Colin Randall

Pete Sixmith, who goes to at least three games a week during the football season, witnesses one of the best at the Stadium of Light. But the players wouldn’t have been celebrating at the Glass Spider afterwards. One of them had to be up for school the next day

Those of us who trooped out of the Stadium of Light on Saturday wondering when we would next see a goal as good as Daryl Murphy’s didn’t have long to wait. Unfortunately, 96 per cent of those who whooped and hollered, as the Waterford Wizard’s cannonball thundered past Chris Kirkland were otherwise engaged on Wednesday night and missed two equally stunning efforts by Jordan Cook and Martyn Waghorn, as we overcame a stubborn and resilient Liverpool Under 18 side.

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If I collated all the goal alerts and scorelines I have received since the age of text messages began, the overall figures would probably make for fairly sorry reading.

There was the infamous, says-it-all Pete Sixsmith one from the last relegation season when we played Everton at home: “0-1. Cahill, 92 minutes.” And Joan Dawson’s refusal to stop the goals going in, again against Everton but this season at Goodison. “Is it not over yet?” I asked in one reply, from a holiday in northern India. “Afraid not,” I think she replied and it was still only six at that stage.

So it was a pleasure to wake up this morning to a string of messages from Pete at the Stadium of Light where, though I’d forgotten about it, our under-18s were playing Liverpool in the FA Youth Cup.

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Pete Sixsmith is no stranger – it’s oft said – to Ofsted inspections. Here are the findings of one of his own, which he conducted after making an impossible demand for nine points from the last three home games

A few weeks ago I said that we needed nine points out of the next three home games.

Colin said he thought seven was a more realistic target and I was eventually inclined to agree with him – three wins was surely hoping for a bit too much.

As a teacher, I know that targets have to be realistic and achievable. I don’t expect my students in the Learning Support Unit to achieve As, but I do know that they can achieve decent and worthwhile GCSE grades.

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Dickson Etuhu
Picture: Peadar O’Sullivan

The first emotion is one of overwhelming relief. As the week wore on, the fear was that we’d be hard pressed to put out a team at all; to claw three massive points out of that unpromising scenario represents a mighty achievement.

And the second emotion? Genuine pleasure that – not for the first time this season – our most consistently criticised players pulled enough out of the hat when it mattered to secure the win.

All week, the view among fans subscribing to the Blackcats forum seemed to be one of deep gloom at the prospect of Etuhu’s return from the African Cup of Nations. And who should pop up with a powerful headed finish to Whitehead’s superb cross to give us a nervy half team lead?

Who then kept us in the game with world class saves (OK, if we overlook one fumble that nearly cost us dearly)? Craig Gordon.

But the moment I loved best was perhaps restricted to those of us viewing the game live but thousands of miles from the Stadium of Light.

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Why is it that whenever the big guns of the Premier League come up with an innovative new idea, proper football fans smell a rat? Pete Sixsmith is our would-be Pied Piper

The news that the Premier League is considering exporting its teams for an extra game does not seem to have filled footie fans with much enthusiasm. It just goes to show what a miserable bunch of self centred people we are.

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George Orwell’s road to the pier. Rugby League. Soul music. All that, yes. But football (real football) is not something we readily associate with Wigan. Paul Farrington*, the editor of wiganer.net, puts us right on that – and predicts heartache for SAFC fans when we clash at the SoL on Saturday

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Did she fail me as a daughter? Did I fail as a father? Take your pick. Either way, Nathalie Randall did not grow up to be quite the sort of football fan her dad had hoped for. A fixation with John Barnes turned her young head towards Anfield, Sunderland’s next port of call after the encouring dismissal of Brum. Let Nathalie take up the story of her disloyalty – and let her “first team” disappoint her on Saturday……

So how did I become a Liverpool fan?

Born in Bristol and brought up in London by an obsessive Sunderland-supporting father, I still went on to support what he says is the wrong team.

How did this happen? Accusations of “glory hunter” have never been far off although in fairness, if I had wanted to be a glory hunter the question begs: why Liverpool?

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