Sunderland

Bruce’s Banter from Brighton: ‘I took Carling Cup seriously’

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Needing to make an impression for once in the Carling Cup, the manager of an ambitious Premier club names three strikers, with transfer fees that could rise to £27m, in his squad to visit a newly promoted Championship side.

So far, so good. Trouble is they’re all on the bench when the game starts. Not until the 52rd minute is one of them sent on, to be joined with only minutes left of normal time by a second and, believe it or not, deep into extra time by the third and and most costly. No smirking, please, at the first sentence of Steve Bruce‘s e-mail …


Dear Colin,

My overriding emotion is one of disappointment because I’ve said all along we take cup competitions extremely seriously and we put out a team that mirrored that.

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Brighton v SAFC: disillusion and faith after the Newcastle letdown

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Don’t want anyone else to feel worse but I just read this, from the BBC report of Man Utd 3 Spurs 0, with heavy heart: “With England coach Fabio Capello an interested observer, Danny Welbeck headed in Tom Cleverley’s cross just after the hour and the young striker then produced a wonderful instinctive flick to set up a second for Anderson” …

Passion comes in different forms, even among Sunderland supporters.

For the majority, maybe the vast majority, losing to Newcastle United- above all at home – is as bad as it gets. I loathe it, too, but it does not plunge me into quite the depth of despair into which so many fall.

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Brighton ‘Who Are You?’: rating Fatboy Slim and Lee Cattermole

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All is well down on the south coast. A new ground, an impressive manager (Gus Poyet, ex Real Zaragoza, Spurs and Chelsea midfielder) and, following promotion, a great start in the Championship. And now they have us in the Carling Cup at a time when the anti-climax of derby day has us down in the dumps. Fatboy Slim ignored our approach but David Smith*, a blogging Albion fan, proved an able substitute. He must a real fan since he even attended “home” games when that meant regular treks to Gillingham. David (who probably watched SuperKev on Saturday, doing twice – again – what our strikers cannot) senses victory …


Back in the second tier with a winning start, Gus Poyet gaining plaudits as manager, new ground, us at home in the cup. How could life be better?

Does life get any better? Honestly, it’s never been so good on the south coast for the Albion. Even when we were playing the old first division (cue some people screaming at me about the ‘good old days’) I don’t think it’s ever been this good! Everything’s coming up Brighton at the moment and it’s fantastic.

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Music to get you over being beaten by Newcastle

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It seemed as good an idea as any.

Blocking the more mindless Toon comments was quite enjoyable, delighted as I am that literate and/or decent NUFC supporters come here in such numbers (AGAIN: only have to mention NUFC and you get a swarm of them).

But I needed more.

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Bruce’s Banter: ‘disappointment’ over Newcastle defeat is not enough, Steve

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This was the day we wanted revenge for that humiliation – two humiliations really – of last season. Losing at home is always bad, and we did plenty of it last season. To lose at home after all the assertive pre-match talking up of our determination, our desire is worse. And to lose at home to Newcastle United, with an abject second half display that wouldn’t have threatened Hartlepool Reserves, is the stuff of despair. Steve Bruce e-mails us, and a few others, with his own post-debacle thoughts …

Dear Colin,

We’re massively disappointed.

The domination we had in the first half and the chances we created; we needed to score and take advantage of the opportunities we had and if you don’t score you don’t win a football match and we’ve been punished.

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HT: Sunderland (0) Newcastle United (0). Fortune smiles, not just on us

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Ouch! Mignolet’s desperately poor positioning allows Ryan Taylor’s free kick from the elft to sail over him. One-nil to the Mags and that was how it stayed.

THIS POSTING HAS BEEN SUPERSEDED – by this

Big controversy but no goals in the first half.

The first 45 were busy, niggly and mostly dominated by Sunderland. But arguably neither Seb Larsson nor Yohan Cabaye ought to have finished the half, and Newcastle should have gone ahead, massively against the run of play, with a penalty.

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Liverpool, Newcastle … and the rest of Salut! Sunderland’s eventful week

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Salut! Sunderland‘s look back on the week just gone may not appear every single Saturday – it is a useful guide for the busy reader but also time-consuming – but resumes with links to much of what has been written here about the Liverpool opener, Joey Barton’s antics at St James’ Park and today’s Derby …

Time for all posturing and pre-match boasting to end. Kickoff is only a few hours away and some of us may be ecstatic, others despondent, come 2pm.

The derby has made it a busy week at Salut! Sunderland. But the flurry of activity here began with the ultimately satisfactory draw at Anfield.

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