When David Meyler played for Sunderland he was struck by two cruel long-term injuries.
He came back from both with remarkable resilience and earned both the admiration and respect of many supporters. I was one of those who regretted that he was not given more chance to succeed in red and white stripes.
Meyler made the best of a loan move to Hull and Steve Bruce was ultimately happy to sign him permanently. He’s a good player and, on reliable authority, a good bloke. Martin O’Neill, who used him sparingly, said he would be hard put to name a more likeable member of his squad.
So it came as a great disappointment to watch his antics after being tackled by Lee Cattermole in the FA Cup debacle. It looked initially that the referee was content to award a free kick, only to succumb to Meyler’s agitated lobbying for Cattermole to be shown a card. The inevitable happened; contrast this episode with the later one when Huddlestone pole-axed Cattermole and also picked up a booking, but for a far worse foul of the sort our man invariably sees straight red for. I did not see a whimper from Cattermole.
This is how I described it in my slot at ESPN:
Once booked — as he was in the FA Cup quarterfinal that ended Hull City 3-0 Sunderland — Cattermole is both diminished as a player and a liability to his team. He is aware, as are the opponents, that one false move will end his participation.
If simulation is a despicable aspect of the modern game, barking and braying at match officials in the hope of upgrading a telling-off or simple free kick to a yellow, a booking to dismissal, is hardly more edifying.
It was a source of real disappointment to see David Meyler, a player remembered with affection by Sunderland supporters for his efforts on their behalf despite wretched injury problems, resorting to this nasty tactic. It worked. Cattermole was booked and the Hull players devoted at least a portion of their subsequent game plan to seeking to provoke that one further indiscretion.
How dare I? Nothing to do with sour grapes – Hull were the better side without being impressive and deserved to win. I try to be consistent and am always ready to criticise Sunderland players who stoop to the same depths.
Others, including Hull supporters and doubtless Meyler himself, will disagree with my assessment and they are welcome to come here and say so.
Lee Cattermole should not have been on the pitch to start with…
He’s one of the worst players we have, Hes a liability with a serious lack of talent, everyone can see this other than these die hard Cattermole fans, who say, well he was our best player against city, that’s one game… one game all season and compare that to the amount of goals let alone points he’s gave away single handedly…
Huddlestone’s was actually a nasty foul. Different day, different ref, it could have been a red card. Yellow was fair enough.
Sitting quite close to both incidents my feeling was that Huddlestone’s booking was barely deserved and Cattermole’s was a clear yellow card offence. Sunderland fans were probably not within earshot but he emitted a loud and clearly artificial cry of pain which influenced the referee. Then he got straight up and carried on. Cattermole’s foul on Meyler was the second time that he had clattered him from behind. I agree that his reputation precedes him but it is well merited. That’s how I saw it through my amber tinted specs.
Catts was having a decent game until the booking. Its a shame he couldn’t rise above the Hull players. The referee should explain the delay in booking Catts and should have been strong enough to stand up to the Hull players. To be honest though we wouldn’t have scored if we had been still playing now. I often think the similar kits can often be blamed for the stray passes as Scocco passed directly to a Hull player in the same way that Catts did for their 3rd.
We went into that game to come up short though Drummer. That’s what has upset people.
Totally agree, as Ive posted on other threads , it was a massive own goal.
I don’t blame Cattermole and I don’t blame the Hull players for influencing a useless referee. Bottom line was, Hull were the better team and if we had fielded our first eleven the result may have being different , it might not .I can take losing when you’ve gave everything and came up short ( league cup final) , what I can’t accept is not playing to our full potential , coming up short and wondering ” what might’ve been”. That’s what I can’t take.
Come on the Blades!
I wonder to what extent the Hull players were caught up in Bruce’s personal crusade to demonstrate that Sunderland were wrong in dispensing with him?
I can’t help feeling that SB’s team briefing would include which Sunderland players to wind up, and inevitably, Cattermole would be high on the list.
This is only conjecture on my part, but anyone who has ever played football knows that this sort of thing takes place, and even decent lads like DM [ who should never have been allowed to leave given the poverty of our midfield players ] can get carried along.
