Smackems v The Trotters

[plymouth wanderer]

just been reading on the sunderland forum most of them are sticking up for are away attendence
not that we have nothing to be ashamed of but just nice to hear
again i wish them well for the rest of the season apart from the return fixture

[norm the jedi]

Didn't think it was Jussi's fault.Can't see us keeping a clean sheet this season.I'll say nowt about Cahill and Knight as a centre half pairing,it's already been said.

The defending for their goal was shite all round.

I still don't know what Jussi was doing though. Surely he time to react better than that? He must of been expecting a near post shot when Bent got himself in that position!

I thought he handled the Bent shot quite well, Sunderland were still second favourites with the rebound, and still managed to score.

Bigger question for me WTF was Cahill doing, Stand up and stick a leg out - job done - engage in some bizarre twisty diving header move - 1 - 0 pretty harsh too put it on Jussi who just got unlucky with where the rebound off him ended up..

[hisroyalgingerness]

Yeah I agree with that, falling forward rather than sticking a leg out as you say.

[Lord Kangana]

I blame the Bish.

His boundless, groundless optimism, and claiming being a top 10 team at christmas would go in our favour when the transfer window opened.

Bish. Are you reading?

Its.

All.

Your.

Fault.

I hope you understand.

From now on we will lose every game 10-0 and we are doooomed. Understand?

[thebish]

I's agree with you - except my match preview concluded we were doooooooooooooomed - it seems the damage was already done..

I blame you, LK, for your months-long campaign of frisky perkiness at the appointment of Coyle - persuading me that things were actually going to get better...

[Ianmooreslovechild]

Having looked again on MotD no way you can blame Jussi for the goal( infact he was pretty flawless all round today) Cahill reaction was very funny especially as the ball appeared to be hitting the back of the net at the point he was doing his strange twisty heady thing. We were a standard Klasnic finish away from a point at one of the most effective home teams in the country so no need to be down.
Coyle left his full on attacking switch a little late possibly out of fear for Sunderlands ability to break quickly.In summation we still look dodgy at the back,Elmo looks a bit tired and I'd like to see our sharpest wide player get a bit more than 7 mins to do his thing.

[Lord Kangana]

I's agree with you - except my match preview concluded we were doooooooooooooomed - it seems the damage was already done..

I blame you, LK, for your months-long campaign of frisky perkiness at the appointment of Coyle - persuading me that things were actually going to get better...

Coyle Out!

[Hoboh]

Watching the game yesterday (On 'putor i didn't go) then highlights, what I find sad is had we got a goal in the second half I am totally, totally convinced Sunderland would have folded and we would have run out winners by 3 or 4 goals. Our sharpness in front of goal is waining a little and we need to get back on track if we are to sustain our nose bleeds!!!

[NQsDiscoPants]

Watching the game yesterday (On 'putor i didn't go) then highlights, what I find sad is had we got a goal in the second half I am totally, totally convinced Sunderland would have folded and we would have run out winners by 3 or 4 goals. Our sharpness in front of goal is waining a little and we need to get back on track if we are to sustain our nose bleeds!!!

Yes, because we've shown a real tendency to "fold" at home haven't we?

[NQsDiscoPants]

That Sunderland Forum is hilarious in parts, especially the stick they gave to Jussi. Apparently he's dropped a few clangers in his time at the Reebok. This is probably the reason we let a great goalkeeper in Ali Al-Habsi go to Wigan.

A club that paid £9million for Craig Gordon has no business laughing at Jussi!!

Well, that's ironic now isn't it?!?!

[Lord Kangana]

Bish already knows its all his fault. He doesn't need an interloper to point it out. Thats just gloating.

[Choppers]

The only player at fault for their goal (imho) was Zat Knight. Cahill got caught between trying not to handball and misjudging the angle it was approaching at. However, if Zat had done his job it'd have never fallen to Wellbeck.

He absolutely fell asleep, literally stood still until he saw the runner (the eventual goalscorer) and just failed to track the attacker. He's done really well lately, but when he falls asleep like that, it can (and did) decide a game.

Aside from that, Petrov hasn't played a good full 90 minutes for me yet, and Muamba had his worst ever game for us. He looked devoid of anything, tackling was off and he stood still half the time. But for the booking and one run early on you wouldn't have known he was playing, and that puts enormous pressure on Holden to do double the work.

