Will it be a Good Friday or are we heading for purgatory? With some trepidation, Salut! Sunderland invites readers to do what none could hope to do before the Coventry game and correctly predict the outcome of SAFC vs Doncaster Rovers.
It is reasonable to suggest that the Easter weekend will bring a clearer idea of whether we can still go up to the Championship in an automatic top-two place or have to rely on the painful lottery of the playoffs.
Donny at home on Friday is followed by a tough trip to Peterborough on Monday – not that we currently show much sign of being able to treat any game as other than tough.
When Pete Sixsmith said to me at Wembley that losing there was bearabale if we went on to take lots of points from the coming league games, he did have in mind seven or nine from the first three of them. He certainly wasn’t thinking of seven from four. With any more slips of the kind that gave as a crazy 5-4 deficit without a penalty shootout in sight, promotion the simple way will probably disappear quite quickly as an option.
Does anyone seriously expect much Easter comfort from the following: Barnsley (Shrewsbury at home, Plymouth away); Luton (Accrington Stanley away, Wimbledon at home) or Pompey (Burton away, Coventry – almost certainly back to normal without us as opponents – at home)? Me neither.
The playoffs will seem a decent achievement only if we win through them and still rise from League One. Starting with Donny, tell us how we’ll fare this weekend. You could win a mug whether or not, like a recent winner, Rob Hutchison, you choose this nifty name sequence …
Have a go. And Ha’way the Lads.
2-0 to the lads, will be watching on TV, also have tickets for Peterborough on Monday, keep the faith.
Unlucky Paul. Beaten to it by the other Paul.
The Lads to win 3-2 and back on track.
The eternal optimist says that there can’t be another repeat of that absolutely shell shocked so I will go for fower nowt to the lads no play offs please my heart can not stand it. Set us up well for the Pompey game which I am coming to along with my kid brother and 10 of his Prague safc fan club pals
2-4 to the lads
I was closest Na na na na na and, spurred on by that will predict 4-3 to The Lads. Yippee!!
Three Zero. I’ll be watching on TV but have tickets in hand for Peterboring.
Sunderland 4 – 1 Doncaster, I got half right for the Coventry prediction, Sunderlands 4 goals, and on the basis that defensively we could not possibly play that bad again and with the possibility of Catts returning, normal service (i.e. we always concede) is resumed.
But a win, any win will do. The wind can blow the bloody winner in, a repeat of the beach ball, an OG, penalty, straight goal from a corner, I don’t care but anything to avoid the play-offs!
3-1 time to go for something different
Wyke, Grigg, Onien
2-1 to the lads, shabbily.
Sunderland 1 Donny 0
A clean sheet!
Who knows? Even Brexit is more predictable than Sunderland. Let’s say 2 nil to Sunderland. Just saying.
A winner!
Five names for your latest mug, Paul!