John McCormick writes: this was surely an “I was there” game, only I wasn’t, I had to make do with the TV. A nervy start had me hiding behind the settee and I found it difficult to watch, even at 2-0 up, but I persevered and managed to relax when young Duncan scored. What must it have been like for yet another magnificent away crowd, and for the players and manager to win in front of them?
Here’s what Sam has to say in a letter he composed and sent to Colin (and maybe a couple of others) before getting back on the bus
Dear Colin,
The result makes us all feel that much better based on the size of the game.
Norwich are immediately above us and we’ve closed that big gap to just a point with a game in hand for us. That all-important cl
ean sheet was a key element in our victory today. We defended hard, with plenty of long balls into the box which we coped with well.
We played some nice attacking football with quality goals at the end of it, and we could have had a couple more with the chances in the second half.
Young Duncan Watmore came in and got a nice goal for us, and Jermain Defoe’s goal came at just the right time at the start of the second half.
It’s a fantastic 3-0 win for us.
This is hopefully going to spur us on to more victories, because we need them to get safe.
We can enjoy our weekend – we deserve that – and the fans cheered us all the way along again.
We sold every single ticket we could get and we’re sending them home happy. That long journey back won’t seem as long now.
Jermain has missed a couple recently which he was very disappointed about but today he put us on track for victory and scored a goal at a very, very good time. That made life a little more desperate for Norwich who threw everything forward and left the back door open for the third goal.
Thanks for your support,
Sam Allardyce
As an entirely separate point (and I don’t know what the best way of doing this is), but my cricket club was lucky enough to be granted the collection at the Leicester game last week. I would like to take the chance to thank:
* Sunderland Safety Officer who helped with parking for a car to use as a central point for buckets, etc.
* Stewards who, for the most part, were friendly and helpful and let us stand in the most advantageous positions, provided we were not in the way.
* Ticket office who helped us with tickets for the collectors so we could all sit together.
* Last, but not least, the fantastic generosity of the Sunderland fans, who, as well as donating magnificently, talked and joked with the collectors and made it a memorable day for all of us, except for the result.
Can I just mention Andre Marriner. I sent a text to my son during the week saying the season was over as he was ref and he would make the game about him. How wrong I was. He got virtually every major decision right, some of which I definitely got wrong on first viewing. He even got more decisions right on first viewing than that numpty Chris Sutton got right after watching the replays. How does he get employed by both BBC and BT Sport? He even made Glenn Hoddle look good.
Never, ever thought I would be praising Andre Marriner but I definitely am.
I agree. Watching on my laptop meant I could see most of the ‘contentious’ issues straightaway. It struck me that he was consistent – not stopping the game for body checks, argy-bargy (to use the technical term) but for studs up tackles, anything dangerous. The TV coverage started picking out examples where some of the ‘pundits’ thought Norwich had been badly done to. One of them was particularly idiotic .. I assume that must have been Sutton.
The away end was rocking, glad I was there. The support was immense.
The improvement in performances finally translate into a result. Well done lads for managing the nerves and supporters for getting there. A 4am start deserves a good result!