How we wanted to rub the nose of Tim Farron, president of the Lib Dems, a possible party leader of the future and a passionate supporter of Blackburn Rovers, into something messy*. Pete Sixsmith explains why we couldn’t …
Martin O’Neill could have said we were unlucky, he could have said we were tired after Goodison without making adding the obvious qualification that this is not really an excuse. He did not; the post-match e-mail – and sorry, Martin, there was no appetite to wait up for it last night – accepts we were beaten because we played, for the most part, badly …
Here Pete Sixsmith captures the glory and shame, hope and despair, excitement and ennui of the Sunderland matchday experience. When, rarely, Pete is absent or delayed, a supersub does it for him and the seven-word verdict is preceded by an asterisk. Pete’s full analysis of the game will usually appear within a day or two.
Did we seriously look at any stage of this awful game as if we might win or even draw. It was a frankly dreadful first half, comfortably the worst Sixer could recall being subject to all season. Monsieur Salut watched a stop-start internet stream to his French bunker until he could bear no more and retreated to the safe two pairs of hands, owned by Nick Barnes and Gary Bennett.
Just three hours or so to go. Not much to say except Ha’way the Lads. And to lap up some more of Jake’s art and offer, belatedly, a guess-the-score prize.
We were not so much let down as ignored by a promising Blackburn Rovers candidate who – sorry to be cryptic – is important enough to have intermediaries, one of whom did his utmost to pull it off. Heroically, our old friend Mike Delap*, who runs the The Wild Blackburn Rover site overcame jet lag to do the honours, with some cracking replies, just after returning from a trip to New York …
Ha’way the Lads, but also – yet again – Ha’way the Lasses as the Sunderland women’s football club goes from strength to strength …
Pete Sixsmith who, as ever, was part of the noisy invasion of Merseyside, enjoyed a pre-match pint or three, has praise for our keeper and the referee and calls for the signing of a diminutive Glaswegian crossdresser to improve our prospects of scoring from dead ball situations …
With the dream of a visit or two to Wembley still alive, Martin O’Neill has special words of praise for 5,800 travelling fans and one Belgian keeper in his latest post match e-mail …
Here Pete Sixsmith captures the glory and shame, hope and despair, excitement and ennui of the Sunderland matchday experience. When, rarely, Pete is absent or delayed, a supersub does it for him and the seven-word verdict is preceded by an asterisk. Pete’s full analysis of the game will usually appear within a day or two.
And a 1-1 draw at Goodison kept our FA Cup hopes firmly alive with every reason to look forward to beating Everton at the second attempt.
Pete Sixsmith, in a never ending search for his latest footy fix, witnesses two clashes between the emerging (and fading) talents of Liverpool and Durham, before a quiet night of cocoa and pikelets in preparation for his early start to Goodison tomorrow …