Martin O’Neill said, ahead of viewing replays, he thought it a nasty challenge. David Meyler has ample reason, after suffering serious injuries, to be anxious to avoid another.
David Meyler
Sixer’s Soapbox: Beating the Mags, a rare but pleasurable occurrence
OK, it was only a reserve game, but it’s always nice to rub their noses in the dirt, and it’s even better when a Sun’lan’ lad rattles in an eight minute hat trick. Our man at the Stadium of Light was Pete Sixsmith, taking in his second reserve game of the day. He was wearing his new anorak.
A cold night at the unsponsored, unsullied Stadium of Light, but the cockles of the heart were warmed by Ryan Noble’s hat trick to see off a previously unbeaten Mags second string. Premier Reserve League it may be, but after our recent dismal run against the representatives of The Great Satan, it’s good to put them in their place.
He scored them in eight minutes as well. The first one was a strong shot which Jak Alnwick, brother of wannabe porn star Ben, should have saved. For the second, he picked up a rebound from the keeper who had failed to hold a strong Jordan Cook shot, but the third was an absolute cracker.
The impressive James McClean played in Michael Liddle with a very clever back heel and his through ball set Noble loose in the box and he crashed it past Alnwick to earn a standing ovation.
Salut! Sunderlands week: stuffing Stoke, cheering up Reidy, facing Norwich
The long break between games made it a quietish week, but there is still plenty to look back on if you missed a daily dose of Salut! Sunderland …
It was good to have an upbeat Bruce’s Banter, the e-mail Steve Bruce sends out after each game. Click here to see what he had to say about the 4-0 win against Stoke City. He mentioned some big individual performances but stopped short of naming names.
Soapbox Tote double: SAFC, Hartlepool, Hull, Gateshead – and David Meyler
Are there telling clues about first-team prospects and planning to be had from watching the reserves? Pete “I’m no football junkie” Sixsmith caught two such games yesterday and reports on both, with an emphasis on how the impressive resilience of David Meyler is bearing up after his second dreadful injury setback …
As some of you may know, I have recently retired, allowing me to spend more time with my ever diminishing collection of full beer bottles. It also gives me the opportunity to winkle out obscure midweek afternoon football fixtures and join my fellow retired, anoraks and obsessives in near deserted football grounds.
This season,our reserves are playing a number of their fixtures in the afternoon at the Academy. Unfortunately, they are not allowing the retired etc in to watch on Health and Safety grounds as the club are in the process of being sued by a spectator who was hit in the face by a wayward ball at a game last year.
Many behind the goal at Roker Park and the SoL over the years should now be contacting Messrs Sue, Grabbit and Run.
Meyer and Welbeck: when bad news seems good
If Steve Bruce had announced on Wednesday morning that David Meyler would be out for 10 weeks and Danny Welbeck for three, we’d have been horrified.
Dreams become nightmares for our Man Utd and Ireland stars
This short posting is dedicated to David Meyler, our young Irish midfielder whose awful, accidental injury at Villa Park looks likely to cost him another lengthy period of treatment. The lad had done extremely well on his return from the last cruciate ligament injury and it is no surprise that he is, as Steve Bruce has said, devastated.
Dedicated to David, but started off as a routine piece – written before events at Aston Villa – about Danny Welbeck as one of Pete Sixsmith‘s regular offerings to the Stretford End Arising website’s running series on Manchester United’s loaned-out players. Danny also left the pitch on a stretcher last night and faces a nasty layoff of his own with a torn hamstring. Pete’s thoughts were entirely positive as he wrote the words that follow and Salut! Sunderland hopes to see both players make strong recoveries and make the words come true ….
In 12 months’ time, as he scores Sunderland’s 3rd goal in a tense Europa League victory over Ajax, Danny Welbeck will look back on December 2010 as the month he changed from a boy to a man.
He cemented a place in Steve Bruce’s first team, first of all partnering Darren Bent and then Asamoah Gyan. But the key to it was that he was the first choice while the other two scrapped it out for the privilege of partnering him.
Aston Villa 0 SAFC 1: the heavy price of victory
Peadar O’SullivanCould we ask for more than a 1-0 win at Aston Villa, a place where we often struggle? The latest post-match missive from Steve Bruce explains why the obvious answer, sadly, is yes …
For Match of the Day viewers, there was a miss, a goal, a couple of sendings off and not much else.
For Sunderland supporters, it was an important win on the road with a massive double downside.
Chelsea romp for Reserves sweeps away Wolves blues
We need warming up and, after Molineux, cheering up.
What better than with this scoreline? –
Chelsea 1 Sunderland 3