FAN’S VIEW: 24/25 – No.15: SUNDERLAND AWAY

SUNDERLAND 2 OXFORD UNITED 0

I can only tell it how it is. Or more to the point how I saw it. That though no way means I have suddenly become one of those total doom and gloom merchants – who think our stay in the Championship is now inevitably going to be the briefest possible – even though we’ve only picked up five points from the last seven games.

It clearly goes without saying though that we need to pick up our form sooner rather than later. We’re now only three points off the bottom three.

Best team we’ve played all season. How many times am I going to say that? In this case I really thought they were and raised the bar still higher than that set by Burnley. The Black Cats are not five points clear at the top for no reason.  Slick and fluid. Quick movement off the ball. Moved it quickly. Never dwelt on it. Superb control. If it hadn’t been for Jamie Cumming between the posts for us we’d have been dead and buried by half time.

Worst performance by us this season. How many times am I going to say this? Hope this is the last time. Yes, we were playing against the best but we never looked like getting even a point. I’d go as far as saying our showing was the poorest I’d seen from any Championship outfit so far this season – and that is a bit worrying.

I wasn’t expecting a lot when I saw we had Mark Harris out wide. That’s just not his position. Our squad is stronger and deeper than it has been for years and of course it has to be given where we are compared to where we were, but given the players we currently have out injured we’re bound to be suffering. We’re without so many wide players and that’s the area of the pitch where we have looked the most likely to create goals from. No Kyle Edwards. Excluding added time he’s played about an hour and a half in total. Is he one of those who are unfortunately just injury prone and that’s that? No Siriki Dembele. It was only in the previous game that we lost him. Compared with many of his markers he’s somewhat lightweight and if they are to target him and referees allow it that’s not good. No Matt Philips. He’s another who has managed under two hours of league football. He looked a helluva player but he’s not been seen since the end of September. Has he been injury prone over his career? No Przemyslaw Placheta. His total game time is about two and a half hours and the last sighting was on 24 August.  And on the subject of injured players – Cameron Brannagan. We’re really starting to miss him big time.

None of the outfield starters here shone and some are now consistently coming up short. Will Vaulks gave the ball away for the second Sunderland goal. This is becoming a common occurrence. In need of a rest?

I don’t think the introduction of our substitutes made us any worse but they were never going to turn the game around. I liked the look of Hidde ter Avest and thought he looked as classy, confident and assured on the ball than any in a purple shirt. Will Goodwin was only on for a few minutes but got some good flick-ons. He gave us something different, something that is usually missing.

I have to say I was surprised that Owen Dale wasn’t given a run out here at some stage.

We went behind in the 16^th minute and it was a goal that as they say “was coming”. It looked so easy. The hosts moved the ball from left to right. Patrick Roberts attracted both Idris El Mizouni and Harris leaving Trai Hume with all the time in the world to bend an inviting cross into our penalty area. This was poor play by us. Not Championship standard. Jobe Bellingham got between Peter Kioso and Elliott Moore to place his header home. It’s not often we concede like that with our central defenders usually being quite dominant in these situations.

That the Sunderland second didn’t arrive until the 63^rd minute was a bit of a surprise such was their grip on the game. Bellingham nearly scored again before the second came when he hit the intersection of post and bar.

We were trying to play out from the back but Vaulks passed straight to a striped shirt. The goal Sunderland then fashioned from this gift was absolutely superb. Dan Neil’s chipped ball over the top was watched all the way by Wilson Isidor who timed his volley with perfection as the ball came over his shoulder. Game most definitely over now.

There are no easy games in this division. Well certainly not for us unless the opposition have a real off day. Sunderland fans may argue that it was easy for them on Saturday but that was because they were excellent.

(I wrote this before I spotted these quotes from Sundeland fans in their local paper. “That was as comfortable as it gets.” “Most comfortable game of the season, dominate from the start. Great showing.” “Most comfortable game I’ve watched in a long time. Walk in the park.”

