The headline quotes Gary Bennett’s verdict, not Pete Sixsmith’s, on this shambolic exit from the FA Cup when there was the prospect of another Wembley visit, and surely another after that (we’d have played Sheffield United in the semi).
Sixer’s customary seven-word snap judgement – see below – is hardly more flattering. We can salvage only the hope that the players not only can now concentrate on battling a way to Premier League survival, but will. As for the game, it started badly and got worse, as Benno also observed. The first goal was another of those barely challenged free headers. The next two were presented on a plate by Lee Cattermole errors. David Meyler went down (from a lofty height) in Monsieur Salut’s own estimation with his squalid baiting of the referee to ensure a first-half booking for Cattermole, Ustari deserves credit for saving a harshly awarded penalty and that’s about it.
Gus Poyet’s many changes do not spare the players the shame of having let down the vast travelling support once again – making it three defeats out of three this season against Steve Bruce, with no goals scored and six conceded…
M Salut: ‘A: just the one Scocco blazed over in the first half.’
March 9 FA Cup Sixth Round: Hull City 3 (0) SAFC (0) 0
March 2 2014 Sunderland 1 (1) Manchester City (0) 3 A cruel result. Proud of the team
Feb 22nd 2014 Arsenal 4 (3) Sunderland 1 (0) Absolutely dreadful performance. No positives at all.
Feb 15th 2014 FA Cup Round 5 Sunderland (0) 1 Southampton (0) 0 Wembley twice? Why not? Deserved to win.
Feb 8 2014 Sunderland (0) 0 Hull City (1) 2 Brilliant at shooting ourselves in the foot.
Feb 1 2014 Newcastle United (0) Sunderland (2) 3 #1 Wonderful performance from Mannone through to Borini #2 A bad night for Tyneside’s equine population
Jan 29 2014SAFC (1) 1 Stoke City (0) 0 Unconvincing and barely deserved against 10 men
Jan 25 2014 FA Cup 4th Round: SAFC (1) 1 Kidderminster Harriers (0) 0 Won – that’s all there is to say.
Jan 22 2014 Capital One Cup semifinal second leg. AET: Manchester United (1) 2 Sunderland (0) 1 SAFC WIN 2-1 ON PENALTIES: Oh Vito Mannone. Oh Vito Mannone. Hero.
Jan 11 2014 Fulham (0) 1 Sunderland (2) 4: : *Johnson hatrick destroys Fulham in winter sunshine
Jan 7 2014 Capital One Cup Semi-final First Leg: Sunderland (1) 2 Manchester United (0) 1 : Deserved it. Shows what we can do
Jan 5 2014 FA Cup 3rd Round: Sunderland (1) 3 Carlisle Utd (1) 1 : Comfortable in the end. Two youngsters sparkled
January 1 2014 Sunderland (0) 0 Aston Villa (1) 1 : Dismal as our Premier place slips away
December 28 2013 Cardiff City (1) 2 Sunderland (0) 2 : Dragged a vital point out of that
December 26 2013 Everton (0) 0 Sunderland (1) 1 Hung on after interval but massive result
December 21 2013 SAFC (0) 0 Norwich City (0) 0 As stodgy as last year’s Christmas pud
December 17 2013 Capital One Cup 5th Round: SAFC (0) 2 Chelsea (0) 1 AET Ki seals comeback; didn’t see that coming
December 14 2013 West Ham Utd (0) 0 Sunderland (0) 0 Better side by miles – couldn’t finish it
December 8 2013 SAFC (1) 1 Tottenham Hotspur (1) 2 Score flatters us as task gets harder
December 4 2013 SAFC (1) 3 Chelsea (2) 4 Pushed a strong side all the way
November 30 2013 Aston Villa (0) 0 SAFC (0) 0 *Villa almost undone by cream soda performance
November 23 2013 Stoke City (1) 2 SAFC (0) 0 Ridiculous red gave us an impossible task
November 10 2013 SAFC (1) 1 Manchester City (0) 0 A wonderfully disciplined performance. Real hope now
November 6 2013 Capital One Cup 4th Round: SAFC (0) 2 Southampton (0) 1 A tidy second half brings Wembley closer
November 2 2013 Hull City (1) SAFC (0) Damage limitation after appalling first half performance
October 27 2013 SAFC (1) 2 Newcastle United (0) 1 Bragging rights and a win. Good combination/ or Perfect Poyet puts another one over Pardew
October 19 2013 Swansea City 4 (0) SAFC 0 (0) No Poyet magic cure for abject failure*
October 5 2013 SAFC (1) 1 Manchester United (0) 2 Better side first half, outclassed in second
September 30 2013 SAFC (0) 1 Liverpool (2) 3 Spirit in abundance, undone by shoddy defending
September 24 2013 Capital One Cup 3rd Round: SAFC (1) 2 Peterborough United (0) 0 A solid performance without any touchline histrionics
September 21 2013 West Bromwich Albion 3 (1) SAFC 0 (0) Coach looks completely out of his depth
