Just for fun, we have taken to saying about our regular slot inviting readers to predict Sunderland scorelines, says Monsieur Salut.
It hasn’t been much fun being a Bolton Wanderers fan. The club almost driven out of existence and all those goals shipped. I have no idea as I write on Monday morning, before a week’s break, whether they will go into our game buoyed by a midweek win at home to Oxford United – or how we did against Rotherham.
But gallows humour comes easily to Sunderland supporters and even before last Saturday’s latest walloping for Bolton – 6-1 away, almost inevitably to our own midweek opponents, Rotherham – one was moping at Twitter that Wanderers would probably start their revival against us.
(Of course we now know both teams came away with a point in midweek, Bolton claiming they were unlucky not to take all three whilst those who saw or heard or followed our game in some other way can’t help but feel we dropped two points after the perfect start against the South Yorkshire side. Bolton of course brought in nine players on the last day of the transfer window and those players will now be getting up to speed, so we are unlikely to be facing the Trotters’ U18 side. This on paper should make it a tougher ask for our boys and my own personal opinion is that the wave of negativity surrounding a club that has still only lost 6 of its last 54 league games can’t be doing anything to help. The fact we are playing away might take some pressure of our boys but even if we emulate Ipswich, Rochdale, Tranmere and Gillingham by sticking five past Wanderers it won’t stop some saying we should have done better. MD)
You tell us how you think it will go. Prizes will be restored once Salut! Sunderland’s rocky finances recover from their own series of hammerings, trying to overcome the residual impact of the site being hacked towards the end of last year (at least I think it dates from then).
For now, it’s strictly rewards in heaven if you happen to get the scoreline right.
Sunderland have been doing well in trips to Lancashire. Let us hope this continues. Ha’way the Lads.
A jammy 2-0 to the lads.
Pet peeve….Can anyone explain why Rotherham’s right back was allowed to wander 20 yards upfield to launch the throw in that led to their goal?
Because the officials are shite!
For much the same reason that Ivan Toney was able to play last weekend and score a hat trick.
The Lads to win 4-1, if so, it will get some confidence back.
The eternal optimist says let’s go for a big one 9-0 to the lads
5-4 to the Lads – what else.
Thank you to all for helping me post this score. It is so nailed on to be correct I wouldn’t want to have missed it!
Bolton 1 Sunderland 2
Still no clean sheet.
Testing … on behalf of Wrinkly Pete who is having problems posting. Me? I’d say we’ll win 4-0 but what do I know?
2-0 to Sunderland.
A game that may well decide Jack’s future as boss. I’ll go for an away win 1-3. It may buy him some time.
I’m not so sure I agree about this deciding JR’s future as manager Terry. Certainly certain sections of the fan base have disliked him from the start and even Pete Sixsmith is beginning to have doubts but I still think he enjoys the support of Donald and Methven and looked at in the cold light of day he is the most successful manager in terms of results that we have had for many a long year.
The problem as I see it is the perception that we are a “big club” which is punching below its weight and to an extent that is true. We should expect to be in the Championship next season and that was the expectation of Donald and Methven when they arrived.
But the state of the club’s finances when they took over, the impact of FFP, the expense of offloading high earners means we now have a squad of League 1 standard players, competing with teams of a similar quality. That said, we should still have the edge and sufficient resources to go up this year and if we don’t it will represent a huge failure but we could easily have gone the way of Bury or suffered the same kind of trauma that Saturday’s opponents have.
I’m not convinced that simply changing the manager would bring about an upturn in the club’s results but I am beginning to think that all the negativity and criticism being hurled at Jack Ross is starting to have an impact.
I fancy us to win at the weekend, but as happened after a win at Accrington I expect the critics will still dominate social media and have their comments picked up by the Echo, the Chronicle and those other websites that try to engineer as many clicks as they can with sensationalist headlines.
3-0 to us.
The people advocating managerial change might be advised to be careful what they wish for.
When he took over, many fans were openly fearing a third consecutive relegation. The club was in tatters, and he had to get shot of half of the squad, whilst recruiting better, cheaper alternatives.
Had we won promotion last season, Ross would have been hailed as a genius. In the event we missed it by a whisker, and could/should have won the Checkatrade cup too.
This season, we have lost one game, beaten a PL club in the cup, and are in the top six.
He deserves at least another season.
To be perfectly honest, Ross must have been made aware of the expectations of the fans at the Club and know what he was letting himself in for, he must have done his due diligence.
He can’t really be that surprised that after a successful first season, for it was bearing in mind the state of the Club when he took over and the historic car crash that it was, and the relative successful start to this season that the fans demand more.
That’s football and that’s fans for you, always demanding more. What must surprise him though is the unjustified vitriolic social media comments form supposed fans, constructive criticism fair enough but the puerile bile that pours out on social media and some of the press links is just that.
Ross is bigger than all that, yes he is beginning to look a wee bit exacerbated during the press conferences as they continue to stir the pot but actions will speak louder than the presses (some of them) words.
Oh, and Bolton to lose 1-4.
0-7.
Fitness tells as we bounce back.
Gooch (p) and he sticks his tongue out at Mcgeady, who retaliates by scoring a hat trick.
Grigg gets the other three in the last 20 minutes.
Wyke has a goal disallowed
Bolton finish with 10 men.