Not so cool at the Pool, said Peter Sixsmith. Benji Kimpioka was cool, as were others of the young players at Jack Ross’s disposal. Catts and Honeyman, despite Ross saying the right things about how they were working for him, were distinctly uncool. What we all think of their agent, the club’s former CEO Margaret Byrne, may be best left unsaid. Sixer’s report – he chose the Victoria Ground over pub or armchair view of England losing decisively to Belgium – fills in the gaps while Monsieur Salut happily fetes France’s World Cup success, broadly deserved …
The 2018-19 edition of Sixer’s Sevens, in which Pete Sixsmith or a super-sub sums up each Sunderland game in seven words, gets properly under way today. Yes, he had a first pre-season friendly the other night, when Darlington beat us 1-0. But Pete may have been keeping one eye on news from St Petersburg, when France were beating Belgium by the same score, and offered only a Sixer’s Four – ‘a rather embarrassing defeat’ – so we made do with his Soapbox match report next day.
The game at the Victoria Ground was heading the same way until, with almost the last kick of the match, when our young Swedish prospect Benjamin Mbunga Kimpioka equalised. He’s having a great pre-season, with two hat-tricks for the Under 23s already. Their opener? ‘One down to sloppy defending,’ wrote Pete,’there’s a change then’.
So here we go with Pete’s first (written seconds before our goal) plus – for those not of a nervous disposition – a reminder of how Sixer and others captured each game last season. The squeamish should stop at the final game (when we improbably beat the champions, Wolves, 3-0) …