September 14 2013 SAFC (0) 1 Arsenal (1) 3 Performance far better than the result suggests
August 31 2013 Crystal Palace (1) 3 SAFC (0) 1 Nowhere near good enough for this league
August 27 2013 Capital One Cup 2nd Round: SAFC (0) 4 MK Dons (1) 2Outplayed, outclassed, somehow got out of jail
August 24 2013 Southampton (0) 1 SAFC (1) 1 The point was better than the performance
August 17 2013 SAFC (0) 0 Fulham (0) 1 Ultimately little difference from previous two seasons
Join the Salut! Sunderland Facebook group – click anywhere along this line
And follow us on Twitter: @salutsunderland … click along this line
- Jake flags the new feature allowing you to have your say on topic or off
Fancy leaving a comment? Not sure what you have to say fits this post? Go to the new feature – https://safc.blog/2013/07/s
Fancy leaving a comment? Not sure what you have to say fits this post? Go to the new feature – https://safc.blog/2013/07/salut-sunderland-the-way-it-is/ – and say it there.
A blessing in disguise, the team selection pointed to the fact winning wasn’t a priority. Hull deserved their day at Wembley and I wish them well but the fixture congestion was becoming a major problem. The main priority now is staying up and a win against Palace is very important at this stage. Socco doesn’t seem the answer so we know what our best line up is and they weren’t playing yesterday, it isn’t an excuse but had we really wanted to win we wouldn’t have played that side
Trouble is though Keith we now go into the Palace game with the fans passed off and angry , the squad on a downer and apparently everything resting on this and the Norwich game. I’ll be there cheering them on but the fantastic good will from the Wembley experience has being destroyed in 90 mins, you couldn’t make us up sometimes, seriously !
Drummer
I agree completly. If we could have gone into the next two critical games, off a great performance against Man City, and an away victory at Hull, confidence would have been sky high.
Instead, IMO it has been shattered by an utterly inept performance against a very average team, minus their best two players, who themselves were blown away recently by Newcastle.
That’s three times this season I’ve seen a very poor Hull side beat us without a goal in reply.Two men sent off in November and one at home in February offer some excuse, but today we were awful from start to finish and a limited Hull Tigers clinched a day out at Wembley.Do you think Mr.Bruce was licking his lips at the thought of playing a side full of his purchases, well,Larsson,O,Shea and Cattermole anyway? A day to forget.Proud as Punch last week,embarrassed this. Palace is a huge game on the back of this abject defeat.
I haven’t being this embarrassed or gutted since the 5-1. Dismal.
I hope the glory of possibly finishing fourth bottom was worth this capitulation . I was worried when I saw the team sheet and they even managed to be worse than I feared they’d be. Man City out, Sheffield Utd in the semi final gives Hull a hell of a chance, it might have been us. Dismal and what a way to warm up for our ” bigger than Wembley ” game next week ! Gus, the team and the hierarchy , you blew it! Well done to the traveling fans, you deserved better .
The better team won, and that is of huge concern to Sunderland. A pathetic, inept and ultimately wasteful display. A major overhaul is required in the summer to change the weak mental strength of this team.
Fair enough it was a weakened side, but why bother if you don’t want to win, I would rather see the youngsters out there than these constant underachievers.
Yes Wembley was great, and they did us proud, but far too many times we produce performances like this, just pathetic
No doubt Catts will get the majority of the blame, but he and the defence had far too much to do due to the pathetic display from the front 3. Giaccherini and Scocco were awful and Fletcher invisible. I understand that Scocco needs time to settle and Poyet is justified in giving him game time to try and adjust but, at the moment, he offers far less than Altidore and I really hope Altidore will be on the bench next week (with Borini starting up front). Catts was great last week and had actually had a good game today up to the first error but he cannot keep making game changing errors