Many of us know the sensation of being at St James’ Park when we win. Sixer has been at all five victories since 1999 and we can safely assume Rob Hutchison has experienced it, too. Yesterday, however, he was at the Old Red Lion Pub @ORLpub in London and says it “exploded when Johnno put that critter in, 150 London Branch (SAFCSA) members went absolutely bonkers’. Here, ahead of Keir Bradwell’s ratings, are his man-by-man marks and a single word apiece . . . .
Rob Hutchison says: Decent result not to lose but absolutely sterile in the final third. A goalscorer a goalscorer, my kingdom for a goalscorer. Here are his one-word ratings …
Rob Hutchison is a glass half-full kind of man. But he struggled to find much reason to applaud what he saw from the Sunderland side’s uneven contest with the aristos of Man City. Lee Cattermole got closest to a good rating but even his 6/10 reflects a display way short of what he’d produced against Chelsea …
Rob Hutchison had to watch on a stream but was quick off the mark with his one word player ratings. No quarrels from Monsieur Salut (though 10/10 for Catts would have been tempting), who wrote at ESPN ‘At no stage of this game, with the possible exception of an opening spell of compelling but ultimately fruitless possession by Chelsea, were manager Gus Poyet’s players second best to his former club’.
Unbeknown to M Salut, deputy editor Malcolm Dawson, just in from the match, had already started editing Hutch’s ratings. This was Malcolm’s introduction: Rob Hutchison is a man of few words. At least he is when rating the Sunderland team in the minutes following the full time whistle. Today’s performances all rate highly against a team that had scored in every game this season and were unbeaten as they arrived at the Stadium of Light. They left still unbeaten (and defeat would have been harsh on them) but this was a gutsy Sunderland performance …
So a Leicester-supporting pal says his lot were the better side but adds that it’s difficult to tell which of the two will go down. M Salut thought aloud at ESPN – http://www.espnfc.com/club/sunderland/366/blog/post/2158151/black-cats-fail-to-shine-at-leicester – neither side could grumble at the outcome. Here, with young Keir Bradwell absent on family duties, is what the older Rob Hutchison made of it, one word for each player, plus a tweet I couldn’t resist repeating about the Fletcher yellow card …
No two people will ever agree on all of the talking points from Sunderland vs Everton.
What we can say for certain is:
* post-Osman, no lectures are permitted from any Everton manager, player or supporter on penalties wrongly given or denied
* if we accept Howard did not handle the ball, there is at least an argument that says he obstructed play and should have conceded an indirect free kick in a highly dangerous position
* Sunderland played well and thoroughly deserved the point
* Howard risks being arrested as a wannabe jihadist until he shaves off that preposterous beard
Rob Hutchison now offers a useful counter-balance to Keir Bradwell’s man-by-man Sunderland ratings, and he does it – as is his style – with a single word for each player …
Monsieur Salut: writes: Opinions. We’ve all got them. Nic Wiseman and I have been debating at twitter on the Palace goal. Was it a world-class save by Pantilimon undone by the rebound off Wes Brown, as he believes, or two-thirds of a great save which ended with a fumble, as I wrote – on the strength of a single view from the stand – at ESPN? Rob Hutchison was there, too, and among his one-word, pre-Keir snap judgements, our big Romanian scored 7. I’d have made that a 6 and Brown a 7 but otherwise concur with Rob …
No real football left Rob Hutchison at a loss over the weekend, until he was lured by the prospect of a carvery for £8 at the Hayes Lane ground of Bromley FC, from the Conference South. He enjoyed the day – as our Pete Sixsmith, who lightens the load of being a Sunderland supporter with frequent forays into non-league territory, might have told him he would – though the home fans would have preferred a different outcome …
Rob Hutchison always stands his round. What he cannot abide is the fellow Sunderland fan who insists on standing his ground and won’t accept that sitting is not just required by ground rules but a basic human courtesy to those behind who are no longer so good on their feet …
Let Rob Hutchison explain for himself how he came to see us and the Mags on successive nights …