Petrov though was awful, always looking to shoot from wherever. His signing has kicked Taylor up the arse (though I rated him before anyway) and Taylor should be ahead of him right now. So wasteful and for someone who is supposed to have pace I didn't see him attempt to beat a man yesterday once.

Rodrigo looks okay though, excellent cross for Klasnic's eventual miss. I thought Coyle made the subs too late. We had a small bit of pressure on them so he didn't make the subs, but it really was clear we weren't going to score with the 11 on the field.

Chris Foy though, what a c*nt. No question Cattermole should have had yet another sending off for two yellows but he bottled it completely. Other than that, the amount of free kicks he gave for incidents that were simply NOT FOULS was shocking. He seemed completely influenced by the crowd (at one point he gave a late decision after the fans reared up) and Steve Bruce's constant outside of the technical area moaning.

We've gone from being rough to being too nice, there was an incident where if our player had been dishonest and gone down, we'd probably have gotten a penalty. I'm not advocating diving, but every other feck* does it, especially the Sunderland nancyboys who should be utterly ashamed of themselves at their play acting for the entire 90 minutes.

All that said, perhaps the 1-0 was a fair scoreline as we looked really devoid of attacking ideas yesterday and I think we could have played for 5 hours and not scored.

As for Sunderland, I thought Wellbeck was far and away their best player, he troubled us all the time and we couldn't cope with him. I noted that the commentary team said how Petrov and Taylor had swapped wings to try something different attacking wise, but it was clear to me that they'd swapped so that Taylor could help Ricketts out with Wellbeck.

Gyan looked decent too and I was surprised to see him come off. Cattermole is still a thug, just like he was before he joined Sunderland and if I were a Mackems fan I'd fecking loathe him being our captain.

Oh, I nearly forgot. I wasn't a fan of the signing of Paul Robinson, but this guy is fecking great. A masterclass of leadership from the back imho and is vital to the team at the moment. Coyle gives me the impression his players would run through walls for him and Robinson is the "on-the-field" embodyment of that.

[seanworth]

Welcome aboard Choppers. Introduce yourself in the new members. Oh and nice post.

[swc]

just been reading on the sunderland forum most of them are sticking up for are away attendence
not that we have nothing to be ashamed of but just nice to hear
again i wish them well for the rest of the season apart from the return fixture

For a club who attract around 20,000 home fans give or take then 250 away fans to Sunderland is a bit embarrassing for a team sitting 6th That works out about 125 fans for every 10,000 who are hardcore

[CAPSLOCK]

I wasn't embarrassed

I was, however, warm and a ton better off

[swc]

Bolton brought around 300 on boxing day a few year back during our shit season and there wasn't any snow in sight. Apart from blackburn at £10 a pop do they take any half decent numbers anywhere. Didn't they 137 to Arsenal last season for the postponed game

[Lord Kangana]

I've been to Sunderland away several times. I'm just trying to place the season you talk about, I might have been there.

You say it was a shit season. Are there any other features that might distinguish it a bit more from all the rest you have had?

[hisroyalgingerness]

I think we're going to have to re-develop our away end in preparation for Sunderland coming. I don't know how we'll cope with accommodating such a massive club, with a massive fanbase and all the folk they're going to bring. We should pinch ourselves really we're allowed to rub shoulders at all

[NorthernSoulBWFC]

just been reading on the sunderland forum most of them are sticking up for are away attendence
not that we have nothing to be ashamed of but just nice to hear
again i wish them well for the rest of the season apart from the return fixture

For a club who attract around 20,000 home fans give or take then 250 away fans to Sunderland is a bit embarrassing for a team sitting 6th That works out about 125 fans for every 10,000 who are hardcore

I couldn't care less about what you think of our attendance. Well done with your maths skills though.

[William the White]

I've been to Sunderland away several times. I'm just trying to place the season you talk about, I might have been there.

You say it was a shit season. Are there any other features that might distinguish it a bit more from all the rest you have had?

yeah... was it the shit season when we had a tedious 0-0 draw?

Or the shit season when JJ taught them more about football in 45 mins than they'd seen in their team since the 1950s?

Or the shit season we had them on toast 4-1 in Elmander's last purple patch?

So many shit seasons to choose from... Still, massive club...