Just look at the home and away table. Two wins, a draw and six defeats at home, nine goals scored but 21 shipped.
What a catastrophic home record for any professional football side.
How could any away team and its wonderful support go to the Pirelli Stadium, capacity all of 6,912, without a spring in the step? Sadly the away side at Burton on Saturday is us, our home record makes theirs look quite respectable and we haven’t a clue where the next win is coming from.
Chris Coleman is unlikely to see this at all and, should he accidentally find himself at this page, still less likely to feel any need to heed Pete Sixsmith‘s advice, sound as it is.
But who would bet against the new manager reaching pretty much the same conclusions at our Sixer, who certainly reads the game of football as well as some of our past 11 managers (which takes us back only as far as Niall Quinn). Pete was at Villa Park. He saw what he saw, not a bad performance but one lacking midfield strength and punch against barely impressive opposition. It is pointless to talk about Burton on Saturday being a must-win game since we rarely win anything billed as such, but the thought will have crossed other minds …
Monsieur Salut writes: had I been able to make it – up for me, from London – for Chris Coleman’s first game in charge, I would have met up with not only Peter Sixsmith but Rob Hutchison and his daughter Olivia, all three familiar figures around these parts. My apologies for absence reached the Hutchisons as they – also heading north from exile – drove towards Birmingham.
At one down, as the second half started, Rob thought there was so little between the sides that Sunderland could go on and win if only they could first equalise. Cue a second Villa goal.
Here, then, is one of those Hutch specialities, Rob’s one-word man-by-man verdict (he described the whole experience as ‘drab, drab, drab; oh, it was so drab’ and will one day explain why Gibson was ‘crablike’) …
Pete Sixsmith saw Chris Coleman’s managership start in painfully familiar fashion, yet another bright start undone by yet another piece of sloppy defending. The upshot: the simplest of conceded goals for Villa’s Adomah, albeit after the ref arguably ignored a foul on Matthews that started the move. Ten minutes gone, one down. Had Robbin Ruiter, so fortunate to keep his place after handing Millwall two early Christmas presents on Saturday, even seen the ball up to then? ‘Goalkeeper suspect again,’ muttered Sixer. Gary Bennett praised the shape – 4-1-4-1 – and the buildup but was worried about the final pass, the final shot and the failure to cover at the back. Sixer bemoaned our lack of physicality.
All the above was written before half time. The second had barely begun before another Villa -mah (Onomah this time) made it two, his shot massively deflected by Browning. There seemed no way back. Lax defending, lack of finesse and a spot of misfortune: Coleman was perhaps seeing our season so far encapsulated in one more losing game.
Then he saw how important Lewis Grabban is to our modest hopes when the striker on loan from Bournemouth snatched one back. We prayed for that flash of skill or touch of luck that might save the game. It didn’t come.
Sixer saw glimmers of hope. Come back for his considered view but read on for his instant seven-word verdict …
Beyond blind faith, a commodity in large if diminishing supply among Sunderland supporters, perhaps the main source of hope for an unexpected victory at Villa Park is the power of new manager bounce.
But what a fillip it would give to the demoralised faithful to be able, for only the second time this season, to celebrate the final whistle rather than be left ruing missed chances and the inability to defend or even obtain a lead.
Even a draw at promotion-chasing Villa, denying bragging rights to Steve Bruce, as beastly a bête noire to Sunderland fans as they come, would be encouraging and – with a visit to lowly Burton Albion next up – give new complexion to match previews for this weekend.
Will Sunderland return to the tradition of the post-match manager’s e-mail under Chris Coleman? If so, will his first be to salute a debut rather more impressive than the last author of such missives, David Moyes, managed with West Ham?
Pete Sixsmith has already promised never again to use mustard puns in relation to our new boss. So if we do start receiving, and publishing, Coleman’s thoughts, however massaged by press office staff, that rule will extend to the title of the feature.
Josh Henwood* was an Aston Villa ‘Who are You?’ interviewee more than seven years ago. Our clubs have fallen on harder times since then though after a lean first season down in the Championship, Villa under Steve Bruce are now challenging hard for promotion whereas we, well, we aren’t. A warm welcome back to these pages, Josh (check out his Twitter page).
Josh reckons Villa will win. Try free betting if you want a flutter on all sorts of sporting events, including a tasty package on Bayern, Barcelona, Man Utd and PSG all to win their Champions League games on Wednesday …
Colin Randall writes: About the only way I could get through the first half of the Millwall game, even via the Barnes & Benno commentary on the club site, and what Gary Bennett called the worst goalkeeping (Robbin Ruiter) he could recall witnessing, was to read Pete Sixsmith‘s account of a night out with past players. Sadly Tony Coton couldn’t make either the event or the match (he might have got a game on either side as goalkeeping howlers led to a 2-2 that established Sunderland, on one statistical test, as England’s worst home side in history) …
As I walked into Quinns Bar last night for the launch of Tales From The Red and Whites Volume 2, Nick Barnes, the estimable BBC Newcastle commentator shot out and dashed downstairs in a tremendous hurry.
I hoped that it was not bad news for him e.g. the restoration of David Moyes as manager, the sale of the club to Robert and Grace Mugabe, the closure of the Harris Tweed industry and wondered if it could be news on the managerial front. All was about to be revealed……
[polldaddy poll=9875265]
Well that was a waste of everyone’s time.
As Sunderland dawdled towards an appointment, our poll attracted just under 100 votes.
Just when you thought being bottom of the Championship made you safe from such things, along comes a website that actually calls itself DirtyPlayers.co.uk and calls into question our fond collective belief that in Lee Cattermole, Sunderland have the most cultured, gentlest and fairest of players without thought of tripping, crunching, nudging or pulling back opponents.