John McCormick writes: Let’s not quibble. We were not good. However, we had enough character to come back from a poor goal against a team that will feature at the end of the season and that must bode well, for morale as much as for League position. Such wins are not to be sniffed at and I’m sure the crowd will have gone home happy.
We’ll find out tomorrow whether that can be said of our men at the match, when we get a full report. At the moment I don’t know if Malcolm or Pete will supply it. I do know Pete’s immediate post-game feelings, courtesy of a seven word text that winged its way south as the final whistle blew:
17 August Sunderland 2 (2) Portsmouth 1 (1) Up and running. Committed rather than classy
13 August Carabao Cup: Accrington Stanley (0) 1 Sunderland (1) 3 Had to work hard with McGeady outstanding
or this second 7 which came in as the draw for round two sends us back over the Pennines: Could just as easily have said McNulty
10 August Ipswich Town 1 (1) Sunderland 0 (1) *Decent recovery from absolutely shocking first half
3 August Sunderland 1 (0) Oxford United 1 (1) Looks like a repeat of last season
In honesty I thought that on the day Pompey were the better side. They were well organised, kept their shape well, and played some lovely approach football. They lacked a cutting edge, largely due to excellent performances from our centre backs and our goalkeeper, who IMO was MOTM.
However Sunderland can take a bit of heart from this game. We didn’t fold when Portsmouth were bossing the match. We got back in to the game swiftly after, as usual, conceding early, and our winning goal would grace any game.
Our main problem IMO, is the lack of threat from our strikers. Somehow, Jack Ross needs to find a system that gets the best from Grigg in particular. He has been a serial goal scorer everywhere he’s played, but he looks completely bereft of confidence at present.
I think Kenny Jackett might be behind all the SAFC negativity on social media. According to him they played us off the park and only they deserved to win.
Meanwhile, Maguire played well, scored a goal, but gave away too many misplaced passes to be MOTM. Ironically after they scored you have to admit Ozturk, Willis and McLaughlin were MOTM.
And god bless Denver Hume, took his short time in play to maek a confident contribution.
My two-pennorth. I thought we played quite well. Better than I expected. McLaughlin had a good game in goal. The two centre-backs were solid, especially Willis (motm for me). In front of them Leadbitter and Power looked like our best pairing in centre midfield. Up front McNulty and Maguire were a handful for their defence and McGeady had that little bit of magic that can change a game. Add to that decent performances from O’Nien, Gooch and Wyke when he came on. All in all, a good result. No-one had a bad game and we covered the left back spot adequately (just). Happy with the game but we’ll play worse and win and better and get nowt Such is life in the third division.
We were nervous and lacked any guile in the first 30 minutes, and the goal we gave away was like something from a Marx brothers film.
Once we scored a nice header confidence grew.
Our second goal was down to lovely interplay for the first time in the final third.
God bless Mcgeady.
Second half was much better, but we need to sort out left back pronto, their right winger was a nightmare for us all game.
Why the negativity John? We weren’t great but we weren’t bad either. Good enough to beat a team challenging for promotion with a ref who might have impressed Kent Walton on World of Sport in the 1960s.
We did well enough and showed plenty of desire, movement and work rate. Let’s hope the injury to McNulty isn’t long term as he makes a real difference but Wyke did well when he came on.
As Pete said after Accrington let’s ac cent chuate the positive.
4 games unbeaten. 3 tricky league games & a potential banana skin in the league cup negotiated. Once the left back position is sorted we’ll be ok. Central defenders looked solid. Not reliant on a single goal scorer unlike last season. Great keeper. Gooch rejuvenated. Subs bench looking strong. Plenty of character. Maguire MoM today.
One critique is the slow starts
I fancy us to beat Rochdale and have 8 points from the first 4 games