SAFC

Prepare for a blasting after Fulham horror show

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whybother


Another away game, another display lacking in guile and (in the first half) even commitment. For the first time, one or two fans are beginning to mutter that phrase: relegation dogfight. That may be an exaggeration; surely all the promise from good performances at home and heroics at Old Trafford cannot have evaporated. Yet Sunderland at Fulham – maintaining the standard of Sunderland at Stoke, Burnley, Birmingham and Wigan – were about as attractive as the back end of the Don Wood’s bus from Murton that I was stuck behind in the west London traffic jam after the match …

Expect a roasting for Sunderland when Pete Sixsmith delivers his Soapbox sermon later today.

The first half was an insult to the marvellous travelling support. The second half, for all our bluster, lacked serious quality in any of the areas of the pitch where it mattered. We never looked like scoring from the half chances that came our way and ended the game pegged in our own half without the least promise of an undeserved equaliser.

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How to beat Fulham (the longer answer than ‘score more goals’))

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karaoke

Let us hope our wish was granted and that beating Sofia 1-0 softened Fulham up. In a detailed assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of our Sunday opponents, based on watching the Fulham game before Sofia, a fellow subscriber to the Blackcats list, Jim Minton, gives us hope that we can do something about our atrocious away form – but also warns about the minefields. He is less forthcoming on the subject of Korean karaoke …

It was my dubious pleasure to watch Fulham v Bolton last weekend in the company of a group of gentlemen who thought it would be a good idea to kick off a stag weekend watching Clint Dempsey slugging it out against Gavin McCann from the corporate boxes at Craven Cottage.

Anyway, rather than digressing into tales of late night karaoke in a Korean bar in Soho and how my rendition of Since You’ve Been Gone came to cruelly curtailed for public health reasons – which is how the stag weekend ended – I thought I’d offer my thoughts on our opponents for Sunday.

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Who are you? We’re Fulham (but we’re not Lily Allen)

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lily

To be honest, we were torn. Lily Allen or Roger Meloy to preview this Sunday’s game at Fulham, Steve Bruce’s latest attempt to prove to the world that Sunderland can perform on the road. Turning up at all would be an encouraging start. Anyway, Salut! Sunderland is not a site to be easily impressed by stardom so Lily was out (a choice made easier by an instant brush-off from her supPress Office). So, you’ll have to make do with her 2010 calendar, a sample from a recently published Observer interview about her football passion** – and, all the way from the USA, the thoughts of Roger*, the Cincinnati Kid and member of the Fuham Exiles fan site …

rogerfulham


Salut! Sunderland: Comfortable last season, some good results so far but a little inconsistent. A fair summary of Fulham?

A fair summary. Getting into the Europa League was a major achievement for Fulham, but with our small squad this could come back and bite us later on in the season as we’ve played a midweek game virtually every week. Our biggest problem is still our away form. We have trouble picking up points from poor teams, such as losing at Wolves and Birmingham, drawing at Wigan and West Ham. Although, the 2-2 at Man. City was a good result considering we were 0-2 down.

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Soapbox: Wigan, Sunderland and a sobering history of bouncebacks

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soapbox

How much of a beating do you have to take before it can be called a thrashing? Four, five, six? Nothing to do with the headmaster’s study of old; we’re talking about goals conceded. Pete Sixsmith worries about the backlash that sometimes awaits the walloped side’s next opponents after such drubbings as Spurs 9 Wigan 1 …

We Sunderland fans are very pleased to have Steve Bruce as our manager. He has made an excellent start. He has brought in good players and moved on players who had gone past their time at the Stadium of Light. He looks a winner.

Imagine my surprise then, to read that he was to blame for Wigan Athletic’s 9-1 defeat at Tottenham. It was his entire fault, according to Dave Whelan. He had left the club with a poor selection of players which new manager Roberto Martinez was desperately trying to sort out. Bruce should take the blame, Martinez was faultless.

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Who are you? We’re Wigan

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bernardbefore

No Darren Bent, Kenwyne Jones still suspended. No Cattermole, first choice keeper out too. Wigan 1 Sunderland 9 somehow doesn’t look on the cards. Bernard Ramsdale*, who runs the Olde Tree and Crown Wigan fans’ site and romped home last year as winner of our award for the best “Who are You?” feature, has probably spent his Spurs ticket refund already. But he does not expect to be as glum after Saturday’s game as he was in the “after” part of these before and after shots from last Sunday afternoon …

Salut! SunderlandCrikey. You beat Chelsea only to get thrashed by Pompey and murdered by Spurs. Explain Wigan’s season so far.

Errr, how about inconsistent?

bernardafter

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Who are you? We’re Arsenal – but expect Sunderland to finish 6th

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From Halifax (and Hull and Hell), the Good Lord has delivered Pat McLaughlin* into the arms of Arsenal. Pat runs the Just Arsenal website and, while most of France dreams of playing for the Gunners, dreams of living (not for the first time in his life) in France. He’s our second Gooner – with a third still to come – to preview Saturday’s big game, Sunderland v Arsenal, and thinks we’ll do rather well this season. According to my mental arithmetic, he has us finishing sixth. Was that a pig-like creature we just saw flying by? …

pat

******* ******* *******

(Slightly modified version of posting that appeared earlier today. The third and final Arsenal “Who are You?” feature, in which Darren Wright from the Wrighty7 fansite answers similar questions, will be published on Friday morning)

Salut! Sunderland Everyone raves about how exciting the Gunners are to watch. What do you remember of the days when it was “boring, boring Arsenal”?

LOL i used to agree with the monicker. George Graham used to bore me too. But i started going to Highbury when it was Johnny Radfords day, and they were never boring! It used to cost me ten bob to go in the “pit” (kids section)

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Soapbox: no luck at the Lane (for Sunderland)

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soapbox

Fair’s fair. With the hindsight not available to most fans – or any referees – when controversial incidents actually occur, Salut! Sunderland accepts that Kevin Friend got the penalty about right. A slightly reckless challenge, but not one that merited a red card. Some SAFC fans go further and echo Spurs supporters (not all) by calling it a dive, even if they also feel it was a penalty “about to happen”. Friends again, Kevin? More on all this later but first Pete Sixsmith delivers his own considered post-match verdict …

A six hour coach journey after a scarcely deserved defeat does an awful lot to concentrate the mind. Somewhere in the middle of the old Great North Road, probably between Newark and Retford, I suffered a terrible attack of fairness, not something usually associated with disappointed Sunderland fans.

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