There are not that many Sixsmiths about, but even if you leave aside the one who used to be on telly (Martin?), the surname does not end with our own big Pete. Step forward Phil Sixsmith, his younger brother, who lives in Greece, a place that makes Sunderland (and the UK)’s crises seem positively benign. Phil dearly hoped his latest visit home might offer a rousing afternoon at the SoL …
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Certain fish and chip shops in the Wigan area serve a local delicacy that consists of a bread bun cut in two, dipped in the juice from the bubbling mushy peas pan – pea wet as it is rather alarmingly called – with a potato and meat pie between the pieces of bread. Served with a generous portion of chips, it has a fat and carbohydrate content sufficient to fuel Bradley Wiggins over at least half a dozen Alps.
For the first 40 minutes of the match on Saturday, the Wigan players must have wished they’d gone back for seconds as they were forced to chase a slick, efficient, enterprising Sunderland side all over the pea wet green turf of the Stadium of Light. One goal was poor reward. Brave goalkeeping and a dreadful miss from Bardsley had frozen the scoreboard, but we weren’t worried. Second half would be a breeze. |