If, like me, you’re drawn to the headline “Gyan admits: I left Sunderland for the cash!”, you’ll be dusting down the fitting, if innumerate, chant “There’s only one greedy b******”.
Then you’ll scour the article, at Ghanaweb.com, for the killer quote. “I did it for money.” “I left to make myself richer.” “Stuff Sunderland; gimme more money and I’m anyone’s.”
M Salut’a brother is a rugby ref, having previously played at a decent club level. You may think he therefore knows all about the selective indignation of supporters. It didn’t stop him joining in the “don’t know what you’re doing” chant at one grim London game when Sudnerland were on the receiving end of diabolical refereeing calls. Without the least mention of Steve Tanner (Gordon saves, goal given at Reading); Graham Barber (the McAllister dive) or Paul Danson (sending off Paul Stewart for being fouled at Arsenal), Ken Gambles works himself into a rage over past injustices …
Another Saturday another set of controversial decisions. Let me make clear at the outset that to be a referee is a highly demanding task and being a human one will obviously be prone to error.
On one level it doesn’t matter, indeed it is entirely correct, that no rules were changed to enable Sunderland to win a penalty for handling the ball. But if another level exists, you can trust Pete Sixsmith to find it before lauding a giant of football …
Let’s imagine the conversation between the referee Lee Mason and his assistant Jake Collin round about 4.30 on Saturday.
Collin has put his flag across his chest to indicate a penalty for Sunderland.
As he tends to do after every game, Ian Porter from the Blackcats list has come up with an astute summary of the positives and negatives of yesterday’s 1-0 defeat …
Tomorrow: Pete Sixsmith’s Old Trafford verdict …
Well, this wasn’t the total whitewash I was anticipating.
It was what I’d hoped for though, which was to give a good account of ourselves. I don’t think we were playing ManUre at their best, but that shouldn’t detract from what was a very good team performance.
We were on the defensive for long periods, but we closed down well and Westwood wasn’t troubled that often. Equally though, we created a couple of chances ourselves to score.
Westwood pulled off the nearest I’ve seen since Monty’s save in ’73. I was really pleased by Westwood’s performance. I think the writing’s on the wall for Craig Gordon, but I think if he isn’t offered a new deal in January, he can leave on a free ? TBH, I think whatever he’s offered, he’ll turn it down and leave anyway, so we’ll lose out on a couple of million I guess.
Steve Bruce still cannot win as a manager against Manchester United. In his post-match e-mail, he praises a good but losing performance …
Dear Colin,
With the penalty shout the right decision was made. There wasn’t any real clarity on it even after seeing a replay.
It was a handball, we could all see that. Ultimately we’ve got no complaints.
It’s such a shame for Wes [Brown] to score on own goal; we seem to make a habit of conceding own goals at Old Trafford.
This is where Pete Sixsmith captures the glory and shame, hope and despair, excitement and ennui of the Sunderland matchday …
Whenever we remember to do it, Salut! Sunderland likes to offer a summary of the week just gone by. Most readers know by now that there is usually plenty more than is flagged here. Have a look up and down the sidebars for links to other material you may have missed …
Drawing at home to Aston Villa felt like a victory to some, given our late second equaliser, and two dropped points to others, who felt we had been comfortably held by an average side.
After the points squandered against West Brom in the previous home game, it was not the ideal result to set us up for Old Trafford today even if it stretched our very mini unbeaten run to three.
Pete Sixsmith’s magisterial account of the game – click here – was followed by a reminder that cheating in football is by no means restricted, as xenophobes like to believe, to foreigners. Unless you somehow work out that being born in Erdington, Birmingham to Nigerian and Scottish parents makes Gabriel Agbonlahor any more than being called Gabriel makes him angelic.
Whenever M Salut has been to Old Trafford, it has been to see Sunderland lose, from hidings in the league to that dreadful surrender to Millwall in an FA Cup semi. Pete Sixsmith, who was there when we last won a game an awful long time ago, has urged a bold approach tomorrow; others, at the Blackcats list, have done the same – even though the risk of another of those hidings would rise accordingly.
A slight technical hitch affected access to the site earlier this week so I have decided to repeat a few of the questions and answers – those relating to our club as opposed to his – from the “Who are You?” feature in which a Canadian United fan, David Tack, predicted a 2-0 victory for the Red Devils. Sadly, some SAFC supporters would probably take that margin of defeat now. It is up to the Lads, whatever formation and tactics Steve Bruce chooses, to show that is an unduly negative outlook … if you wish to see David’s answers in full, including his intersting thoughts on Sir Alex, the thrashing by City and football cheats and role models, click here …
You’ll find plenty of pre-Old Trafford coverage in the two earlier postings (here and also here). But there’s a less immediate issue closer to home …
We’ve reported on Ellis Short’s admirable resolve to move visiting fans away from the Corner of Embarrassment, the south stand spot where – since their numbers are so often paltry – the TV cameras give an impression of a half-empty stadium.
Not for the first time, and probably not for the last, Pete Sixsmith harks back to schooldays (those spent as a pupil, not teaching at Ferryhill) and shares for the young’uns his priceless memories of a winning visit to Old Trafford. There’s even a spot of advice for Steve Bruce on how he might pull off our second surprise win there in a mere 43 years …
May 11 1968 was the last time we won at Old Trafford. I was 17 years old, idling my time away in the Lower Sixth at Bishop Auckland Grammar School, dozing through Miss Wilson’s English History lessons and desperately trying to impress Mr McConnell with my European history essays. What I didn’t know about the Diet of Worms wasn’t worth knowing, believe me.