The main attraction these days, as far as going to London games is concerned, is not the football. I know that’s a damming statement to my love of Sunderland, but if I attended merely for the quality of the product then I’d have stopped going years ago.

Of course I still love the lads, but my London match motivation is more based around the social side of things nowadays. You see so many of my mates have moved down there over the years and that’s the only way I ever see them.

I’ve told them that the capital’s a shithole and they’ll miss Wearside, but they seem happy to pay £1000 rent a week (clearly buying anywhere down there is impossible unless you want to shell out £1.5m for shoe box) and spend two hours a day on a cramped Tube just to get to work and back. I prefer to leave the house at 8.55 and arrive at work on time at nine with no travel stress. Still I guess it’s their choice. Fools.

Last season’s trip to Upton Park was probably the best example of Sunderland Football Club getting in the way of a good weekend. Sunny day, three hours stood outside the pub pre match, great craic with old mates, everyone up for the match. Then the most unmotivated performance I’ve ever witnessed from a team in red and white.

Disgusted with our club we returned to the pub, then onto another pub and then somewhere else that I can’t remember very well. We then talked to some girls whose names I can’t remember and then kissed some girls whose names I can’t remember, but by the time we got back to my hotel at 4am we were buzzing again and SAFC’s debacle that day was forgotten. In fact everything was forgotten to be fair, such was the hedonistic nature of the night.

Some amongst us have even considered going down to away games and not actually going to the match. It’s never happened mind, but I can see the sense in it since it costs between £35 and £50 to usually lose and it interrupts the flow of the beer.

This particular Craven Cottage match day I was feeling a mix of pre game excitement and post Saturday night hangover. However, stopping off in Doncaster to see The Cribs en route did give us an extra two hours in bed and Jonny Marr’s appearance in the Wakefield wonderkids’ line up has made them go from pretty damn good to totally amazing. The man’s a genius. It’s almost as though Marr was born with a guitar strapped to his hip. This has nothing to do with football, but I suggest, nay demand that you download their latest long player immediately.

You may see a theme developing here of writing as little about the match as possible. This is because I’m protecting you from our rubbish away performances. All you need to know about this one is that Da Silva was dropped and replaced by Ferdinand who got injured early on. It’s a bad enough chopping and changing the central defence every week, but using one of your subs up early on is not good. Bizarrely even though Da Silva was on the bench the gaffer brought Noz on for Anton.

By this point we were already one down after the entire defence went missing and allowed Zamora to score. We rallied second half, but Fulham contained us with ease. And that was that. Another shit away performance. Another opportunity missed and another long drive home.

Final Score: 0-1

ALS Man of the Match: Andy Reid (best of a bad bunch)

Chris Hardy

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