Very well, reject is a harsh word.
But take a good look at the line-up fielded by Stoke City yesterday before the excellent 3-1 FA Cup win over Arsenal:
Thomas Sorensen, Danny Higginbotham, Robert Huth, Ryan Shawcross, Danny Collins, Glenn Whelan, Dean Whitehead, Rory Delap (Salif Diao, 85), Matthew Etherington (Danny Pugh, 90), Ricardo Fuller (Sanli Tuncay, 85), Mamady Sidibe
As Pete Sixsmith shows a worrying tendency towards part-timism by missing his second Sunderland match in a row (ok, he did report on the Reserves and Under-18s this week), his shoes are ably filled by Malcolm Dawson who enjoys his trip to an old-style ground, but not the reminders of the playground …
For nostalgia buffs such as myself, Portsmouth is a great place to go. You can locate the ground by driving randomly, spotting the floodlights towering above the tightly packed terraced housing and parking a couple of hundred yards away, only a five minute stroll from the turnstiles. The illusion continues inside the ground where the primeval urinals consisting of a concrete trough with no splash backs, necessitate a plodge through an inch or two of undefined liquid to dispose of the pre match Speckled Hen.
Although, like Villa Park and Anfield, ground regulations have meant that plastic seats have been bolted onto the old standing areas, I still half expected to see men in long white coats parading round the pitch with paper bags of monkey nuts and the smell of a hundred pipes full of Ready Rub wafting over the tightly packed hordes.
But the Ford Populars and Singer Vogues have been replaced by people carriers and four wheel drives, every third person seems to be talking into their mobile and the P.A. announcer reminds us that Fratton Park is a no smoking stadium.
It is a fair bet that Steve Bruce does not subscribe to the Blackcats list or read Salut! Sunderland. He may know of the existence of neither.
It is perhaps just as well …
Here’s a word from Salut! Sunderland‘s good causes department: Martyn McFadden, esteemed editor of the fine Sunderland fanzine, A Love Supreme, has found a brilliant alternative to the World Cup.
With Paul Bramley, Ross and Shirley – “he’s a boy, but we call him that anyway!”, we’re assured – he will be in another part of the African continent, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in aid of Steve Cram’s children’s charity Coco.
A week that began with disaster (if being walloped at football can truly be one) and improved to mere disappointment ended without even a hint of bringing delight.Pete Sixsmith dutifully turned out to watch Sunderland’s reserves taught a lesson by Manchester United …
Thursday night was the end of a miserable week on the pitch for SAFC.
A good thrashing at Stamford Bridge, penalty kick disappointment against Preston and then a plucky and committed, albeit limited, Reserve team bump into a Manchester United side full of players looking for an opportunity to get into the first team once the Glazers have sold the regulars.
The rest of the football world is talking morons/idiots/bootlickers – otherwise known as diplomacy, Argentinian style. Maybe Carlos Tevez was pulling punches and really dislikes his unsmiling former teammate Gary Neville. Never mind all that; we’ve finally pulled someone through the opened transfer window …
Anyone who has seen Sunderland’s attempts to hold on to leads or, most recently, avoid double figures knows perfectly well our defence needs steel.
It sounded a creditable effort, ahead twice – right up to full time and again right up the end of extra time. Then the phrase Sunderland fans have come to dread: the penalty shoot-out. Pete Sixsmith witnessed the inevitable outcome …
Brrr, it’s a cold Wednesday night and there is an interesting Carling Cup semi on terrestrial TV, a bottle of Tullamore Dew on the go, a decent book to read and a warm fire. So bugger all that, let’s go to the Stadium of Light and watch the Under 18s play Preston in the FA Youth Cup.
Once upon a time, Sunderland and Portsmouth were linked by the world of newspapers: each city had local papers owned …
So Equinox makes way for Chix. Another anonymous Pompey fan – though the pictures will give him away to his mates at Fratton Park – but another great set of answers as Sunderland prepare to visit Portsmouth for the relaxing distraction of an FA Cup fourth round tie. Chix*, desrcibed at the Vital Pompey site as “undercover agent and Prof of History”, recalls a hair-raising 600-mile round trip, driven by a man with no arms, to see his team play at Roker Park, wonders where Pompey’s survival points are coming from and has none of that don’t-kick-a-man-when-he’s-down gush to offer Southampton …
Salut! Sunderland: Just how bad are things at Fratton Park, how bad will they get and why are the team not just rolling over in despair whoever they play?
Oh it’s bad! Too much to go into really but basically.. We have an owner nobody has ever seen or met (not even his advisors) with no money. We owe uncle Tom Cobley about £60m and can not afford to live day to day – Oh and we have a transfer embargo and the threat of (not administration) but liquidation looming and as I type a former captain suing us.. Oh did I mention we normally pay our players and backroom staff . late as well! On a scale of 1 to 10 we are currently around the minus 72 mark. So it’s pretty bad.
Why do the players not roll over? Because most of them are Championship players playing above their level trying to prove a point.. but to be honest we ain’t that good. Some will scrap and fight others try but just aren’t up to it, but there is a good team spirit and that might just be the thing that saves us .. well that and the odd 60 million quid of course!
The launch of Football United has brought together a lively bunch of football bloggers beneath the same umbrella, where we …