Poyetry without rhyme from Southampton: where were the positives? Bravo the fans

Colin Randall writes: there should be no surprise that non one among Salut! Sunderland‘s hardy band of helpers found the enthusiasm to publish Gus Poyet’s post-match e-mail last night. What could the man possibly say to alleviate the gloom, soothe the embarrassment, kiss the wounds better? For me, it was a grim way to resume UK life after my return from France, twice as grim as last season, when I came home to a 4-0 thumping at Swansea on Poyet’s debut as head coach. At least the QPR game, caught on a fleeting visit, was close-fought. Yesterday, as I said at Facebook, seemed to have the makings of a decent day out: easy train journey from Waterloo, pints with Sixer and others at the excellent Platform Tavern opposite the IoW ferry terminal and leisurely stroll to the ground. What could go wrong? ..

Dear Colin,

I’ve never felt as bad on a football pitch, as a player or as a coach, as I do today.

Even as a fan I’ve never felt this way, it’s embarrassing and unacceptable; I’m really hurt.

I’m so sorry for the fans, it’s one hell of a trip to make and they were outstanding.

They got right behind the team. There are no words I can use that will say sorry to them.

We started off well, we were aggressive – we passed the ball well and then we conceded one of the most difficult goals to try and explain, and then the second goal we let in was just as unlucky.

At that time I though we couldn’t get any worse luck, but I was wrong. We had the penalty claim, which the referee turned down, and from there I think we knew the game was not going to go in our favour.

Nothing went right, but there is another side in football; we needed to be stronger and not give up; there is no place to hide out on the pitch and I am very disappointed with what I saw today.

The fans were magnificent.

After all their support I wanted to give them something back but we just couldn’t, it was not the day for that. It was a terrible feeling, we ask them for their support and we couldn’t give them anything back.

It’s going to be a difficult week. We need to reassess things and make sure we don’t have another day like today.

It’s unfortunate we have to wait a week to try and put it right but that’s all we can do.

Thanks for your support,

Gus Poyet

And this was how I began my report for ESPN, which you can see in full at
http://www.espnfc.com/club/sunderland/366/blog/post/2095920/premier-league-sunderlands-eight-goal-blowout-loss-to-southampton-a-result-of-several-costly-mistakes-from-players-and-coaches

Among the head-shaking Sunderland supporters trudging disconsolately from St Mary’ stadium, there were those old enough to remember 8-0 maulings at West Ham (1968) or Watford (1982), or both. And there were the luckier ones.

It was not the occasion to remind any of them that until the 19th minute, when Southampton scored the second of their eight goals, Sunderland were arguably the better side, cruelly behind.

Thereafter such a quarrel ceased to have meaning.

An utterly wretched display by Gus Poyet’s incompetent, wasteful, half-hearted, shot-shy team had been rewarded by the sort of scoreline that occurs rarely at top-flight level.

 

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