John McCormick writes: M Salut paid a visit to the SOL today, and no doubt had a pint with Pete Sixsmith and probably Malcolm before the game, leaving me to mind the shop. I wonder, though, if he thought the game worth the trip as we played 85 minutes with ten men. We can’t expect to get points when we do that and with results in other games going against us we slipped to the fringes of the bottom three. Will we be back in there after the next two games? Time will tell. For now here’s Pete’s seven word statement on a game that made our season even harder:
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 2014 SAFC (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.
Campo Retro, sponsors of our win-a shirt competition – see https://safc.blog/2014/01/countdown-to-wembley-win-a-shirt-in-our-cup-final-competition/ – say there’s 20 per cent off their Sunderland retro tops until Monday. Click the image to visit their site.
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
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Time for Billy Hughes and the laughter box?
Stan Collymore, who I normally disagree with after every comment, made an interesting point before today’s Spurs v Everton game. ‘Where a team has a better away record than at home, it’s all down to mentality, and not being able to handle pressure.’ All too true, I’m afraid, we crumble far too easily at home and our decision making is terrible. What will happen in the pressure of a cup final, I wonder?
Well we’ll be the underdogs and not expected to win , whether that’s an advantage to our bunch of schizophrenic players is anyone’s guess!
Ifos
This is where the manager & coaches are supposed to earn their money. Pressure is self-inflicted, and the top managers know how to deflect it from the players and on to themselves. It is what good leaders in any sphere of activity do.
It will be interesting to see how Poyet tackles this issue over the coming weeks.
Well there’s a desperate need to do something different in the build up to home games. Not sure where they stay the night before of what they are doing exactly but whatever it is they need to stop it.
Hello,Two Jabs .We flopped again at home in the league and for the second time in a row against Hull. Our league home form is a real worry, is it expectations, the big crowd, style of play , what? This could prove to be our Achilles heel this season which would be a real shame after the way we’ve battled back into contention following Di Chuckle brothers. Hull, like Villa did nothing special but it was enough. Obviously we were hugely handicapped by the early sending off ,but still I’ve seen us fight harder with 10 or 9 men before. Hopefully this was a one off and were up and at it with 11 men for the next difficult games, City, Southampton at home Arsenal then the big one! We still can stay in this league, we still can win a cup, two even…..ha!
I’m also scratching around for explanations. Does playing so badly at home have anything to do with the fact that the lads are spending the night before the match literally at home. Roy Keane used to get the players together at the Ramside the night before home games. Why? For all his faults, di Canio used to bang on about lifestyle and professionalism. It sounds trivial, but I always maintain that even Kevin Phillips’ form dropped after the twins came along. Players have so many distractions at home – partners, children, X-boxes – are they getting enough sleep?
Could be it, it could be as simple as that
The Hull reviewer predicted that scoreline on Wednesday.
I have decided to watch Pink Floyd on BBC 4 rather than match of the day. It’s not much different, though. From discussing “a momentary lapse of reason” they’ve gone to asking “wish you were here”?
Rock on and keep the faith
As long as we still make The Final Cut when the Division Bell Echoes, it will make us as happy as Pigs On The Wing!
See Emily Play. Might be better than Jozy
Another brick in the wall to replace Wesley!
Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict. I’m more likely to see this than a win on Wednesday!
The only consistent thing about our side is its inconsistency. Just when you’re ready to throw in the towel they exceed all expectations, and then when you start to believe, like this week, they come crashing down. What’s left to be said? Certainly one Hull of a bad afternoon.
They are certainly our bogey team. What is it about them? Why do we always self-destruct against them? And the deserved sending-offs both games? Has it anything to do with a fat Geordie named Steve, who no doubt left town one smug bastard.
And so the white-knuckle roller coaster ride of a season continues. My guess is this up and down emotional buffeting will carry on for the duration of this campaign.No one ever said it was easy being a Sunderland supporter.
We’re back in the shit with this result. Wait a minute, we were never out of it! I’m sure if Wes had time to weigh up the pros and cons of that rash challenge he would have opted to take a chance on letting Long go, but that’s not the way it works at the high speed these things happen. Down to ten with 80 odd to play was always a big ask, and we came nowhere near to getting anything from the game.
There’s a good chance that by the time we play at Wembley we’ll be firmly back in the bottom three. After that our home games (winnable on paper but given our home form who knows), and our away games, (difficult but we’re unpredictable) mean that I have no idea how it will pan out. Does anybody?
This is Sunderland. Expect the unexpected!
Cattermole against Villa. Bardsley today. We have seen the Gus way working but it only takes one mistake to put us on the back foot. Brown would have got stick if he hadn’t tried to tackle but at least with 11 on the pitch we might have had more of a chance.
We have in effect played two whole games against Hull with an average of 10 men on the pitch.
It was a stupid cross field ball from Brown to Bardsley which started the whole fiasco. He telegraphed the pass and Meyler was ll over Bardsley who had nowhere to go but back. It was an awful ball intially.
I knew the Hull game wouldnt be easy but I wasn’t expecting that.
I would have let Long score and then fought back with 11 men. I am sure if Brown had another chance he would not have tackled. One mistake – one bad pass (from Bardsley) and the whole game is lost.
At Premiership level thats all it takes.
I had a funny feeling about today,we started slow and paid the price.Even then you have to say our home form is poor,let’s be honest.
Even with 10 men we could and should have done better against a mediocre team.Limped out really.Felt sorry for Borini and AJ, who wanted to show Hodgson what he could do.
They should be getting free hits in training on Wes who let them all down I am afraid.Why make that kind of tackle when you are last man?Rather take the chance of a goal and keep 11 on the pitch.
Bad day at the office all round.
Eric, Given Sunderland’s horrific record of coming from behind to win a game in the Premier League, you could argue we were be better off playing with 10.
Either way, I’m not sure Wes Brown is the man to blame. He was sold short by a horrible pass from Bardsley. Seems unfair to pick on him given his form of late, but for this debacle, he triggered.
Chris, I don’t blame Wesley at all. I’m sure it was just instinctive. Glad it’s only a 2 match ban. According to the legend that is Benno, we probably would have lost with all 11.
It was a game we expected to win, so I’m almost certain we’d have lost anyway.
Wes Brown gets a red card in the dying seconds against Norwich and gets Christmas off. We Brown gets a red card in the opening minutes against Hull which ensures he will be available if selected against Man City if selected.
Coincidence or not? Discuss.
Purely coincidence.
I did wonder myself about his Christmas red card, but put it down to my suspicious mind. Yesterday, was a different matter and I think he acted on instinct. Mind, the half term holiday is coming up …
Now, I don’t know the mindset of a professional footballer, but wouldn’t it be better to allow the opposition to score, especially as it is so early in the game. Then again, I suppose instinct just takes over.