Barnsley Guess the Score: salute fighting spirit but it’s time to resume winning

No mugs this Tuesday but there is prize … read on

Before introducing Guess the Score, Monsieur Salut has some words to add on the Max Power issue. They are not the words I originally wrote to accompany the article …

What I felt and many others felt was the rank stupidity of Max Power, a gifted player enough suspected of possessing the suicidal tendencies often if wrongly attributed to lemmings, dumped Sunderland into deep trouble with his 23rd minute red card, number three of the season, at Walsall.


Two Walsall goals at the start of the second half threatened to seal our fate against a side we ought to have expected to beat with ease and in which Pete Sixsmith reckoned we had been streets ahead until Power’s dismissal.

McGeadie and Gooch did what was necessary to salvage a point but heartening and commendable a comeback as it was, with 10 men, a 2-2 draw still meant we lost important ground at the top of League One, with Portsmouth winning.

Jack Ross’s defence of Power first seemed to me more an act of loyalty than one of sound judgement. Listening the Barnes and Benno, seeing the comments of regular media Sunderland-watchers and fan site bods, and what I could make of the clip, showed at best a toss-up between yellow and red. I’d like to be proved wrong but it does not seem the basis of a strong appeal and Power’s disciplinary record in his short time with us is shocking.

However, Pete Sixsmith, who initially felt – watching the incident with his own eyes at Walsall – the same as those mentioned above, says in his magnificent matchday report that Ross is right. So I may well stand corrected.

Yet the loss of points still leaves the Lads with an awful lot to do to repay the faith of the fans who have turned out in such force home and away and roared the team to second place. Your task is to guess the score in Tuesday night’s home game versus Barnsley, who luckily for us also dropped two points on Saturday.

Click the image to pre-order your copy (in case you don’t win Guess the Score or have a Christmas gift in mind)

Once again, since no one predicted a 2-2 draw, we will offer a copy of Managers, the new Volume III of the Tales From the Red and Whites series.

Our thanks to the publishers for making the book available for the competition. And apologies to a potential Barnsley winner since no alternative prize will be offered.

Usual rules: be first with the right scoreline, have a UK delivery address as the book is yours.

Ha’way the Lads.

20 thoughts on “Barnsley Guess the Score: salute fighting spirit but it’s time to resume winning”

  1. I’ll go for 5-1. We can’t afford to have another draw and hopefully Barnsley will be the whipping boys.

  2. Sunderland 4 – 1 Barnsley, the book prize is proving to be elusive, heralding a pause in our winning ways, just hope somebody gets the result right tomorrow night.

  3. I will go for 3-0 to the lads.

    If we were Chelsea or Liverpool or Manchester United the appeal for the sending off would be successful, but we are not, so I think we will be powerless until Xmas.

  4. Was there on Saturday but Power incident was behind a stanchion. A few years since that’s been a problem. What a soul less place the Bescot is.
    What a great game though! Two stands full of Sunderland fans fired up by the worst ref I’ve ever seen.
    Barnsley prediction 1-0 . Less excitement and 3 points please.

  5. I too was there and didn’t feel it was a red at the time nor since having watched the replay. There were I thought worse tackles in the match that didn’t even get a yellow, though Honeyman got one for protesting that he also thought the referee’s application of the laws was inconsistent at best.

    I don’t expect the FA will overturn the decision, not because the card was justified but because they rarely do. Hope I’m wrong.

    Power’s dismissal obviously altered the way the game was going but Power does not deserve to be vilified. Like Cattermole he can be a vital part of our squad, but also like Cattermole is a passionate wholehearted player who will get on the wrong side of referees.

    As I see it, his card against Oxford was debatable, the one against Bradford stupid but the one yesterday undeserved.

    6-0 to us.

    • Maja header, Maja header and Maguire 1 on 1 with the keeper – how close was I if we ignore the defensive lapses.

      What does a straightforward win feel like. Apart from Scunny we’ve not had one of those this season yet.

  6. Getting my prediction in nice and early again. Fower nowt. Power to score twice after his red card is rescinded (fingers crossed).

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