Rob Hutchison declares:‘3-5-2 delivers the same result. Sort the system out and it sorts the season out.’ Then he delivers his one-word verdicts on the Lads, proving himself a much kinder judge of Danny Graham than was Keir Bradwell but using the same adjective for three of what would usually have been the back four and a slightly harsher one for the fourth. Rob omitted Will Buckley so M Salut has guessed at that one …
Pete Sixsmith was for once missing from a Sunderland match, so missed a game that ought to have been saved but ended in cruel disappointment. So the seven-word verdict is supplied by a supersub, Monsieur Salut (the bonus word, making it eight, has been eliminated and a late offering from Sixer himself added). After all the excitement caused by Jermain Defoe’s signing, Sunderland made the worst possible start, a big John O’Shea deflection diverting Jan Vertonghen’s shot into the net with Pantilimon stranded after Sunderland failed to clear a free kick. Despite a great Seb Larsson equaliser, the ball was far too easily conceded late outside the Spurs penalty area to set up a lightning counter-attack that Eriksen converted in the 88th minuted And would you believe it: our two best chances of rescuing the the game and possibly even winning it fell to Danny Graham? He was twice denied by Hugo Lloris …
Jan 11 2015 Tottenham Hotspur (1) 2 SAFC (1)1 *Useful Defoe debut ruined by familiar failings or, from Sixer: Other results make this defeat less damaging
Jake: ‘that’s hard to take’
Jan 17 2015 Sunderland (0) 0 Liverpool (1) 1 Selection and tactics raise questions about Poyet
Jan 10 2015 FA Cup 3rd Round: SAFC (1) 1 Leeds United (0) 0 Scraped through after a shocking second half
Jake’s own welcome to Jermain Defoe
Well, there are those who might argue with that description of Sunderland AFC. But that what SAFC is to us.
And we are delighted to be able to pass on the official news that the deal bringing Jermain Defoe to the Stadium of Light has been sealed. He is now a Sunderland player, signed on a three-and-a-half year deal.
The lads and lasses who support AK over in the Netherlands won’t be able to believe it. For them, Jozy Altidore scored goals for fun. Followers of the United States national team generally think he’s the real deal. But back in Blighty, in Hull and Sunderland, we all wonder about the lack of goals (a problem if you are a striker) and some, Pete Sixsmith among them, suggest Rugby League might have been a better option as the young Jozy contemplated his sporting career. For all that, Jozy Altidore deserves to be remembered as a player who gave his all and was, by all accounts, a great guy. Good luck, Jozy, but let Sixer take up the story …
The headline was going to be ‘Gareth Bale is not diver, says Tottenham’s Spitting Image joker’, implying that this was a view only a writer of comedy could hold. Reports of Jermain Defoe’s rumoured, imminent signing – closely followed by other rumours that his pay demands will scupper it, and of course bearing in mind we are often used as bargaining chips by players/agents with other clubs in mind – inspired second thoughts, not least because our Spurs WAY volunteer, David Sapsted*, also mentions him.
As well as coming up with gags for Spitting Image, and about G Bale, Sappers is a veteran news hound – we worked together at The Daily Telegraph and he once, as news editor, ordered me to take an early cut so I could drive to Leicester in time for a midweek match (we lost) – and a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur (plus, for reasons we do not know, assorted other ‘second’ teams. Here is his irreverent look at all things White Hart Lane …
So, I awoke to an interesting e-mail from my friend Lesley Ciarula Taylor, from the Toronto Star newspaper, which was reporting that Sunderland had signed Jermain Defoe from the Canadian club.
The story had been in that well-known fountain or truth and wisdom, The Sun, and tweeted just before I’d turned in; it was an exciting proposition but no one else seemed to be reporting it and at least one SAFC fan on Twitter was pouring scorn on the source (‘I wouldn’t wipe my a*** with that rag’).
Jake takes the jibe to heart and prepares to offer his services to a small club in Madrid
The saying about glass houses and stones hurtles into mind. Salut! Sunderland writers dish out criticism when they feel it is appropriate, so we must expect brickbats to be tossed our way, too.
I chanced upon a Ready to Go discussion on the merits and otherwise of sites/blogs related to Sunderland AFC. The usual dismay that some SAFC fans are simply unaware we exist soon gave way, by turn, to pride when praise was offered, disappointment when we were given short shrift.
Pete Sixsmith described the first half of this defeat by Liverpool as ‘miserable’. Three minutes into the second half, Liam Bridcutt managed to get himself sent off for a soft second yellow. Ten men battled with enough effort but little quality to salvage a point. One of few players showing enterprise and guile, Adam Johnson, was hauled off. As a measure of SAFC woes, Danny Graham and Mikael Mandron came on (though Graham’s workrate was irreproachable). Expect Sixer to be in gloomy mood with his fuller account of yet another flat performance. He’s not happy with the team, nor does he see Gus Poyet as above criticism …
Jan 10 2015 SAFC (0) 0 Liverpool (1) Selection and tactics raise questions about Poyet
Jan 4 2015 FA Cup 3rd Round: SAFC (1) 1 Leeds United (0) 0 Scraped through after a shocking second half
Jake: ‘when your secret weapon is Danny Graham you know you’re in trouble’
Sunderland vs Liverpool. This has not been a happy fixture in most of SAFC’s seasons in the Premiership and Premier League.
From head-to-head stats at Liverpool Online, I calculate that in 13 top-flight meetings since the FA Cup final of 1992, which they won 2-0 of course, Sunderland have won three, two have been drawn and Liverpool have claimed all three points eight times.
Even at half time, Pete Sixsmith felt Sunderland had been OK, no more … he had seen little to inspire him. Gus Poyet, Lee Congerton and Ellis Short should take heed of how Sixer, a loyal fan for half a century, felt at the end: ‘real rubbish in the second half and they could have won it. It is pushing me ever closer to the end of my tether. All they have to do is pass the ball to a red and white shirt – surely not beyond most of them. Fifty years of relegation struggles. We could well lose this one’ …
