After 16 minutes of play came a text from Pete Sixsmith: “1 down from a free kick. Second best at the moment”.
Three minutes later came a second: “Power sent off for a ridiculous challenge”. A minute or two later we got our third yellow of the game.
And then my internet connection went down.
It was Pete who kept me in touch, first a text with the single word: “Wyke”, which gave me hope, and then with a final seven words which summed up the game. You can read them below and return tomorrow for his take on a game that is bound to provoke discussion
Sept 1 Sunderland 1 (0) Oxford United 1 (1 ) Poor first half, dug in well second
Aug 25 AFC Wimbledon 1 (1) Sunderland 2 (0) Teams gain promotion with wins like this
Aug 22 Gillingham 1 (1) Sunderland 4 (3) Wrapped up in an explosive 15 minutes
Aug 19 Sunderland 3 (3) Scunthorpe United 0 (0) Iron pummeled as three lusty blows delivered
Aug 16 Carabao Cup: Sunderland (0) 0 Sheffield Wednesday (1) 2 Result disappointing but plenty to enthuse about
Aug 11 Luton Town (0) 1 Sunderland (1) 1 Played well in patches against solid opposition
Aug 4 Sunderland (0) 2 Charlton Athletic (1) 1 A great day for club and academy
July 21 St Mirren (0) 0 Sunderland (2) 6 * Cracking results like this will suit fine
July 17 Grimsby Town (0) Sunderland (1) 1 *Gooch’s header from Maguire’s cross settles matters
July 14 Hartlepool United (1) 1 Sunderland (0) 1 Yet to see anything to inspire confidence
July 10 Darlington (1) 1 Sunderland (0) 0 Embarrassing
I’m not usually one who slags off referees but I hope this one doesn’t get any emails from Nigerian princes who need to transfer £11,000,000 worth of Naira into a UK bank account because I’ve never seen someone so easily conned.
Maguire’s booking happened right in front of me. He was being held and wrestled and prevented from running into space as we were looking for a quick breakaway. When he tried to shake himself free the Oxford player fell to the ground clutching his face!
Later Maja gets fouled, another Oxford player falls to the ground clutching his face and Gooch gets booked.
If anyone tells me they weren’t under instruction I won’t believe them. Won’t comment on the free kick that led to the goal as it was down the other end of the ground except to say it looked soft from my seat.
Referee is the worst I have seen for years. Power probably red but how did they not lose one for the hideous challenge on Honeyman and then the stonewall second yellow pulling Cattermole down. Shame because to date the league one refs have been better than the championship.
I thought Cattermole was fantastic. For large parts of the 2nd half you couldn’t tell we had 10 men. I was one who thought his legs had gone but he has been superb this season so far.
Starting to get a little worried about the keeper. His positioning for the free kick was clearly wrong, he flapped at crosses and twice dropped really simple shots. Hopefully just a bad day at the office
Not our best performance, however two positives from the game
Oxford Utd stuck to their game plan to dive, cheat and generally fool the so called ‘Officials’, but we should get used to this because we are going to meet plenty more teams who will attempt to stop a football match taking place.
Mark Heywood must be one of the most incompetent supposed officials in this league (hopefully he is the worst so we are past it now), suitably supported by three other equally myopic officials.
Still no harm done really but it did show how thin our squad is, I thought Jack Ross should have brought more fresh legs on in the final five.
Ross used the three permitted substitutes. Unfortunately he hasn’t learned the John Aldridge trick of sending on a sub for a player who has been shown the red card, so allowing us to keep 11 on the pitch.
Yip, I must have missed that during a toilet break.