Pete Sixsmith was a happy man again as he saw Sunderland take a psychologically important if slender lead into the Old Trafford second leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final. The first goal came on the stroke of half time from Ryan Giggs’s own goal, under pressure from Phil Bardsley as Wes Brown’s ball across goal made it a trio of Man Utd links in the move. Vidic’s header levelled but a typically determined Sunderland performance brought victory, Adam Johnson fouled by Cleverley in the box after a great run and Borini hammering home the penalty. United, arrogant underachievers this season, will still start favourites for the ‘second half’ but the Lads have the lead and new boy Marcos Alonso was man of the match. Pete’s verdict arrived late – probably the fault of M Salut’s mobile – but now replaces the contingency version ‘now start doing this in the league!’ …
Jan 7 2014 Capital One Cup Semi-final First Leg: Sunderland (1) 2 Manchester United (0) 1 Deserved it. Shows what we can do
Jan 5 2014 FA Cup 3rd Round: Sunderland (1) 3 Carlisle Utd (1) 1 Comfortable in the end. Two youngsters sparkled
January 1 2014 Sunderland (0) 0 Aston Villa (1) 1 Dismal as our Premier place slips away
December 28 2013 Cardiff City (1) 2 Sunderland (0) 2 Dragged a vital point out of that
December 26 2013 Everton (0) 0 Sunderland (1) 1 Hung on after interval but massive result
December 21 2013 SAFC (0) 0 Norwich City (0) 0 As stodgy as last year’s Christmas pud
December 17 2013 Capital One Cup 5th Round: SAFC (0) 2 Chelsea (0) 1 AET Ki seals comeback; didn’t see that coming
December 14 2013 West Ham Utd (0) 0 Sunderland (0) 0 Better side by miles – couldn’t finish it
December 8 2013 SAFC (1) 1 Tottenham Hotspur (1) 2 Score flatters us as task gets harder
December 4 2013 SAFC (1) 3 Chelsea (2) 4 Pushed a strong side all the way
November 30 2013 Aston Villa (0) 0 SAFC (0) 0 *Villa almost undone by cream soda performance
November 23 2013 Stoke City (1) 2 SAFC (0) 0 Ridiculous red gave us an impossible task
November 10 2013 SAFC (1) 1 Manchester City (0) 0 A wonderfully disciplined performance. Real hope now
November 6 2013 Capital One Cup 4th Round: SAFC (0) 2 Southampton (0) 1 A tidy second half brings Wembley closer
November 2 2013 Hull City (1) SAFC (0) Damage limitation after appalling first half performance
October 27 2013 SAFC (1) 2 Newcastle United (0) 1 Bragging rights and a win. Good combination/ or Perfect Poyet puts another one over Pardew
October 19 2013 Swansea City 4 (0) SAFC 0 (0) No Poyet magic cure for abject failure*
October 5 2013 SAFC (1) 1 Manchester United (0) 2 Better side first half, outclassed in second
September 30 2013 SAFC (0) 1 Liverpool (2) 3 Spirit in abundance, undone by shoddy defending
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) 2Outplayed, 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
Join the Salut! Sunderland Facebook group – click anywhere along this line
And follow us on Twitter: @salutsunderland … click along this line
Fancy leaving a comment? Not sure what you have to say fits this post? Go to the new feature – https://safc.blog/2013/07/salut-sunderland-the-way-it-is/ – and say it there.
I would also like to draw attention to Mannone diving out to cut out a low cross. If this is continues, he could turn out to be a very good keeper and it also appears to show that our coaching staff are actually watching the games and reacting to weaknesses, which has certainly not always been the case
In a great team performance, I thought Brown and Bardsley were outstanding but the difference was Johnson. He was excellent on Sunday and it is amazing what a difference it makes when his first touch is not being booed by parts of the crowd.
If we can stick by the team like we did tonight, when things are not going well then we have a chance. If the first misplaced pass gets booed or an attempt to go past someone fails then we won’t see these performances in league games.
Agree , seems the pressures off in the cups and maybe that’s where we show our true colours.I hope the boo boys crawl under a rock, if that leaves more ” empty pink seats” for us to defend , so be it. An empty seat can’t boo or jeer.
We played well and we were good value for the win. We may get to Wembley . As Pete said, why dont we play like this every game ? Who knows, I’ve thought for a long time that our teams everyday troubles are as much between their ears as they are at their feet.