Monsieur Salut writes: before the game, I was wondering – controversially, I know – whether there was more chance of identifying a believable character or storyline twist in Line of Duty (sorry, I’m catching up late on this well-acted, gripping hokum) than of finding reason for belief in Simon Grayson and the Lads. Then we led at Deepdale, came back after going behind and secured a valuable, morale-boosting away point.
Pete Sixsmith decided to give Deepdale a miss, less in protest at the incompetence he has witnessed week after week than because Shildon had an FA Cup tie at Banbury (and saw our adopted home town win 3-2). He handed the baton to our associate editor John McCormick, whose seven-word verdict appears below. John had a much better outing than his last one, to Goodison, and enjoyed his afternoon. BBC’s Radio Newcastle pundit Gary Bennett expressed disbelief after the match that the referee had given nothing when the PNE keeper beat a returning Duncan Watmore to the ball but outside the box and with his arm – but yet again we couldn’t hold on to a lead and keep a clean sheet. Benno made John O’Shea his star SAFC man and said something along these lines: ‘I know it’s only a point but that was 100 per cent better than what we’ve been seeing’ …
September 30 Preston North End (0) 2Sunderland (1) 2 * Seriously entertaining and well worth the point
September 26 Ipswich Town 5 (2) Sunderland (1) 2 Sunderland’s defending plummets to unheard of depths
September 23 Sunderland 1 (0) Cardiff City 2 (1) Undoubtedly the worst Sunderland team I’ve watched
September 20 League Cup 3rd Round: Everton (1) 3 Sunderland (0) 0 * Never looked like scoring, let alone winning
September 16 Hull City 1 (0) Sunderland 1 (1) Hung on but not a sparkling performance
September 16 Hull City 1 (0) Sunderland 1 (1) Hung on but not a sparkling performance
September 12 Sunderland 0 (0) Nottingham Forest 1 (o) Some improvement but we lack any punch
September 9 Sunderland 1 (0) Sheffield United 2 (1) no tactics, appalling team selection,
total embarrassment
August 26 Barnsley 3 (2) Sunderland 0 (0) Alarm bells clanging after a dreadful performance
August 22 League Cup: Carlisle United (0) 1 Sunderland (1) 2 Classy finish by Gooch masks scrappy performance
August 19 SAFC 0 (0) Leeds United 2 (1) Weaknesses exposed by a solid Leeds team
August 16 Sheffield Wednesday (0) 1 Sunderland (1) 1 Looked tired in second half. Decent point
August 13 Norwich City 1 (0) Sunderland 3 (1) Very well organised and three cracking goals
August 8 League Cup: Bury 0 (0) Sunderland (0) 1 Hardly convincing but a win’s a win
August 4 2017 Sunderland (1) 1 Derby County (1) 1 Encouraging second half. Something to build on
The ref bottled it more than once
I remember listening to our friends up the road complaining about championship referees last season and thinking ‘ pull the other one ‘ . By jingo they were right !