Monsieur Salut writes: the season is underway – with a 1-1 draw at home to Derby County – and so is the 2017-2018 edition of Sixer’s Sevens, in which Pete Sixsmith captures the essence of each game in just seven words. An asterisk before the verdict indicates that Sixer was absent and the words have been supplied by a supersub.
Simon Grayson made it clear in pre-match interviews that Sunderland are not only not in the Neymar league as far as transfer activity goes, but may not even be in the PNE league (my interpretation of his comments}.
Minutes before kickoff tonight, Monsieur Salut invited Sixer to rate his confidence on a scale of -5 to 3. His reply: ‘0.’ When we went a goal down on 11 minutes, he blamed the ‘usual appalling defending’. And he said he would have been furious had the ref awarded against us the sort of soft penalty for handball that enabled Lewis Grabban to open his SAFC goalscoring account and equalise.
His seven-worder at half time would have been ‘plenty of charging about but little quality’. Read on: he clearly saw some merit in our endeavours …
August 4 2017 Sunderland (1) Derby County (1) Encouraging second half. Something to build on
August 10 2017 EFL Cup: Bury () Sunderland ()
August 13 Norwich City () Sunderland ()
August 16 Sheffield Wednesday () Sunderland
August 19 Sunderland () Leeds United ()
August 26 Barnsley () Sunderland ()
Decent display in my view , especially after the Celtic horror show.Enjoyable game to watch which we would have won with more quality up front . The team battled for the whole game ,which was especially pleasing to watch as in the past they’ve capitulated after going behind . A few more quality signings and we could be a threat in this division.
Derby were better in the 2nd half. They had a more settled team and it showed. Starting with 6 new faces was always going to be tricky. They will gel. Agree that fresh legs may have helped but SG knew he had to get something out of the game.
Like Tom I think the glass is half full as was the stadium. Instead of guessing the score I predict the attendance will be 2-3000 higher for the next home game. Onwards and upwards for the crowd.
Glad to see the elbow to the throat was resurrected by Nugent. Mick McManus would have been proud of that one
I’m reading in various places that we didn’t do so well in the 2nd half. Question: Why did we opt not to use fresh legs?
We flagged in the later stages of the 2nd 1/2 . My guess is that Grayson didn’t use any subs ,as he was trying to generate team spirit and make them realise that they have to battle for 90+ minutes, which they did.
Don’t agree with either analysis. I left feeling encouraged by the display and with a feeling that we deserved the victory. Considering what has happened at the club – over the last 5 years, this summer and this week- this was a good display.
Negatives – for me, the obvious missing link is a central midfielder who can retain and pass the ball. Until we have that we will never be in control of a game. Other than that I don’t think any individual deserves criticism.
Positives – McGeady looks a class act the kind of which we haven’t seen much of in recent years. Reminds me of Alan Johnstone, and that is some compliment. Grabban impressed and Vaughans work rate, if not his quality was evident. Young George had a cracking game. Lots to be positive about!
That was the softest penalty we are likely to get this season. I think Derby played the better football apart from the first 10 minutes, but at least there was plenty of effort from Sunderland. Not much quality though.
Never a penalty, at least Norman stepped aside and let somebody else have a go.