Late Update. Monsieur Salut says: Barnes and Benno both said no one could have seen it coming. My own concluding line to this piece was tongue in cheek. But the unthinkable happened: we came back to draw. Still a shambles at times – SAFC could have been six down before the first of ours went in, but what a fightback …
Salut! Sunderland rarely posts during games. There should be no point. One up or down, even two, drawing … things can change.
But with us, you know one down almost certainly means defeat. Two equals certain defeat. Three before half time? As poor Pete Sixsmith put it in a text from Ashton Gate: “Disgraceful.”
@livvhutchison SCENES from away end at the equaliser. @RokerReport @salutsunderland pic.twitter.com/slM7zLJzzc
— Rob Hutchison (@RobHSafc) February 10, 2018
Not that he – or I – had not seen it coming. Yesterday, as he and his great mate Pete Horan settled into a hotel-apartment between ground and city centre and looked forward to an evening on the town, I responded by calculating (after a false start given my usually decent mental arithmetic) the time left before the weekend started going downhill at 22 hours and 17 minutes.
The first went in after five minutes. “One down: appalling defending as usual,” texted Sixer.
Six minutes later, he sent a follow-up: “Here’s a potential 7 (Sixer’s Sevens) because this will get worse: “A team incapable of doing the basics.”
He didn’t want to be proved right. At 3.13pm, Pete said: “2 down, could have been 4. Hopeless.”
And then: :”3 now. Disgraceful.”
Poor Nick Barnes, commentating as usual for BBC Radio Newcastle, should have been enjoying a happy return to the West Country (if an Exeter lad truly regards Bristol as West Country). He wasn’t exactly speechless, but even in a wretched season, following another wretched season, he sounded as low as I have heard him. Eloquent as ever, but low. Benno? He just found our defensive failings beyond belief.
A fightback to 4-3 to us anyone? See the update above (not quite 4-3, but who could have guessed we’d even get a point?)
Well done Livv. Made me tingle.