Dick’s Doncaster Advochaat: every silver lining has a cloud!

Malcolm Dawson writes…what do we want from pre-season friendlies? Well I would like to see some indication that the team has an idea as to how it’s going to play, the manager has an idea who his starting XI is and that we supporters can derive at least some satisfaction from the performances and some confidence that we will be alright when the new season starts. Precious little of any of that so far. I can’t help but feel that the U.S.A. leg of the tour was a big mistake from a footballing perspective. I’m sure those in charge of finances and “brand promotion” had their reasons but travelling so far and training in the kind of heat that requires air conditioning inside cars and buildings can’t be the best way to prepare a team for a forthcoming English season. It is part of the brief that any post match communication has some positive message for the fans. This post Doncaster e-mail sent in Dick’s name to M Salut and anyone else who reads it contains little to comfort those of us concerned about the result – pre-season or not and focusses on something that we all knew already.

Dick's chaat, by Jake
Dick’s chaat, by Jake

DONCASTER ROVERS 2 SUNDERLAND 0

Dear Colin,

The fitness has to be there but it was a poor result tonight, hopefully on Saturday we can show how far we are we are with our progress when we face Hannover.

Everybody could see how well Jeremain [Lens] played and [Younes] Kaboul also did very well when he came off the bench for the second half.

The fans were excellent today and they came down in their numbers, making the long journey to back their team for 90 minutes and we need to reward their loyal support over the course of the season.

Thanks for your support,

Dick Advocaat



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4 thoughts on “Dick’s Doncaster Advochaat: every silver lining has a cloud!”

  1. Rather than make progress, both performances and results (and lack of goals as per usual), suggest that we may have gone backwards.

  2. Just home after the trip to Doncaster, very unhappy not only with the result but with the standard of our so called Premiership players. There can be no excuses for this level of performance against a team 2 leagues lower than us. Once again our defence struggled, both full backs need replacing ASAP in my opinion. Stupid mistakes cost us dearly and are unforgiveable against lower quality opposition. Luckily Lens had a great debut and gives me some hope for the future but we need to greatly improve our passing and rate of play or this could be one season to far in the survival stakes.

  3. As Malcolm says, from a footballing perspective, the Black Cats should never have crossed the Atlantic. But they’re home now, over their jetlag and tiredness from training. Yet this is the best they can do against a mid-table third-tier side?
    So Lens played well and Kaboul looked okay when Advocaat let him off the bench. But there are nine other buggers on the field. What “progress” can we realistically expect them to make between now and Saturday’s game against a fair-to-middling Bundesliga side? They have two days and that includes travelling time.
    “The fans were excellent today,” says Advocaat.The fans are ALWAYS excellent, Mijnheer, as you may by now have noticed. They deserve more for their loyal support, home and away, than platitudes and half-promises.
    We desperately need new players. You need to get Ellis Short’s head around that fact. And we need the players we have to start thinking of themselves as a team, a unit; otherwise they’ll never be a force to be reckoned with. Could you possibly get their heads around that fact? Could you do it soon? Like… now?

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