This is where Pete Sixsmith captures the glory and shame, hope and despair, excitement and ennui of the Sunderland matchday experience. When, rarely, Pete is absent or delayed, a supersub does it for him and the seven-word verdict is preceded by an asterisk. Pete’s full analysis of the game will usually appear within a day or two.
It ended in a draw as Newcastle forced a late equaliser after heroic resistance from Sunderland’s 10 men.
The game? No classic but plenty of controversy.
Before Pardew or his oafish defender Mike Williamson complain about Sunderland’s penalty award, they could usefully look up a piece that appeared here after the Liverpool v Brighton cup game: Bad El-Abd: Brighton defender makes a victim of Liverpool’s Andy Carroll. Salut! Sunderland roundly condemned the Albion defender Adam El-Abd for his constant wrestling of the former Toon favourite Andy Carroll without a hint of interest from Andre Marriner, the referee. So Mike Dean deserves full credit for awarding a penalty when Williamson tried to tear off Michael Turner’s shirt.
More of the same refs – whoever commits such fouls, so far often unpunished.
And Bendtner tucked away the penalty. One-nil was about right at half time. SAFC were by far the better side for 35 mintes. NUFC started and ended strongly but, Cattermole’s idiotic early challenge apart, Chris Waddle was right: we played the football, they’d come for a fight. How odd, then that a real footballer, Sessegnon, should see red, rightly, for a slight backward flap at the chest of Tiote, whose despicable face-clutching play-acting should have brought him a yellow.
Pardew’s behaviour when Newcastle, after a lot of falling over, won a penalty (no complaints here), was also a disgrace. Punishment enough: Mignolet’s save. Could we continue to hold on?
No. The dominance and possession Newcastle enjoyed in the second half, and the arrival of Ameobi, probably made an equaliser inevitable. It came, desperately, heartbreakingly late, but at least we clung on for a draw. An achievement marred by Cattermole, who is meant to be the captain and lead by example, somehow talked himself into a straight red (to add to his earlier yellow) after the final whistle. Villainy exists in red and white, too.
The full Sixer’s Sevens archive – see link below – sums up what all Sunderland supporters feel, from darkest gloom to sublime elation, in the words of one who is usually there …
March 4 2012 Newcastle United (0) 1 SAFC (1) 1Players gave everything and deserved to win
Feb 25 2012 West Bromwich Albion (2) 4 SAFC (0) 0 Baggies better by far as bubble bursts
Feb 18 2012 FA CUP 5th round: SAFC (1) 2 Arsenal (0) A wonderfully gritty performance brings deserved victory
Feb 11 2012 SAFC (0) 1 Arsenal (0) 2 Played well but undone by goalkeeping errors
Feb 8 2012 FA Cup 4th round replay: Middlesbrough (0) 1 SAFC (1) 2 Quality came through in rousing cup tie
Feb 4 2012 Stoke City (0) 0 SAFC (0) 1 *McClean clincher makes winter seem less bleak or (Sixer’s delayed verdict) bêtes noires beaten in Artic type conditions
Click this text: just £9.50, post free, at the Salut! Sunderland Shop
To see Sixer’s Sevens in full, click here. If an asterisk precedes the comment, the words that follow are the work of someone else because Pete is for once absent from the game or his verdict has been delayed …
How can any of you guys call Sess’s red card a slap? He elbowed him in the neck!
Newcastle didn’t play well first half, but the game had already changed after half time following the introduction of Ben Arfa, so looked like more than capable of getting back into the game before Sess was rightfully sent off.
Pardew said about 6 times in a 3 minute interview that we had set out to be ‘physical’. What a joke. Ameobi came across well and sounded more like a manager than Pardew. When they got the penalty he was having a go at MON and had to be dragged back to his own area.
Aye I didn’t realise that tackling was an unfair tactic! Tiote’s ridiculous reaction to Sess’s silly slap was laughable and he could have had 2 or 3 yellow cards before he eventually got one. McClean was booked for an honest attempt at a tackle, and Simpson And Krul should have both been booked for their retaliation which sparked off that handbags incident. I missed Pardew’s reaction to their penalty that he talked about in the interview, what did he do? Cattermole? I hope MON gives him a good kicking?
Simpson was booked for his retaliation
Just watched Pardew interview on BBC Online. He is “angered” at the physicality of Sunderland’s approach to the game. “Disappointed” at Sunderland’s game plan to “unsettle us”, “to put a tackle in”. “Ugly” is his description. Newcastle’s penalty was “justice”. Well, excuse me Mr Soft Southern Shite Pardew. Next time maybe M O’N will order his team to roll over, to allow Newcastle to win all the 50/50 balls, to meekly stand aside whilst paragons of virtue such as Tiote and Coloccini show off their silky skills on the way to a resounding victory. Maybe in the Bruce era this would have happened. This team is made of sterner stuff. Were it not for an untypical reaction from Sess (and a typical reaction from Tiote) we would have won comfortably. I refuse to even talk about Cattermole though.
It might have been the only sensible thing he said when not talking about pelanties but Chris Waddle may have hit the nail on the head when he noted they came for a fight but we tried to play football (first half). He was right which makes it strange reading this from Pardew.
We bossed the first half then seemed to weather the inevitable early storm but, though we could say we’d have won with eleven and never know, there’s no doubt the red changed things. After that the lads fought to the last and we can be proud of them. In fact, I’m claiming a draw with nine men.
Pelanties!! Ha!! Waddle is hilarious.The bloke can barely speak English.
This is the same Chris Waddle who said that Sessegnon only elbowed Tiote in the chest. Oh that’s OK then.
Anyway, Chris, look at the TV footage again. You can actually see Tiote’s jaw move as Sessegnon makes contact.
Can’t really argue about Sess’s red, really gave Dean no choice despite the pathetic actions of tTiote.
That was a turning point in the game, down to ten with that much d the second half still to play was always going to make it difficult, they introduced fresh legs at just the right moments. Still a point and it was important not to lose.
I had the dubious pleasure of having to watch events on Fox Soccer which had Graham Taylor displaying his total bias arsenal of ignorance throughout the game, I always thought that the Sun/ other gutter trash were harsh on him after yet another England failure but the reference to him as a turnip head in light of his commentry on this game was actually totaly unfair to vegetables.
Its way past time being given a choice of turning off the commentry and just having the crowd noise.
You refer to Tiote falling dramatically when Sessegnon was sent off.
Have you forgotten how dramatically Turner fell to the ground when Williamson tugged his shirt? He even turned to the referee as he fell.
So are you saying Turner’s fall is acceptable but Tiote’s isn’t.
Both were fouls, the ref was right both times