This going behind early’s getting to be a bit of an issue but at least we can come back from it this season, which is just as well. The bigger question is – will we do better as our injuries abate and players get fully up to speed? We’re still unbeaten and in the top 4 but I’d like to see us keeping clean sheets and popping in a few more goals. On paper, the teams we’re putting out look capable enough of winning but on the pitch maybe they are just not quite there yet.
I imagine the 29,000 spectators who were at the Stadium of Light this afternoon will be harbouring similar thoughts. Pete Sixsmith was one of them and we’ll know for sure what he thinks when he sends us his match report tomorrow. As a taster here’s the seven word text he sent as the final whistle blew:
Colin Randall
The First Time Ever I saw Your Team: Fleetwood Town
John McCormick writes: I don’t know what Pete Sixsmith’s on about in his opening paragraph.
I can’t disagree with his comment about the average Rugby League prop forward but saying Maths sums are hard is a bit much, and surely he knows that some metals are soft. Perhaps his phrase “ very hard” covers both wood and metal. That kind of ambiguity is one of the niceties of the English language. Another nicety is the way it allows the construction of beautiful prose, words which flow and transport the reader to another world, place or time, but I suppose all languages have that power and it’s up to the writer to wield it.
Which Pete does once again, as he transports you to the coast of Lancashire via the Northern Premier League:
The Fleetwood Town Who are You? “we surprise people every year”
John McCormick writes: Ben Knapman writes a fan column for the Fleetwood Weekly News and Blackpool Gazette. He did a two hour run earlier this year to raise funds for the Bradley Lowery Foundation. If that’s not enough he produces a You tube blog about Fleetwood Town. And he does it all on top of his studies, which I reckon are just about to begin once again.
Yet, when M Salut was about to give up the search for a Cod Army volunteer for this week’s “Who are You?”, Ben found the time, stepped into the breach and did an excellent job of giving us an introduction to a club few of us would have expected to be meeting in the football league.
Over to M Salut and Ben:
The SAFC vs Fleetwood Town prize Guess the Score: can we spoil Joey’s day?
Monsieur Salut explains why there may or may not be a Fleetwood Town ‘Who are You?’. At least Guess the Score continues unaffected … (stop press – we now have a willing volunteer – see comment.)
Looking at the sheer number of fixtures in League One, I did wonder whether we’d be able to maintain “Who are You?” on a regular basis this season.
So far, so good. But Fleetwood Town – their stadium may be called Highbury but it houses only 5,327 fans – has proved a tough nut to crack.
Clouds at the Academy of Light? Could a Uruguayan model damage local youth development?
John McCormick writes: I remember something about trialists not being picked in one or two of our pre-season friendlies, we had a trialist still with us the end of the transfer window – can anyone remember who? – and earlier this week Pete Sixsmith commented on the performance of Gael Andonian, a French born Armenian international who turned out for the U23s against West Bromwich Albion.
At more or less the same time it was mooted that one of our youths, Luca Stephenson, was moving to Liverpool for a fee of about £200,000, although I’ve seen different figures, and I did read somewhere that Liam Millar might be moving in the opposite direction. He turns 19 this month and we would be his third club as Liverpool signed him from Fulham.
There have always been footballing nomads and people whose contracts aren’t renewed, so trialists coming and going are nothing unusual. But is the movement of young players part of an increasing trend? And is it always above board? Jeremy Robson makes a welcome return to these pages with some observations:
West Brom, and a regular spot for the irregulars
Some days it’s good to get out. This season that could be said of Saturdays, which makes a nice change, but for some people it’s also true of Monday evenings, now that normal service has been resumed at the Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground.
And just who are those people?
None other than a stalwart group of supporters known as the Hetton irregulars, one of whom is Pete Sixsmith. So when the U23s played West Bromwich Albion last night where do you think he was?
Sixer’s Soapbox: Oxford United gain a point against powerless Sunderland
Malcolm Dawson writes……..in his programme notes Charlie Methvin spoke of the mixed emotions he would be feeling as a lifelong Oxford United supporter, now involved in the ownership and organisation of Sunderland AFC. I have to wonder what sort of mixed emotions he went through as the game progressed.
With his red and white hat on, I should think maybe a mixture of frustration at a team who were knocked off their preferred playing style by physical opponents not averse to employing underhand methods, abetted by as incompetent a refereeing display as I have ever witnessed, tension as we played out most of the match with only ten men and having equalised having to hang on with tired legs and opponents pushing for an equaliser and ultimately pride in a battling performance which saw us gain a point in the most trying of circumstances.
From his yellow and blue perspective I should think he would be encouraged by Oxford’s footballing display but I would hope have been embarrassed by their spoiling tactics and employing what appeared to have been a deliberate policy to con the referee. Max Power only has himself to blame for the red card and though some officials may have deemed it a yellow card offence, it was a reckless challenge, unlikely to ever win the ball cleanly. But the benchmark had been set as early as the twelfth minute.
In the type of incident that those in the ground could see clearly but which may not have been picked up by the TV cameras, Chris Maguire was trying to find space on the halfway line to offer Jon Mclaughlin an outlet to set up a quick counterattack. He was being physically held and manhandled by an Oxford defender, obviously worried by his pace and ability and prevented from going anywhere. Did the linesman see what we saw? If he did then surely it would have been a free kick to us and a yellow card to the man in blue. Instead, as Maguire tried to extricate himself the United player fell over clutching his face. The resultant free kick and yellow card against Maguire, was only the first of a number of poor decisions and our players were getting increasingly frustrated.
I may question the morality of the Oxford United tactics but there is no arguing against their effectiveness. But then you haven’t come here to read my whinging on about referees and dubious opponents. You’ve come to read what Pete Sixsmith thought of a game in a league which is proving to be anything but boring. Over to Pete.
Sixers Sevens: Oxford United fight us to a draw
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
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Team: Oxford United
John McCormick writes: I definitely haven’t seen Oxford at the Stadium of Light and I don’t think I’ve ever seen them at Roker, I certainly have no memory of them playing us there. It wasn’t until 1973 that I got to see them and that was at the Manor Ground. Our cup-winning team played, Dennis Tueart scored the only goal after 3 minutes and we held out for the remaining 87 to gain our second win of the season and finish the month unbeaten.
You can see what a good goal it was at the bottom of the page but don’t miss Pete Sixsmith to get to it. We had played Oxford in the previous three seasons but I was away, which is why I think I missed them. Pete was a lot nearer and went.
Not that that was the first time he’d seen them. Over to the master:
The Oxford United Who are You?: in praise of Stewart Donald
This is the match Stewart Donald and Charlie Methven may have been both relishing and dreading. Both Oxford fans, and passionate ones at that, but now part of the latest Mackem revolution. Their private thoughts on Saturday afternoon would be fascinating. Simon Bradbury, a former vice-chairman of the Oxford United OxVox group, knows Stewart well. Who better to answer the ‘Who are you?’ questions? …