Sixer’s Sevens. Wolves 0-0 SAFC. Point made – and a good one

Jake: ‘it’s not always pretty’

Pete Sixsmith

Monsieur Salut writes: Bob Chapman, standing in for Pete Sixsmith (absent on Santa duties), has the sort of home-and-away record of attendance at SAFC games that cries out for a gong in the New Year’s honours list. Today, he saw a valiant backs-to-the-wall display by Sunderland that won an unlikely point at the league leaders Wolves. I had only Nick Barnes and, as another stand-in, Marco Gabbiadini to go by but they seemed as impressed by the resistance as they were appalled by the inconsistency of the referee Jeremy Simpson, sending off Catts as much for being Catts as anything else and missing a number of Wolves challenges of at least equal culpability to the two that earned Catts’s yellows. Look at our Who are You? series: so many of this season’s interviewees say refereeing is poor at Championship level

Marco rated the shifts put in by O’Shea and Wilson. Both he and Nick Barnes saluted an overall performance that, taken on its own, offers modest hope … as Bob’s verdict shows …

December 9 Wolverhampton Wanderers (0) 0 Sunderland (0) 0 *Tremendous defending earns a point at leaders

December 2 Sunderland 1 (0) Reading 3 (0) * Another day when basic errors prove costly

November 25 Burton Albion 0 (0) Sunderland 2 (0) Two goals, three points, and draught Bass

November 21 Aston Villa 2 (1) Sunderland 1 (0) Encouraging signs but need to be stronger

November 18 Sunderland 2 (1) Millwall 2 (2) An awful game compounded by comical goalkeeping

November 5 Middlesbrough 1 (1) Sunderland 0 (0) Bottom of the league and deservedly so.

October 31 Sunderland 3 (1) Bolton Wanderers 3 (3) Neither the result nor performance good enough

October 28 Sunderland 1 (1) Bristol City 2 (1) Hopeless and clueless. Add embarrassing to that.

October 21 Brentford 3 (1) Sunderland 3 (3) * Two in front yet lucky to survive

October 14 Sunderland (0) 1 Queens Park Rangers (1) 1 The elusive home win seems miles away

September 30 Preston North End (0) 2 Sunderland (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 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

Next Post