One awayday, many broken dreams. We persuaded ourselves we were on a roll, over the hump, climbing the table, good enough to win at Anfield. Pete Sixsmith witnessed the shambles that returned us to reality …
The two questions I asked myself on the long journey home were simple ones. How good were Liverpool? How poor were we?
Answers: very and pretty.
The mini-run is over, for now. Maybe we did get carried away with a couple of wins and a few draws. Liverpool not only brought us down to earth with that thud. They hammered us …
This was not a good weekend to come up against top four sides in decent form, as Villa, Bolton and Pompey discovered yesterday and we had rammed home to us today.
During years of exile from the North East,
Malcolm Dawson has developed, along with a duty to watch Sunderland at every opportunity, a fondness for games involving non-league visitors from the region. No Sunderland yesterday, for today’s obvious reason, but Whitley Bay were within striking distance …
My flirtation with this season’s FA Vase began with a trip to Gresley to see the South Derbyshire side’s clash with Spennymoor.
Then a trip to Roker Park, Stotfold to watch Shildon, at the behest of Salut! Sunderland‘s Mr Sixsmith appealed as much as the thought of forking out over forty quid to see us tonked by Chelsea didn’t.
Colin Irwin is best known as a music writer, with a passion he shares with Salut! Sunderland, folk music. But in 2006, he brought out a smashing book, Sing When You’re Winning, based on travels into the heartlands of football. They were grim times when his odyssey reached Sunderland. We were on our way down and visiting the Stadium of Light brought to mind “an official observation of the last rites”. It’s a treat to see how well he managed to make it sound the great place it is …
I can’t think ill of Sunderland, who are the only Premiership club to respond to my plea for information, encouragement, tickets and dusky handmaidens when I am researching this book. They return phone calls, e-mails and cinvivial banter and furnish me with a press pass for their local derby with Middlesbrough.
The days of Roker Park are long gone since Sunderland moved into this gorgeous space age stadium on the outskirts of town, so close to the Wear that you fear it may topple in and get us all wet.
Are we getting carried away? I have rarely known Sunderland fans in such upbeat spirits ahead of what is, on paper, a really tough game.
Ian Lynch *, our latest guest writer, is another Mackem who believes we can claim at least a point yesterday. Let us hope our gutsy display the other night is not placed in perspective by this scoreline: Chelsea 7 Aston Villa 1 (at least we managed two consolation at the Bridge).
Ian belongs to the Blackcats e-mail loop but does not post often – annually, on his own calculations. But this amusing and predominantly optimistic State of the Team assessment cried out for a wider audience …
At the moment, it seems clear that we have the makings of a first XI for next season that has a world-class keeper, experience and strength at the back, pace and invention in midfield and goals up front.
All we need is a left back who can attack as well as defend. And for our young midfielders to get better, not worse. That would be nice.
Consider the evidence:
It’s not exactly that Luke Harvey‘s heart is torn by two footballing passions – Sunderland, of course (otherwise he probably wouldn’t be here), and Carlisle, his home town. He is red-and-white daft, but feels a sense of local duty and will tomorrow be trying his best to urge on both his teams – one in person, the other in spirit – to famous victories …
If the four unbeaten home games in a row, where we – Sunderland – finally snapped our no-win streak, wasn’t the turning corner, then surely a point at Villa Park was. The question is whether we can now move on from that encouraging display to show sufficient strength and quality to get something out of the visit to Anfield tomorrow.
Our Liverpool guests, Peter Hooton, rock singer and leading light in the Spirit of Shankly union, and Neil Jones, a Reds-supporting football writer, have dealt with some of the on-the-field issues affecting their club, who began the season hoping for the title but now have to settle for being just one of a cluster of clubs vying for fourth place. But let’s stop the pussyfooting: what do the fans really think of the owners? What, come to that, do they think about the lad who threw the beachball, whether cheating is OK provided it delivers the title and who will win Sunday’s match against Sunderland? And what do we think of Peter’s band, The Farm?* …
Salut! Sunderland:
Your club has an immense history, with triumph and tragedy, glory and disappointment, but what would Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley have made of the current owners and their impact on LFC?
Peter (SOS):
I think they would be horrified at what is happening. One of Bill Shankly’s most famous quotes is ‘At a football club there is a holy trinity- the players, the manager and the supporters. Directors don’t come into it. They are only there to sign the cheques.’ The problem with these cowboys is that they have run out of cheques; in fact they never had any in the first place!
Neil:It’s the million dollar question I suppose, I’m sure Shankly in particular would have plenty to say. He was a man who despised any interference from above, so he would not take kindly to some of the stunts pulled by the current owners. I’m sure he would be very much behind the supporters’ union which bears his name.
After another good result, 1-1 at Villa, Sunderland face a huge task: stopping Liverpool exact revenge for the beachball defeat at the Stadium of Light (even though it was their beach ball that deflected Darren Bent’s shot into the goal). Salut! Sunderland put questions to two prominent Reds:
* Peter Hooton*, leader singer of the (once) chart-topping Scouse band The Farm and a senior figure in the evocatively named Spirit of Shankly union, which campaigns againts the “dreadful custodianship of Hicks and Gillet” …
* Neil Jones**, who reports – we are sure – with exemplary impartiality on his club for goal.com
Both men had plenty to say about their club, our club, beachballs and Steven Gerrard’s tendency to fall a lot. There may even be more Liverpudlian wisdom on its way, so we’d better turn this into a part work …
Salut! Sunderland: Let’s start with a googly – you might call it a no ball – and ask whether referees and the authorities are soft when it comes to Steven Gerrard; it’s what you hear on the lips of fans of other clubs, especially top six rivals.
SOS: I personally can’t see it. Alex Ferguson thinks so and made a big issue of it last week but that was propaganda before our match with United to try and influence one his favourite referees Howard Webb. The Rio Ferdinand ban was due to the fact that he turned and deliberately lashed out at Hull’s Craig Fagan whereas Gerrard and Michael Brown clashed as Brown checked his run and the referee saw it. How Fergie has the audacity to call FA dysfunctional is mind-boggling. He bullies the FA and referees at every given opportunity.
Neil: He’s certainly given the authorities plenty to think about. But remember that it was not always this way – Gerrard as a young player was often involved in disciplinary hearings. I think his status affords him an extra amount of leniency from the FA, compared to some players. That is the same for a lot of England stars – I’m thinking Alan Shearer and Wayne Rooney at this point.
My personal opinion of the two recent incidents is that the Wigan ‘v-sign’ was petulant, and he took a needless risk out of frustration. He could easily have been sent off, but then is what he did any worse than some of the foul-mouthed tirades we see from other players on a regular basis? Probably not. As for the Michael Brown episode, again he got rather lucky, but I do believe that it was an instinctive defensive reaction as Brown ran across his path, rather than a malicious assault. Still, it is not hard to imagine action being taken were the roles reversed.
Our new matchday correspondent, Bob Chapman*, was delayed by a grisly day at work and a cat demanding a medical consultation. But his report from Villa Park adds more weight to the argument that, come what may on Sunday, we’ve really turned the corner, with John Mensah’s commanding centre-back play an important feature of the revival …
It is a time of year I should always like, a chance to take in a midweek fixture towards the end of the season with nothing, effectively, to play for.
Steve Bruce, I know, will want 40 points but I believe we probably have enough already. Sadly in all my years since 1964 following Sunderland, that has been a pretty rare event. There has always been something at stake.
No one seriously expected to go to Villa Park on the back of a mini-run pursued exclusively at home and romp to victory.
Equally, no one a couple of weeks ago would have expected anything more than for us to come away with tails between legs, well beaten whatever the actual margin.
The measure of Sunderland’s progress in such a short time, after such a long malaise, is that we not only emerged with a deserved draw; we also succeeded in worrying Villa, top four aspirants, leading them for a while and defending when necessary in reasonable comfort. And along the way, we had our own chance or two to regain the lead.