August 31 2013 Crystal Palace (1) 3 SAFC (0) 1
Nowhere near good enough for this league
August 27 2013 Capital One Cup 2nd Round: SAFC (0) 4 MK Dons (1) 2
Outplayed, outclassed, somehow got out of jail
August 24 2013 Southampton (0) 1 SAFC (1) 1
The point was better than the performance
August 17 2013 SAFC (0) 0 Fulham (0) 1 Ultimately little difference from previous two seasons
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Good solid performance against a form team.At least if the worst happens and it does become a league fixture next season we won’t have any worrys.Plenty of time to prevent that though.
Have no doubt this was a banana skin in the making. Phew! Incremental change is usually more long lasting than transformational change. Evolution wins over revolution. Baby steps. Progress. Hope springs eternal
Good. The confidence needs to flow back.
I wonder how many bruised players we have out there in need of an arm around them. I’m not going soft, I’m just saying they’re human and have probably been battered about bit lately.
I’ll never forget the sight of Kieren Westwood at the nd of the W.Brom match. Just looked so down. Myhill had to come over and encourage him. I don’t think he wanted to go in the dressing room. That was the sign that something was badly wrong behind the scenes.