This said our next opponents, Swansea, are no Sunderland or Leeds. Over the last six games their form is worse than ours. We’ve picked up five points, they’ve got just three and have not scored in the last five. They don’t let many goals in either though, just three in six. We’ve let in seven over the same period and have scored only five.

Everything then indicates a really tight encounter but football doesn’t always play out as expected. That’s the beauty and agony it brings. The bookies have the team from Wales as marginal favourites.

I can feel the tension going into this already. The Swans are just a point behind us but we’re at home where we’re unbeaten. Does just remaining unbeaten cut it? We need a win sooner rather than later.

Football fans are a pessimistic lot. Before the game I had a couple of pints in the Chaplins and immediately a Sunderland fan wearing their replica shirt initiated conversation. He was worried about the game as they were unbeaten at home and we had not won away. The bloke who lives opposite me is a Sunderland fan. I was chatting to him yesterday and he didn’t think they’d stay top and was quoting games when they hadn’t played well.

Friendly lot they are. Never felt unwelcome up there. The second pre-match pub visited, the Museum Vaults, served really good ale and has been run by the same family for over 40 years. They certainly know the trade.

The Stadium of Light is the biggest ground we’ll play a league game in this season and the attendance of 40,654 will be the largest we’ll play in front of. No other Championship club has a capacity over 40k.

Every time I go there I’m impressed with the stadium. The view is phenomenal. At times you feel like you’re almost hovering over the pitch but from quite some distance.

Perhaps the atmosphere inside at times does get as highly charged as anywhere in the country but I never felt it crackling and touchable as at, say, Fratton Park. Perhaps that’s because Pompey’s old-school ground is much more intimate with the crowd almost on top of the players. Other factors were at play here too. This was not a real contest of a football match with the outcome known long before the final whistle. The Mackems (is that how it is spelt?) must have relaxed almost immediately when they saw we had little to offer. I thought we had a decent following on Wearside but it didn’t look as large as I’d thought when I saw a picture on social media and we are well away from any home supporters. So no close up banter and friction.

We’d been allocated 2,239 tickets but we didn’t sell that many. Our fans collectively did quite well getting behind the team but unsurprisingly there were individual comments and mutterings under breath showing some unhappiness with what was going on. At times I’ll admit that I fell into that category.

I never felt totally engaged with the game. I just wasn’t in tune with it. I put this down to the way we were playing and the way Sunderland were playing. I was never at ease. Moving seats is something I hardly ever do but I did so here about four times. Ready for the half time whistle I positioned myself for the swiftest of walks to the toilets. A couple of seconds after Oliver Langford had blown I was down in the concourse. This is just an observation and not a criticism by the way. I was a bit surprised that there were about a couple of hundred people already down there with queues for food and drink and some with pints which were far from being full. I detected little interest in the game.

It’s a day out. Make the most of it in whatever way suits best for each person. Pints are very much the order of the day for some, possibly more so than the football. When Sunderland scored their first a fan in the second back row leant over the seat he was stood in front of and threw up. It really wasn’t pleasant. A few moments later he did it again. I mentioned this to a steward stood just to the right of me who turned and saw the second vomit. I suggested it might be a good idea for someone to clean it up. Health and safety and all that. He half smiled and did nothing. I’m not even sure he understood English. At times I really do wonder what their role is.

There will be no such goings on in the SSU this coming Saturday.

I spent Friday and Saturday nights in Durham and whilst away picked up a couple of local CAMRA magazines. Some of the other ale drinkers amongst our fan base who had the weekend away may have done the same.

“CAMRA ANGLE” contains 20 quiz questions which are nothing to do with beer. This is question 19 – “Who drew Middlesbrough to play Peterborough in the Rumbelows Cup live on TV in 1992?” Obviously mentioned Middlesborough because of the area. Taking away the parochial nature of the question it could quite easily have been phrased as “In 1992 live on TV Jimmy Greaves drew out the home teams for the Rumbelows Cup quarter finals. Who drew out the away teams?”

Anyone reading this know without doing a bit of googling? I certainly didn’t.