When Jermain Defoe put us ahead, we were surprised given the run of play. When some decent second half pressure led to his second, superbly finished goal, we saw the heaven that is four post storm six games. After the utterly wretched defending that turned the 2-0 lead into a 3-2 defeat, you can expect Pete Sixsmith to be harsh about what happened next when he delivers his considered verdict. Here’s his traditional seven-worder …
Malcolm Dawson writes……man of few words Rob Hutchison (he of the one word player ratings) is becoming more garrulous these …
Colin Randall writes: Our Crystal Palace interviewee, my badminton-playing friend Keith Marriage*, ‘got it in the neck’ from Mrs M for spending too long on replies to our questions and not doing the washing up. But there appears no risk of the Marriages consciously uncoupling (how could they with that name?) and Keith reckons it was a ‘fun exercise’.
As afterthoughts, he wondered whether David Moyes is still shell-shocked after his Old Trafford experience and has ‘lost his managerial mojo’ and declared that Sunderland way outshone Spurs, ‘sadly just in the garish kit stakes’. It’s a long read but includes some fascinating insights …
Let’s throw another mug into the ring and hope it doesn’t shatter into many pieces.
A prize Salut! Sunderland mug – design to suit the allegiance of the winner so Palace fans can enter – is on offer for the Palace game. No one was correct on the QPR score (except our QPR interviewee, John Crowley, and he didn’t post his prediction in the Guess the Score slot.)
Colin Randall writes: Here are David Moyes’s thoughts – as expressed in his post-match e-mail to me and thousands more – on the 2-1 win that earned Sunderland a 4th Round EFL Cup tie at Southampton …
Rob Hutchison enjoys a winning Sunderland game and a hugely encouraging star role for Didier (or Ibrahim – take your pick) Ndong. ‘Songs I never thought I’d hear,’ says Rob. ‘Paddy McNair, he scores when he wants.’ Up and running. Made to work for it mind. Moyes does have a plan after all…
A win’s a win, as Pete Sixsmith might put it. A 2-1 victory away to QPR has a competent ring to it, but Sixer wasn’t there and Monsieur Salut was unable to follow it except on his mobile, being on a gruelling French naval press trip and, as the match was played, eating and drinking on board a frigate with Exocets pointing towards the centre of Toulon. So we can but stick to the facts as conveyed by scoreline and scorers and then rely on others to fill in details of a win that brings us the dubious reward of Southampton away in the next round of the league cup … the asterisk denotes an emergency seven-word verdict not of Sixer’s making…
John McCormick writes: Rodney Marsh had moved from QPR by the time I went to live in London but they were still a club to admire.
Panache, perhaps, would be the word that best fitted them as they came close, oh, so close, to winning the League, and how we neutrals wanted them to.
Pete Sixsmith was there on Sunday. He’s now recovered from the long trek back and able to file his match report. But has he recovered from the match itself? Here’s your chance to make your own mind up.
John McCormick writes: David Moyes said he will be putting out a strong team on Wednesday and I’ll give you a chance to guess the score shortly. Firstly, to help you apply your intellect, here’s one of Colin’s former colleagues, John Crowley, to tell us what’s happening now to the club we all liked way back in the seventies.
Over to John: