Wrinkly Pete: Sunderland’s glass in smithereens but mine’s still half full after Swansea

Peter Lynn, aka Wrinkly Pete

Peter Lynn is as disappointed and cross as anyone, but finds reason to look back with affection on at least one aspect of Saturday’s last Premier League SAFC home game for a season or more …


Well, my SOS – as in Save our Sunderland – never arrived
but as Monsieur Salut has pointed out in recent weeks, the crystal ball predicting survival has rather let me down and finally shattered.

Nonetheless, I have kept going, not only updating what to most folk would have appeared to be the work of a raving lunatic but also exposing myself to watching some pretty grim performances.

Why? Is it because, in the words of Nick Lowe, I love the sound of breaking glass? Is it because I need the noises of destruction or because I want to feel Safe at last, the sound of breaking glass?

None of those, of course. I am old school and said I would do something and kept to my word.

In any case, I genuinely believed we could survive and wanted to be there to witness it one more time. I also hoped that I would get to see an occasional glimpse of my team doing well – which I did, at Hull.

What happened on Saturday, brilliantly described in Pete Sixsmith’s Soapbox, was a microcosm of our entire season: lack of consistency, yet another change of line up, unexpected injuries and unprofessionalism.

It is the latter which really upsets me. I know it is a sport, played with passion, but surely there are some basics which, like in any occupation, you learn then carry out so they become second nature. Ah well.

It was also my last chance to see The Lads this season. I was determined to enjoy myself – and did! The score for the match I watched was: People of Swansea 3 – People of Sunderland 4.

The Swansea fans were great, despite the stress they were under, impeccably observing the Bradley Lowery tribute and cheering their team on to a well deserved win. I am delighted they have survived.

Our fans, considering our predicament, were superb. They managed to restrict the booing in order to recognise more important issues, like that of Bradley and saying thank you and goodbye to Jermain Defoe.

They resisted the temptation to view Anichebe’s departure as a convenient escape, rather to generously applaud him from the pitch, remembering the good things he has done and wishing his injuries had not prevented him achieving his potential.

Similarly, they applauded Mannone on his farewell walk with Defoe after the final whistle.

Perhaps they, like me, remembered it was Mannone who initiated the players’ salary sacrifice after the Southampton 2014 away debacle which resulted in a £50 K (I think) donation to charity. Whatever their motive, it made me proud to be one of them.

It may be All around, the sound of breaking glass, we may be relegated, but we are not dead, not with the hearts of Sunderland folk.

2 thoughts on “Wrinkly Pete: Sunderland’s glass in smithereens but mine’s still half full after Swansea”

  1. I agree with everything you’ve said Malcolm…..

    And I have to question:-
    a) Have we even got a recruitment policy, “scattergun” would seem the best description.
    b) Who the f*** saw anything in Jack F****** Rodwell?
    c) Which buffoon decided he was worth 10 million quid and 60,000 a week?
    d) Was it the same buffoon who decided he’d also be immune from a pay cut if we went down?
    e) There is no e) I’m f****** sick of it!

  2. You would think that anyone who has the ability to become a professional footballer would have at one time, been a fan and would understand what it is like to support a team.

    Defoe understands and I believe Vito does too. So do John O’Shea and Seb Larsson. They all went to visit Bradley in hospital as well as always giving 100% on the pitch – even when they are having poor games.

    It goes without saying that Jordan Pickford does as it is only six months ago he was plying his trade in the U23s and just over a year ago that he became second choice keeper when the giant Pantillimon went off to Watford.

    This season I get the feeling that too many of the squad just turn up and take home a big pay packet.

    One thing that really concerns me is the number of games that players miss through injury. Only Ndong of the players who have been brought to the club and Januzaj (though for his input he might as well have stayed in the treatment room) have been available for half the games – in most cases less.

    I have to question a) a recruitment policy that seems happy to sign crocks with a history of injury (add Rodwell and Kirchhoff to the list) and b) training methods. How did Honeyman hurt his back? He wasn’t trying to give Kone a piggy back was he, like Tommy Clish used to make us do in relay races at Houghton Grammar?

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