Apologies to all for pulling these two items together, a necessity given constraints on time between the two games, at Swansea on Saturday and at home to QPR tomorrow. Agree or disagree with Keir Bradwell’s man-by-man ratings from the 1-1 draw at the Liberty Stadium and then have a stab at the scoreline in tomorrow’s crucial game…
The big mystery of the day is this: did Pete Sixsmith go to Swansea after all? A very late Sixer’s Seven – “Back across Offa’s Dyke with a point” – suggests he may have done. Only time will tell. BUT here’s how Rob Hutchison saw it, player by player, in a word and a mark out of 10 for each …
Monsieur Salut returns from Revolutionary Road, a two-week tour of Cuba including a two-hour trek to the mountainside rebel headquarters of Fidel Castro, full of admiration for the two wins recorded in his absence and the splendid efforts of Salut! Sunderland comrades to keep the site buzzing. Sixer ducked the 700-mile round trip to Swansea and missed a useful 1-1 draw, with Jermain Defoe’s excellent 40th minute opener raising hopes of victory until a second-half diving header from, perhaps inevitably, Ki. Alvarez might have won a penalty when he seemed to be tripped early in the second half, and 2-0 at that stage would have surely have been enough to secure three points. From then on, there was little else to cheer, beyond a solid defensive display in which John O’Shea was outstanding, as Swansea gradually took control for the remainder of the game. A good point, though, and an encouraging return to the Liberty for Danny Graham. Think what wonders a winner against QPR on Tuesday night would do for him and for us. Our illustrator Jake provides the substitute seven-worder you see below …
Malcolm Dawson writes…..before his sojourn in the sun, M Salut set up an interview with Swansea fan Scott Mackay, who …
Monsieur Salut writes: Keir Bradwell got it the neck here when plonking a 10/10 on Jozy Altidore after the low-scoring American produced a 20-goals-a-season strike against Stoke City. I detected irony but Keir, busy preparing for his 14th birthday tomorrow, hasn’t let on. Happy birthday, old man. Your ratings will never please everyone but nor would anyone else’s. I liked Alvarez, too. I also thought Cattermole had another good game and that Buckley and Jones showed a fair amount of style. So you got at least some of it right according to my own subjective assessment. Apologies to Swansea supporters; Keir’s brief is to mark our players, not yours …
Of the Salut! Sunderland editing team, one started the day in Spain, one was heading for Kendal (though he had been to Saturday’s goalless draw with Swansea), one is in Spain, one was working out a route to the Presqu’île du Gaou and the other was probably beating his own jogging record in Richmond Park (update: wasn’t far off – having driven back from the match, Nic Wiseman was doing a half-marathon). Even Pete Sixsmith beetled off to Tynecastle once he’d written this account of the game. Eventually someone returned to post his thoughts …..
Malcolm Dawson writes….it wasn’t a bad day. The match was OK for a nil-nil. Afterwards, Pete Sixsmith, Doug and my …
Pete Sixsmith saw a vastly improved Sunderland performance, another clean sheet for Vito Mannone but no goals and therefore yet another draw. As this was a game many supporters feared would end in disappointment of a harsher kind, that is a perhaps some way short of disaster. Except, as Sixer’s instant seven-word verdict makes clear, we still show no sign of being able to make the most of our chances …
Ready to Go is the name of Sunderland’s indispensable fans’ forum, as you all know. It also the theme chosen …
Games against Swansea City have invariably produced classic editions of ‘Who are You?’ and this, I feel, is another. Max …