All that needed to be said about our respect for Wolves has been said here – and especially here. This was not the way we wanted our own season, in terms of the home games, to end. Happy for them, sad about our own failure to perform …
If all this week’s goodwill from Salut! Sunderland towards Mick McCarthy and Wolverhampton Wanderers had to lead to such a bitterly disappointing defeat, then we can at least be happy that it was Jody Craddock who set them on the way.
Steve Bruce claimed he had only 12 senior players fit to train this week and that has to be taken into consideration.
But this is a game we should have WALTZED!
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Wolves, as expected, wanted to win and played accordingly. All the same, our makeshift starting team was all over them and should really have been ahead before Craddock’s clean drive swept past Mignolet to give him his first Premier goal of the season and his team an undeserved lead.
Sessegnon, who looked sharp and threatening throughout the first half, gave us the equaliser we clearly merited but Wolves came back in the second half with what Pete Sixsmith called, in his text from the SoL, a “much more positive” approach. And scored again. And again.
OK, there was what BBC Radio Newcastle called the clearest penalty shout of the season, denied by Mr Jones, when Sessegnon was bundled over, in between the second and third Wolves goals. Who knows what an equaliser to 2-2 would have meant?
Happy that Wolves may secure their survival. Sympathetic towards Steve Bruce and his injury problems. Deeply, deeply disappointed that we could not, somehow, produce more of a finale to a season of gross under-achievement. Unless, of course, amends can be made at West Ham …
The “bright lights of Manchester.”
Laugh? I thought my pants would never dry!
Michael; Does Steve Bruce pay you as his apologist?
Bruce is woeful.
I do wish people would stop blaming Bruce for the sale of Darren Bent. He wasn’t forced out kicking and screaming , could have stayed if he really wanted . In my opinion Bent used SAFC to get regular football and market himself to bigger clubs. It worked and he was going to be away regardless. We have to accept that that will always be the case until we start knocking on the door of the top six. And to do that we are going to be looking at players who are also wanted by the likes of Spurs, Liverpool, Everton and, Villa. Catch 22?
There is also the added problem of geography which we can’t do anything about.We are too far away from the bright lights of London and Manchester which sadly plays a big part in many players, particularly overseas ones deciding which club to join. Will anybody be surprised if we lose Gyan and Sess to Spurs or Liverpool ? Remember if they want to go they will.Contracts are worthless and no club will keep an unsetled player.
Finally I think that a lot of players will be looking at our injury list and wondering how that happened. Was it bad luck or poor work by the club’s medical team. Or which I cannot believed did the manager use players he knew were not fully fit.NQ needs to sort that one out asap or no one will be signing for us.
‘Sympathy for Bruce and his injury problems’. So it wasn’t his decision to leave us a stiker short, even without injuries? What he called ‘a calculated gamble’; during which he asked that he be judged at the end of the season. And it wasn’t him who rushed Campbell, Meyler and Wellbeck back, only to see them break down again? Do injuries stop a manager from setting his team up with any kind of coerent shape (Zenden played in 3 different positions for God’s sake)? Do injuries make a team give up in the second half of games? Do injuries make him substitute Steed Malbranque and Jordan Hendeson for young, untried players in a game we were losing, but should have been fighting to win. This was a manager desperate to justify his constant whining about injuries and so threw young payers into a losing game against a physical team as if to prove his point. Pathetic. There are no excuses for this man, he has thrown away a great opportunity through his incompetence, arrogance and tactical stupidity. Couldn’t give a stuff about McCarthy or Wolves, my only concern, ever, is SAFC. Absolutely furious.
Very very similar to the recent home games with West Brom and Fulham in that we looked in fine form up to half-time then completely threw in the towel gifting victory to the opposition. The win against Wigan was absolutely crucial or we could be looking down the barrel now.I fully expect us to lose at West Ham whether anything is at stake or not.Just to add my twopennorth,I felt it was a definite penalty for Sessegnon.Pleased for Wolves and MicMac but a disappointing end to our home games.One other feature : isn’t it unusual for any team to concede 22 fouls and not receive even one booking?
Wolves fan here…agree with you about the penalty…was clear….but Wolves had a clear penalty denied also….still….Wolves showed they wanted the points more than Sunderland. They fought and in the end…I think they deserved their win.