Some days it’s good to get out. This season that could be said of Saturdays, which makes a nice change, but for some people it’s also true of Monday evenings, now that normal service has been resumed at the Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground.
And just who are those people?
None other than a stalwart group of supporters known as the Hetton irregulars, one of whom is Pete Sixsmith. So when the U23s played West Bromwich Albion last night where do you think he was?
Malcolm Dawson writes……..in his programme notes Charlie Methvin spoke of the mixed emotions he would be feeling as a lifelong Oxford United supporter, now involved in the ownership and organisation of Sunderland AFC. I have to wonder what sort of mixed emotions he went through as the game progressed.
With his red and white hat on, I should think maybe a mixture of frustration at a team who were knocked off their preferred playing style by physical opponents not averse to employing underhand methods, abetted by as incompetent a refereeing display as I have ever witnessed, tension as we played out most of the match with only ten men and having equalised having to hang on with tired legs and opponents pushing for an equaliser and ultimately pride in a battling performance which saw us gain a point in the most trying of circumstances.
From his yellow and blue perspective I should think he would be encouraged by Oxford’s footballing display but I would hope have been embarrassed by their spoiling tactics and employing what appeared to have been a deliberate policy to con the referee. Max Power only has himself to blame for the red card and though some officials may have deemed it a yellow card offence, it was a reckless challenge, unlikely to ever win the ball cleanly. But the benchmark had been set as early as the twelfth minute.
In the type of incident that those in the ground could see clearly but which may not have been picked up by the TV cameras, Chris Maguire was trying to find space on the halfway line to offer Jon Mclaughlin an outlet to set up a quick counterattack. He was being physically held and manhandled by an Oxford defender, obviously worried by his pace and ability and prevented from going anywhere. Did the linesman see what we saw? If he did then surely it would have been a free kick to us and a yellow card to the man in blue. Instead, as Maguire tried to extricate himself the United player fell over clutching his face. The resultant free kick and yellow card against Maguire, was only the first of a number of poor decisions and our players were getting increasingly frustrated.
I may question the morality of the Oxford United tactics but there is no arguing against their effectiveness. But then you haven’t come here to read my whinging on about referees and dubious opponents. You’ve come to read what Pete Sixsmith thought of a game in a league which is proving to be anything but boring. Over to Pete.
John McCormick writes: I definitely haven’t seen Oxford at the Stadium of Light and I don’t think I’ve ever seen them at Roker, I certainly have no memory of them playing us there. It wasn’t until 1973 that I got to see them and that was at the Manor Ground. Our cup-winning team played, Dennis Tueart scored the only goal after 3 minutes and we held out for the remaining 87 to gain our second win of the season and finish the month unbeaten.
You can see what a good goal it was at the bottom of the page but don’t miss Pete Sixsmith to get to it. We had played Oxford in the previous three seasons but I was away, which is why I think I missed them. Pete was a lot nearer and went.
Not that that was the first time he’d seen them. Over to the master:
This is the match Stewart Donald and Charlie Methven may have been both relishing and dreading. Both Oxford fans, and passionate ones at that, but now part of the latest Mackem revolution. Their private thoughts on Saturday afternoon would be fascinating. Simon Bradbury, a former vice-chairman of the Oxford United OxVox group, knows Stewart well. Who better to answer the ‘Who are you?’ questions? …
There should have been an update to this series (see the archive links below for the earlier posts) at the start of the season but I travelled up early for the Charlton game, spending the Friday in Leeds before driving on to the North-East, then when I got back home I did a match report to complement Pete Sixsmith’s and didn’t have time for anything else.
This was followed by five games in two weeks, with no space to fit anything in, and here we are.
This means my last post in the series was the one that explained the role of Coventry City‘s fans in propelling their club up and Sunderland down in our poll and asked who should be the sixth team to join Coventry, Sunderland, Charlton, Barnsley and Portsmouth in our deliberations. Peterborough was the very clear preference from the four choices offered; they got more votes than the other three clubs (Southend, Plymouth and Luton) combined.
Those six will be the ones we start with, and I can’t imagine it changing before Christmas.
John McCormick writes: We have another full week coming up. I’ve got something ready to post on Tuesday, then I’m sure M Salut will post a “Guess that score” – another winner last Saturday – and a “Who are You?” midweek, and probably in that order, then we’ll get ready for the weekend with Pete Sixsmith’s look at the visit of Oxford United. I’ve seen us play them, but not at home (as far as I can remember) and not for over 40 years, so it will be interesting to find out when Pete first encountered them.
First, though, we have Lars Knutsen with a timely reminder of things past as we begin, at last, to look forward to some stability and a promising future.
Over to Lars:
|
|
|
Pete Sixsmith popped into the library at Rochester to type his report from the Gillingham match, one he thoroughly enjoyed. After the 4-1 victory at the Priestfield, he’s heading on to Wimbledon, where we hope the Sunderland revival will continue.
No doubt Pete will fill the time with cultural activities and the occasional partaking of refreshment, in the manner described below. Let’s hope he he finds another library, for accounts of his travels make an excellent read even when they don’t focus on the main purpose of his trip
John McCormick writes: Scunthorpe itself probably predates the Norman Conquest as the suffix “Thorpe” in a place name indicates a certain level of antiquity. Anglo-Saxon/Old Scandinavian in origin, it typically indicates an area of Danish settlement. Scunthorpe United doesn’t have have quite the same level of antiquity. It was founded in 1899 but it wasn’t until 1950 that it gained entry to the Football League (with a McCormick playing in their first ever FL game), and it took another few years before the club dropped “and Lindsey” and adopted its present name. In those early years (the 50s, not the Norman Conquest) Pete Sixsmith was just a snip of a lad, and by the time he was old enough to travel to Roker, Scunthorpe and Sunderland were in different divisions.
Even so, he has seen Scunthorpe play. Did you ever doubt it?
Three references to the approach some Sunderland supporters adopt towards their club caught the eye yesterday and today, says Monsieur Salut.
First, as most readers will have seen, several important points were made in Pete Sixsmith’s typically measured and intelligent report on the 1-1 draw at Luton Town.
It’s a great read in its entirety but this passage leapt from the page:
Some in the crowd and on the message boards, criticise Maja for not being strong enough, which is a bit like criticising an apple for not tasting like an orange. He is not a physical player (yet) but he is very good at getting himself between the ball and an opponent and won a number of free kicks because of this. Some of our supporters need to realise that he is young and is still learning. Two good goals in two hard games is a pretty decent record.
