Malcolm Dawson writes….just as the majority of Sunderland fans had resigned themselves to an inevitable relegation, the team go and do this to us. Four (almost six) points in games where there seemed no prospect of any at all has reignited the small ember of hope. Despite things not going entirely the way we might have wanted in other matches, should Norwich and West Brom fail to pick up points over the rest of the holiday weekend, with three winnable home games to come there is still the prospect of Premiership football at the Stadium of Light next season. But those remaining home fixtures are against teams also in the relegation mix – just the kind of games we have failed to win all season. In a week’s time we could be out of the bottom three, or still deep in the mire after seven days of false optimism. Sometimes I wish I’d been born in Rochdale! Gus is upbeat, and has every right to be so in his post match e-mail but like us looks to continue the job next weekend.
Dear Colin,
We battled for everything out there today.
There have been times in recent games where things have gone against us; own goals, red cards, but this game shows if you can get a break you can do something important.
Everything went for us today and we’ve shown that the players will continue to believe and fight for this club.
We were confident on the ball; we passed when we could, we defended, we ran; the players were all over the place.
We took a risk naming the same side having had a tough game on Wednesday and some of them struggled but battled on; great credit to them.
Some people maybe thought we had no chance today but we’ve given the fans a day to remember.
Brendan Rodgers may well be thanking Fabio Borini for his goal and I think I’ll be getting a few text messages too, but what we did, we did for ourselves.
We needed to do something special and we did it, we’ve broken Jose Mourinho’s record and that will make the headlines for the next couple of days.
Let’s not talk about anything other than football from now on, it’s all about us beating Cardiff next week.
All the best,
Gus Poyet
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GP seems to think that we enjoy being the underdog, and that’s why we do well against the best teams. It makes no sense to me why we can play like this over the last two games and can’t overcome the likes of West Ham and Norwich with home advantage.It makes no sense at all.
The last two games have given us something of a fighting chance but if we fail to capitalize on those results in the remaining games then another false dawn might be just the last straw for a lot of people.
I’d resigned myself to relegation to the point where I was telling myself £16 per game in the Championship was great value for a season ticket!
One game at a time step by step, dare we believe that survival is possible. My congratulations and respect to thr players for a gut busting performance full of effort, character and team spirit
Now Cardiff certainly aren’t unbeatable even with our woefull home record . The crowd will be energised after beating Chelsea away, so will be the team. They may be leaving, most of them, but they owe us. Being paid a fortune for their long stays here and despite relegation battle after relegation battle and seeing of two managers and Di Canio,the fans have stayed on side.Give everything like they have done for the last three games and do it. No more tinkering Gus, no more Bridcutt for the sake of it, if he fits fine , if not leave him out. Get every last ounce out of these players and they can leave with their heads held high. We’ll be happy enough to stop up , oh and humiliate the mags and reach a final.