Decades of Sunderland support should bring an element of gallows humour to anyone’s personality. If our situation were not so dire, or so familiar, it would be wall-to-wall fun, which it isn’t.
But I’ve still enjoyed the doom-laden banter here since Bradford (actually you could insert your own team name after “since” as there have been so many: Watford, West Ham, Notts Co, Wimbledon, Brentford, Southampton, Palace, QPR, Everton, Ipswich, Norwich all spring to mind and I have barely begun).
John McCormick writes: When I saw the starting line-up I thought we had enough to win. At 1-0 down I thought we’d come back and score two. Even at 2-0 I hadn’t given up hope. Why didn’t we do any of this? I don’t know, I wasn’t there. Pete Sxsmith was, however, and here he is, sharing his view on a result that ends our dreams of another walk down Wembley Way:
M Salut says: I wanted to say something directly to Gus Poyet but am so angry, especially on behalf of 4.200+ loyal souls who went to Bradford and endured the dross offered by the handsomely paid men undeservedly wearing a proud club’s shirt, that I leave it to him …
The boos from 4,000+ Sunderland fans for some of the flabbier moments of yet another rotten display told their own story. Pete Sixsmith‘s messages from Valley Parade grew more and more troubled, more and more critical. Make no mistake. This was no fluke. SAFC ought to have the ability and resilience to triumph over truly dreadful decisions (Kevin Friend – who else? – failing to award a clear Sunderland penalty that would have meant a Bradford sending off on 18 minutes). But City were by far the better side and could well have won anyway. Is is too late for drastic action? Here are an assortment of Sixer’s Sevens, to be followed by the fuller appraisal of a loyal but utterly dispirited supporter…
Feb 15 2015 FA Cup 5th Round: Bradford City (1) 2 SAFC (0) 0 Miserable and abject, leaves us relegation certainties … OR … And we thought Tuesday was bad? Disgraceful … OR … Worse than Brentford 10 years ago. Disgraceful … OR … Now free to fully concentrate on relegation
These are not the finest hours of the Who are You? series. First a QPR fan let us down after promising to deliver, though other Hoops supporters made up for it when we ran the unanswered questions anyway. Now, the Bradford City-supporting Waterloo Road actor Tom Milner* goes AWOL after agreeing to be the candidate ahead of Sunday’s 5th round FA Cup tie. His responses may still come and would, in that event, be added. But as he was asked for replies by Wednesday, and has not been heard from since Monday, this may be a fanciful hope. No hard feelings – he undoubtedly has a good reason – but it does illustrate the frustrations of the series.
Same offer as for QPR is extended to other fans of the Bantams. Enter your own answers to one, more or all the questions in the Comments section below and we will come up with a prize for the best (it may not change your life a great deal but will be Bradford-related and be OK for drinking coffee from) …
John McCormick writes: I see Smoggie has resurfaced. Well, all are welcome on this site and as long as they adhere to the rules of politeness, legality and decency they will be given space.
It’s not necessary for visitors to congratulate us for our four in a row or for better progress than our neighbours in cup tournaments, which is probably just as well. All they need to do is post a coherent statement. It would be helpful if they could use correct grammar and punctuation but we do accept a need to exercise some latitude. That said, we do expect people to refrain from punching horses while cogitating.
The lamentable collapse against QPR puts an entirely different complexion on the 5th round FA Cup game at Valley Parade.
I am of the school that wants Sunderland to win every game we compete in, even if it is a meaningless end-of-season match and even if victory for us might save Newcastle skins. I fret about defeats in reserve and youth fixtures. I hate losing the Sunderland-themed Monopoly game.
At 24 games in it was time for my review of the relegation prospects I set out at the beginning …
” class=”size-medium wp-image-59196″ /> Jake: ‘when a man’s tired of Sunderland …;Sunderland AFC please take note. If as loyal and long-standing and (sitting) a fan as Pete Sixsmith is beginning to cry ‘enough is enough’, something’s up. This is how Sixer saw the rotten collective surrender to QPR, complete with a literary allusion to ‘lives of quiet desperation’. Go to the home page – salutsunderland.com and navigate your way to the earlier Masochism pieces – …
If you thought Rob Hutchison was harsh with his one-word verdicts and low player ratings after the shambles of last night, prepare to reconsider. Rob was positively benign compared with Keir Bradwell, who cannot bring himself to award higher than an average of 3/10 for the starting 11.
Keir uses that infamous defeat at Norwich City last season as the benchmark for Sunderland awfulness. I am sure we can all come up with other contenders (including a few from this season, Southampton (a), Fulham (h) among them).