No meaningful football to fret about this weekend, so Colin Randall grapples with new technology and sets the GPS for an amble along memory lane …
It didn’t matter whether Brian Clough had hit a hat-trick or Jimmy Davison had “picked his spot” for a goal from the wing. After each Saturday game at Roker Park – and in those days, all games except cup relays were played on Saturdays – the routine was the same.
This is an important time for Sunderland AFC. All fans have their thoughts on players who’ve gone, those who’ve arrived. With the transfer deadline passed, Pete Sixsmith has his say on the state of the squad …
So, the transfer window slammed shut, the transfer gate was bolted and the transfer deadline has been passed with about as much excitement as the latest Ant and Dec extravaganza causes here at Sixsmith Towers.
The Brucester is now stuck with what he has until January and it is up to him and Eric Black to make something of an expensively assembled group of players. We are the third biggest spenders in the window after Manchester City (surprise, surprise) and Aston Villa (who appear to buy nothing but defenders, crocks and children).
Colin Randall casts an eye on the comings and goings at the Stadium of Light and considers the question on everyone’s lips: has Steve Bruce struck the right balance? …
No last-minute surprises in terms of new men coming in, despite a flurry of rumours about a loan exchange with Spurs involving Anton Ferdinand and Alan Hutton.
So we make do for now with the acquisitions Steve Bruce as made and bid farewell to a number of players who have served the club well.
Briefly joint leaders last weekend, we had our balloon well and truly burst by a much more determined Stoke (who did the same to us last season after that heartening victory over Newcastle). Pete Sixsmith tries very hard to sound positive but cannot hide the doubts…
The mantra we have chanted so far in this fledgling season is “That was different from last year – we’d have lost/drawn/scraped through/been hammered in the games with Bolton/Blackburn/Norwich/ Chelsea.”
We were beginning to convince ourselves that we were made of sterner stuff and that although we had some weaknesses, the strengths just about outweighed them. And then we went to Stoke …
Forget Eduardo’s criminal dive, Wenger’s squalid refusal to deplore it and lowlife goings on at Upton Park. Feast instead on part two of the preview by Stoke fans of Saturday’s Sunderland old and new boys’ reunion. We already know what they made of last season and the transfer dealings. Now let’s see what Simon “Northy” Northwood , who runs the Rip Roaring Potters fan site, and Julian Boodell, who has been known to frequent the Oatcake message board, think the new season will bring …
Where will each club end up this season?
Julian:Sunderland top half safely but a good bet for top seven finish. Stoke lower mid table, but I would feel more comfortable with a couple of better players added to the first team.
Northy: I think stoke will finish 15th and reckon sunderland will finish 11th.
Red and white stripes – but not ours … What a difference a new season makes. Last time round, we …
Here at last then is the complete version of Pete Sixsmith‘s account of his visit to Norwich for the Carling Cup game on Monday, a night when several players did their to show Steve Bruce they deserved tio break into the Premier League squad …
Noel Coward once described Norfolk as “very flat”. After our bruising battle with Blackburn, I feared that our performance might echo the words of the Master. Last season, they probably would have done. This season, there was nothing to worry about.
It was a pleasure to re-acquaint myself with the fair city of Norwich. A pleasant drive down (despite the sheer bloody awfulness of the A 17), the B and B found with the minimum of fuss and a pleasant afternoon spent in Norfolk’s only city.
It seemed a city at peace with itself. There have been changes since my last visit in the 80s. Norwich Union has become Aviva, Mackintoshes have shut their chocolate factory and the football club have slid into the third level of English football with barely a whimper. Life is slower here. The accent is gentle and easy going and although the ghosts of the Singing Postman and Sale of The Century reinforce the Partridgeisation of the place, it has a hell of a lot going for it.
Norwich fan at kick off: “Watching on TV. Can we just not get thrashed?
Pete Sixsmith reports on three good points towards – er- the safety by Christmas we knew under Peter Reid, or at any rate in two of his seasons …
By my calculations, only another 34 points needed before we can sleep in our beds, secure in the knowledge that Wear Tyne derbies will be off the agenda for at least another year.
“…Sunderland will be OK – you have a good manager and, though I hate to say it, a good strike force….”