Malcolm Dawson writes……….I thought we started well enough. I thought we might have grabbed the lead. But soon normal service (or lack of it) was resumed. A penalty down the other end of the ground looked soft from where I was sitting but I’ll wait for the highlights to see why it was awarded. We nearly scored at one end but were left exposed down the other as City, in their glow in dark kit, disguised themselves as stewards and so were ignored by our defence. One off the post that hit Don Vito and went in and another one that I’ll have to dig deep into the memory cells to recall at this time of night. Outclassed? Well I suppose so but I thought we looked OK in patches. Some potentially excellent passes were millimetres away from being perfect though others were miles away from their intended targets. Considering Lens and van Aanholt are both presumably bi-lingual their communication was non existent. Double Dutch perhaps? The bright spot of the evening was the new full back who looks like he might cut the mustard. I refuse to be downhearted. I still think we have the makings of a decent squad. Keeping the faith isn’t always easy and there’s almost certainly more disappointments ahead in the coming weeks. But hey this is Sunderland we are on about. What more can we expect? Anyway here’s what Dick has to say.
Dear Colin,
It’s strange because we were 4-0 down but I thought for the first 20-35 minutes we did very well against an extremely good side. We did well, we created chances and played good football. We gifted [Manchester City] three goals and then after that of course it was always going to be difficult to come back.
At half time I told the players we couldn’t go on the way we were; they had to go out and show their commitment to each other and to work for each other and make sure City didn’t score any more. That’s what we saw in the second half and we scored a goal.
We had some good opportunities in the game and I thought we played very positively. There will come a moment where that will pay off for us. We got forward and attacked.
Another disallowed goal in the game; it would seem luck is just not on our side at the moment, but this will change.
Overall, Manchester City were the better side. If Ola [Toivonen] had scored that early chance to make it 1-1 it could have been different, but it was not to be.
Thanks for your support,
Dick Advocaat
Join the Salut! Sunderland Facebook group – click anywhere along this line
And follow us on Twitter: @salutsunderland … click along this line
Keep it positive…we actually won the 2nd half 1-0.
“Thanks for your support… I shall think of you whenever I wear it.”