Jake: ‘more of the same (Nov 2010 version), Lads …’
Let us remember, briefly, at happened on a shockingly wet day in London when, before Chelsea vs Sunderland, Monsieur Salut ducked the rain by taking a black taxi driven by a man claiming to the capital’s oldest cabbie. As bad as the weather was, the day was to get a lot worse. To the extent of 7-2.
Then fast forward 10 months to the same fixture of the next season. Chalk and cheese. We played our hearts out and walked on air all the way home (though in my case I was already there, watching on TV, having missed out on a ticket).
The heartbreaking nature of Man City’s undeserved equaliser should not detract from the pride we can take, finally and for the first time since we last played them, in a Sunderland performance.
Pete Sixsmith is probably right – too little, too late – but it is important for own morale, and for the future health of the club we love, that each player puts every ounce of passion he can muster into the five games that remain and just hope that other stumble as we prosper.
Improbable as survival remains, with the club three points adrift at the bottom and six short of a position of safety with just five games left, Poyet’s own self-respect has to make him want to summon superhuman powers of motivation. Until relegation is mathematically conclusive, he needs to drag every scrap of effort and passion from his team.
He can start by digging out a video recording of a recent Chelsea vs Sunderland Premier game. Not the 7-2 home win in January 2010 that might well have been 12-2, but the same fixture of the following season just 10 months later. Without top scorer Darren Bent, given no hope by pundits, Sunderland waltzed to a 3-0 victory, easily the best result of Steve Bruce’s short managerial reign. And when Poyet has finished drumming into his squad how that game was won, he can produce more recent footage of the 2-1 League Cup win in December, on Sunderland’s road to Wembley.
Salut! Sunderland content may be all over the place in the run-up to the Chelsea game. Sixer’s Etihad Soapbox (yes, he went in the end) arrived early and has been posted but there’s still Keir’s Player Ratings, Guess the Score and goodness knows what else to fit in. First, and maybe therefore out of sequence, let’s welcome back – after a few seasons’ absence, if memory serves – Ray Knight*, a solid London trade unionist, good bloke by all accounts and possessor of just one character defect. He supports Chelsea. It’s a great read all the same, with some priceless gags …
The news from Ferryhill, Shildon or one of the North East’s airports, where the great man was on early taxi duty, is that Pete Sixsmith, the morning after the night before, is ‘still bouncing and beaming’. Ever the realist, he adds ‘and I hope I will be on Saturday night’. Here is Pete’s considered verdict on a good night for SAFC that should stiffen the players’ resolve for coming battles …
Jake captures the Bard, with thanks to Owen Lennox
Gus Poyet said in his post-match e-mail what we must all have been thinking: a rousing night for all who support Sunderland but now let’s do it in the more important setting of Premier League football. Start catching up those just above us, ready to overtake at least three of them, and the Capital Cup semis become a delicious bonus …
Pete Sixsmith – or supersub – does it in seven words
It’s the stuff of dreams. A pulsating finish to a game that once looked beyond Sunderland and suddenly we’re in the league cup semi-finals. Pete Sixsmith was in his seat, even if plenty more weren’t in theirs, to watch Chelsea dominate possession as expected, take a lucky lead through a Cattermole own goal (hardly unexpected given our record of scoring for the opposition) but then find themselves taken into extra time by a clever Fabio Borino finish from a tight angle and beaten by a cool low shot from Ki Sung Yueng. Borini had earlier chances to win a game where Sunderland’s passion, pride and persistence were rewarded. Can we now see the same spirit – and winning ways – in the survival battle? What follows, as usual, is Pete’s seven word summing up; he’ll be back with more …
Jake hopes the (notional, prize-free) winner is someone who tips SAFC to win
Given the choice, most of us would probably want wins at home to Norwich and then away at Cardiff and Everton if, somehow, that could be the trade-off for going out of the league cup as honourably as possible when Chelsea return to the Stadium of Light.
But there may be the odd romantic out there who just wants to see us perform the rare feat of completing a run to Wembley, come what may in the league.
This, said our second Chelsea ‘Who are You?’ interviewee this month, ‘is coming to you from the Acela Express from Boston to NYC’. David Millward* – commonly known as Sid in honour of an uncle who was a 1950s and 1960s bandleader – recent moved to the US from London, where he was transport editor of The Daily Telegraph, his career having survived three decades and card-carrying membership of the Labour Party. He was such a fixture at Stamford Bridge that the club feted him before his departure. He probably expects an easy passage to the Capital One Cup semis when Chelsea return to the SoL tomorrow night but forgot to say so …
Few would have predicted a seven-goal thriller, unless they expected that heavy an away win without the thrills at the other end, Jose Mourinho thought we would have won 5-4 had there been a couple of corners and a minute or two more at the end. Pete Sixsmith was impressed by some of what he saw from Sunderland but says the positives must be carried forward to Saturday evening …