It seems to me that the Hull players had been given instructions about this. Other Hull players were guilty too, to the extent that it was an obvious tactic.
Given a poor but gullible ref the tactic worked.
I could not agree more on the diminution of Cattermole’s effectiveness after the booking. Should have been substituted.
If players were following instructions I cannot see how Meyler is blameworthy.
‘If players were following instructions I cannot see how Meyler is blameworthy. ‘
As someone facing criminal trial for acting on his boss’s instructions once said to me when I asked what his best defence was, “the one that didn’t worked too well at Nuremberg’.
The reasoned tone of this unfortunately can’t disguise the fact that the world finds Sunlun fans to be the most hysterical, whiniest, bed-wetters in football. Now that Brucey’s team has put you to the sword once again – this time with a full complement of players – maybe it’s time you moved on.
I have been accused of worse things than being reasoned.
Hysterical? NO I’M NOT,NO I’M NOT,I’M GOING TO CRY !!!!
The world?…..you speak for the world now…did I miss the email? Which is it….you’re narcissistic or solipsistic? Please clarify? Hull deserved the win? I’ve yet to a single Safc fan to say otherwise……then again the world might disagree.
Just for you Paleface … http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/sunderland/id/2940?cc=5739
I’d have to say (without watching back on TV having been there yesterday) before this incident Cattermole had been so outraged by Elmohamady’s potential ‘dive’ he ran over to pick up the ball, screamed in the players face, then bounced the ball away.
The free kick was his second warning and prompted a yellow. Meyler did make a meal out of the situation, but I’m sure you know as a Sunderland fan, this is nothing new when Cattermole is late for a tackle. His reputation does him no good, and because he’s a loose cannon people will do what it takes to get the man a booking.
I find it funny when fans lose ‘respect’ for a player. Meyler obviously still travels to Sunderland games when he gets the chance, will have friends still from those playing days and around the area, and will obviously wish you well and hope you survive.
One potential over dramatic fall and we forget all about the service to a club. As a hull city fan I can say we are criminal of doing the same thing from time to time.
Hull fans aren’t keen on Frazier Campbell, because through consecutive transfer seasons he decided not to join us. He’s very much disliked (despite the fact he helped secure our first premier league season in 104 years)
And then our previous manager Nigel Pearson, who left us to join Leicester. We despise the man these days, labelling him ‘boring’. But we still have players in this side that he signed for free when we were close to liquidation, the man steady’d the ship, made us resolute, brought in quality for little money and Bruce fell on his feet with the team Pearson had brought together.
I hope you can forget an overreacted fall, footballs a fickle sport. And here’s to both teams survival x
The theatrical or exaggerated fall is one thing and, sadly, a majority of players now do it as if it appears in coaching manuals. The in-your-face attempts to get the ref to book him, if not worse, was disgusting. We all do things we regret and I hope he regrets this as he does seem a decent lad. I was there for the league game at the SoL recently and he received a great and deserved ovation before the match.
Disgusting? That’s a bit of an overreaction, don’t you think?
So many incidents in football are overblown these days. Even Alan Pardew’s encounter with Meyler had been called a headbutt when it’d be more accurate for to describe it as a brief and regrettable meeting of fringes.
Let’s call it what it was, an attempt by a professional footballer, payed by Hull City, to gain an advantage for his team by exploiting a reputation that Cattermole can only blame himself for. Meyler was clever, and acted as any other professional would in the same instance. It obviously payed off as it quitened Cattermole, who had been excellent otherwise, and arguably lead to the hesitation by Cattermole that allowed Meyler to steal the ball and score City’s second. If Cattermole was a little cleverer in how he conducted himself on the pitch, maybe it’d be Sunderland at Wembley, but it’s not. It’s David Meyler and Hull City.
Generous comments Daniel, and it is difficult to disagree about the fickle nature of football fans.
The irony of this particular issue is that Cattermole’s greatest admirer on the planet is…………..Steve Bruce!