As the goals went in last night, the text messages from St Andrew,s dried up. Several minutes after the final whistle, we were still trailing 1-0 according to my mobile phone, the normally reliable Sixer’s Sevens service having gone AWOL.
There’s always BBC Radio Newc**tle. Down in my den at home in the south of France sit two computers. The older, cheaper one inexplicably gives clearer, louder reception while the commentary on the newer model is a few seconds ahead. I chose the slow but audible oldie.
Talk about people attending the same games and seeing different ones. It took me back to careless driving cases at Bishop Auckland Magistrates’ Court, when one motorist would swear this happened as vehemently as the other claimed the opposite.
To Gary Bennett, a passionate Sunderland ex-player and fan whose summaries I enjoy and respect, we were “not at the races”, “probably didn’t deserve a draw”, “got out of jail”. For him, the positive was that we’d avoided defeat despite playing woefully.
Hence the gloomy tone of my running updates on Salut! Sunderland as Sixer’s Stand-in.
I cannot recall it all word-for-word, but it went from something like “0-1…poor marking…playing badly” to “Chopra out of nowhere….” to “Chopra leveller not enough” to “Chopra, John steal draw from drab performance”. All based on the critical but realistic sounding comments of Gary Bennett.
Finally, Sixer’s verdict arrived, not once but twice: “Thoroughly deserved. Chopra’s now one of us.”
