I was intending to avoid puns about turning the power off but I thought of one that seemed OK, so there it is in the headline.
Will the lack of Power cost us promotion? How many more games will he miss, this time and after Christmas?
Fortunately, Pete Sixsmith’s seven word text winged its way up the M6 as the whistle blew to tell us we have more heroes than villains:
Nov 24 Walsall 2 (2) Sunderland 2 (2) Even more heroic than Thermopylae and Agincourt
Nov 17 Sunderland 1 (0) Wycombe Wanderers 1 (0) A fair result after a disappointing performance
Nov 13 Morecambe 0 (0) Sunderland 1 (0) Left it late but the run continues
Nov 11 Port vale 1 (1) Sunderland 2 (2) Negotiated a tricky tie successfully. Southport next?
Nov 3 Plymouth Argyle (0) 0 Sunderland (0) 2* Solid team performance earns another away win*
Oct 27 Sunderland 3 (1) Southend United 0 (0) Three goals and another clean sheet. Great
Oct 23 Doncaster Rovers 0 Sunderland 1 (0) Winning ugly is just fine by me.
Oct 20 Shrewsbury Town 0 (0) Sunderland 2 (0) A comfortable win that just oozed professionalism
Oct 6 Bradford City 1 (0) Sunderland 2 (1) Great win but Power made it difficult
Oct 2 Sunderland 2 (1) Peterborough 2 (0) Good point but spoiled by woeful refereeing
Sept 29 Coventry City (0) 1 Sunderland (0) 1 Fair result that could have been worse
Sept 22 Sunderland 4 (3) Rochdale 1 (0) Fifteen minute purple patch wrapped this up
Sept 15 Burton Albion 2 (2) Sunderland 1 (o) Weaknesses horribly exposed in a deserved defeat
Sept 8 Sunderland 1 (1) Fleetwood Town 1 (1) Huffed and puffed against very difficult opponents
Sept 4 Sunderland 0 (0) [4] Stoke City U21s 0 (0) [2] *Decent workout for young guns and recoverees
Sept 8 Sunderland A (a) Fleetwood Town B (b)
Sept 1 Sunderland 1 (0) Oxford United 1 (1 ) Poor first half, dug in well second
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
Didn’t think it was a red. Didn’t think their offside goal was offside, don’t know why they didn’t have more players booked for tackles much worse than Powers was. Not only were the officials poor they were inconsistently poor and the game was in danger of boiling over.
If Flanagan had been Ozturk he would be getting slated for the hesitancy which saw them hit the post and a couple of poor passes.
Can’t knock this team’s resilience though.
PS compare Power’s challenge yesterday with a) the challenge which ended up with Wyke getting injured at Burton and b) the foot in Baldwin’s face yesterday. Why was his yesterday deemed worse than those?
Another master class in officials’ incompetence!!!
Never was a red card, both players committed, no intent. The response of their players tells you all you need to know about the modern game even at this level.
Fantastic fight back, reflects brilliantly upon the mentality that Mr. Ross has instilled in them, all credit to their resolve.
To get one red card may be regarded as a misfortune; to get
three in four games looks like carelessness.