Pete Sixsmith made the short trip across the Pennines, writes John McCormick, with cuddly Joey Barton urging his Fleetwood men to send us home in tears.
For the miracle to happen, Sunderland needed a hatful of goals, let alone what had to befall our promotion rivals. Lee Cattermole scored to give us a halftime lead and Barnes and Benno were in no doubt we should have been much further ahead.
Sixer judged it to be a competent first 45; afterwards, B&B felt we allowed Fleetwood to claw a way back into the game. ‘Losing our grip,’ said Benno on 70 and four minutes later, Madden equalised for Fleetwood and that alone would have consigned us to the playoffs. The inability to hold or build on a lead had reared its head yet again and draw number 20 loomed. It didn’t come. A flurry of Sunderland activity brought late excitement but when the winner arrived, it went to Fleetwood …
Take your pick from Sixer’s seven-word verdicts below. His fuller analysis would have been brutal. Should we expect a more measured assessment given that our deputy editor Malcolm Dawson – also present – is writing it? We’ll see …
Monsieur Salut writes: he calls himself Matty at Twitter but I will not embed the tweet, purporting to show a full name, because a) it may not be his for all I know and b) I have no wish to spread his word, other than to challenge it …
John McCormick writes: Pete Sixsmith reaches the penultimate stage of his journey round League One with a warning that this will be another tough game. Personally, I expect us to win it, but with a weakened team: McGeady and Oviedo won’t play, being injured, nor will Catts, Wyke or Grigg to keep them safe. But Chris Maguire will, to give him game time, and also Gooch. Bali Mumba will be there and so will Benji Kimpioka, who will score. He won’t be the only one to do so and the result will be 3-1 in our favour, which will earn me my second mug of the season.
Will that be my only consolation after a long hard season? I think not. But then again, we are Sunderland.
Monsieur Salut writes: John McKenna*, our interviewee for the penultimate league game of the season (and if only it could be our season’s penultimate game of any kind), comes to us via Pete Sixsmith and the interest they share in groundhopping.
John proves to be a master of restraint and balance when asked about a certain Joey Barton – he says elsewhere he is acquainted with the laws of libel and nothing in his reply would be of interest to Messrs Sue, Grabbitt and Runne – and provides an informative guide to the recent history of his club, pointing out that it plays in a town with a smaller population than the crowd that turned up at the Stadium of Light for the first game between us …
It’s over bar the playoffs. Another failure to win ends any real prospect of an automatic promotion place.
Drawing at home to Portsmouth didn’t cause this huge disappointment. We had already shot ourselves in one foot, losing that crazy 5-4 game at home to Coventry, and then in the other one after going ahead late at Peterborough, says Monsieur Salut. Not to mention what someone called a billion other draws.
Each time we stumbled, others just got on with doing their jobs.
A glance at the other results has tended to confirm our fears: no one else has been slipping up as often at this crucial stage of the season.
Malcolm Dawson writes……whilst not mathematically denying us one of the two automatic promotion spots, yesterday’s result finally extinguished any realistic hope of avoiding the lottery that is the play-offs. At the start of the season I don’t suppose there are many supporters who would have said that only losing a total of three games out of 44, two by the odd goal and one after having a man sent off early doors, would be considered a failure but there are plenty of brickbats being thrown around in the wake of our 19th draw of the season.
A draw was really of no use to either side (although Portsmouth might still get an automatic promotion spot if they can win their last two games and either Barnsley or Luton fail to get maximum points next Saturday) so I was surprised that Pompey weren’t more adventurous in their play and that they were prepared to indulge in a lot of the time wasting tactics that seem prevalent in this division and having succeeded in getting Glenn Loovens sent off at Fratton Park, seemed to be trying the same trick, this time with Aiden McGeady one of their prime targets.
Eppleton Colliery Banner
Some pundit or other was saying on the radio how successful Tottenham’s season has been so far and this is a side that has lost 12 times from 36 games. The ease with which social media allows instant reaction will no doubt be rife with those quick to point out how dreadful this result was towards the end of what to them has been a dreadful season. But those taking a more thoughtful and objective view will be of the opinion that our disappointment stems from hope and expectation. Some of us hoped we might go straight back up whilst others expected us to run away with the division. Games we might have expected to have won have seen us drop points and while our record might have seen us finishing in the top two most seasons, this year the form of Barnsley, Luton and Portsmouth have meant it hasn’t. That Spurs record shows 12 defeats but only 1 draw and dropping points at home to the likes of Shrewsbury, Wycombe, Accrington Stanley, Oxford and Fleetwood as well as a failure to hold on to leads at Wycombe, Oxford and Scunthorpe have ultimately cost us a top spot.
What I haven’t been disappointed with this season, is the effort and commitment to the club that team have shown, even if they haven’t often been dominant in games and haven’t always been able to get all three points. Unlike some I can’t fault the attitude. But the big success for me, whether we go up or not is the efforts the club has gone to reconnect with the supporters and after years of being treated like a customer with my support less valued by the club than by my local supermarkets, I once again feel a part of the SAFC community. The parade of miners’ banners, one of which was from Eppleton where my dad worked most of his life and which dominated the view from my bedroom window when I was growing up, yet another example of how the ownership is trying to re-engage with fans and whilst there will be sound economic reasons for them doing so, I am pleased to see it.
Anyway, my introduction seems to be almost as long as Pete Sixsmith’s match report. He was less than complimentary about our opponents on the way home last night. Has he tempered his views after a night’s kip? Let’s find out.
For a short while it was looking good. We were winnng and Barnsley were losing. Then it all turned round and, despite Luton’s loss, we didn’t do enough. Theoretically, we could still finish top but we know it won’t happen. More likely, we’ll be up against Charlton in the playoffs.
I think it’s Pete Sixsmith‘s turn to do tomorrow’s match report but I could be wrong. It’s definitely his text, though, and if you count the words you’ll see a little bit of symbology. Just like Sunderland, he’s come up a little bit short:
Let Pete Sixsmith add his appreciation of our superb midfielder after what has been for him, come what may, an outstanding season …and he is picking up awards, starting with one from the SAFCSA branch liaison council (Luke O’Nien was the young player of the season)
John McCormick writes: Me and Mr Sixsmith are pretty much of an age yet when it comes to the archives he leaves me standing. I can’t remember Andy Kerr, don’t believe I ever saw Harry Hooper and I definitely never saw Brian Clough. Roker was too difficult for me to get to on my own and there was no one to take me. I could have got to Newcastle easily but didn’t, and I had to wait another season before I could follow the club I had chosen over them.
But, ladies and gentlemen, I did get to see Charlie Hurley, Jimmy Montgomery and Nick Sharkey, among others. I can count myself blessed.
But I digress, unlike Pete, who would never divert from SAFC to discuss TV programmes or topical music.
Pete Sixsmith made the short trip across the Pennines, writes John McCormick, with cuddly Joey Barton urging his Fleetwood men to send us home in tears.
