Well, we were top of the league for a couple of hours before the stinky Mags nicked our rightful spot thanks to a woeful performance by Bolton. Have a cheeky bet on them to accompany gutless Boro into the Championship next May, even if Mido has made the wrong choice and moved to Teesside. While on the transfer front, we might yet get a forward who walks like an Egyptian, and there are rumours of Andy Cole coming to work for his old mate Roy. It’s a funny old game, football, especially when the biggest chunk of money invested in your Dream Team breaks its foot and another big chunk ends up in North Tees hospital. Still, it’s only a game.

Isn’t it?

Any chance of an unchanged side? With Roy in charge, and with a tricky away game against a Birmingham side which performed well against Chelsea at the weekend, goal keeper excepted, I doubt it. A few specialty penks from Carlos might well be the order of the evening, but changes could come courtesy of a fit-again Halford and the driving force of Deano back in midfield. Possibly, who knows what goes on in Roy’s head, but it’s worked most weekends for the last year. The main thing is that Roy’s enjoying himself, and says that life doesn’t get much better than Sunderland winning a game. You and me both mate, and it’s that attitude and demanding of hard work and concentration that has reaped rewards so far. Imagine what would have happened had the Spurs forward line, with all their undoubted skill, worked as hard as our lads? Noz and McShane gave the “superstars” Defoe, Keane, and Berbatov no time on the ball, and, while Murphy and Stokes didn’t get in the number of shots we’d have liked, they didn’t let the Spurs defence rest for a second. Lack of concentration by Chimbonda allowed our Fox in the Box to nip a couple of yards away to get on the end of Wallace’s cross and pick his spot. A special mention for Wallace, who spent the majority of the game at left back, not his favoured position, and then found himself upon the right, but still went for the jugular right at the death by turning his marker inside out and delivering the killer cross.

That’s concentration, right up to the last minute, just like that which won so man y late pints for Roy’s Man Utd. Once against us, after we’d taken an early own- goal lead at Old Trafford, if you remember. Long may it continue.

Having done my best to disrupt the Durham bus with my Thinford/Aycliffe antics (for the sorting out of which I owe Stan at least a pint of Guinness and a Liquorice Allsort), all the old faces were back in their usual seats on their usual bus, with their usual stock of bait and banter. Seasons change, faces don’t (well, they do but only slowly) and neither do opinions. Lichfield, as ever, was the favoured cocktail stop for the travelling red and white folks on the first step away from Wearside on the journey that is the 2007-2008 season. What we needed was to maintain the momentum created by the win over Spurs on Saturday. Despite a bit of geographical befuddlement on behalf of the driver, we were only 40 minutes late leaving Aycliffe, and had only (only!) two hours and a bit in the Queen’s Head, which was probably just as well. Our bus had spent the summer undergoing a massive refurbishment which included the installation of a bottle/can holder on the back of each seat. And that was it.

We flew the “new” Durham branch flag outside the pub, and commented on those fans who, like at Coventry a year back, managed to wear a Sunderland shirt the same colour as the side we were visiting. Mixed signals, I think.

At St Andrew’s, they even looked under Pete’s hat during the body search that we all had to undergo, but they missed my knife. I use it for odd jobs most days at work, I’ve had it for twenty six and a half years, and it’s got my name on it, and I’d put it in my pocket at work and forgotten about it. I nearly shat myself when I found it, just after I’d remonstrated with a steward about the lack of “superior facilities” for my £35. Should I hand it in, or say nowt? I opted for the latter as our changed team took to the field. Flash, Halford, Noz, McShane, and Collins at the back, Dicka and Deano in the centre, and Edwards and Wallace out wide, with Cops and Connolly up front.

We started at a fair pace and threatened to create something, but didn’t, and Brum were gradually allowed back into it. Dicka looped a header wide, then Flash took a low cross well, and Noz and his floppy-haired mate showed the benefit of no-nonsense defending as a nice rainbow formed over the opposite end. Chops was fouled in the inside right position 25 yards out, and it ended with a run and cross/shot from Carlos that was cleared for one of Halford’s massive throws.

Collins took a roll over the hoardings, then we had a corner safely taken, but we persisted in hitting too many high balls into our vertically challenged front two, and real chances simply didn’t materialise for either side. It wasn’t that long before the half-hour that they slung in a free-kick (sloppily conceded) and they forced a deflection off McFloppyhair and across Flash into the side of the net.

The Royal Marine Coammdmoes (great display, bad laying out of the mats) kept us from spending more money on their beer, “35 Quid, You’re Having A Laugh” we sang.

So 0-1 down was slightly against the run of play, but we are Sunderland and we come from behind, don’t we? There were no changes after the break, but as Brum forced the play more and more, they became necessary. Off went Deano and Connolly; on came Miller and John, and things changed. The usual Miller performance of neat passing, and the usual John game of battering the opposing defence about, which is just what we wanted. After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, Chops was played in from the left, and he repeated his Galway antics with a similar first time shot over the keeper and under the bar. “You’re one of us, you’re one of us, Chopra’s one of us” we sang, and we took the game by the scruff of its neck and looked like we’d go on to win it. O’Donovan replaced Halford as we went essentially three at the back to try and go for the win. Then there was a Sunderland moment from the old times, as we failed to pick up their man and McShane was left exposed, and in came a shot from their left to put them back into the lead. Bugger, we thought, can we do it again? Carlos made a long run down the right, all the way to the byline, and managed somehow to get a cross in. Unfortunately, it was a couple of inches too high for the onrushing John, who stretched up to do well to connect, and when the ball bounced off the bar, we could have been forgiven for thinking we’d run out of last minute magic.

Had we bollocks! The ref was just about polishing his Acme Thunderer for its final peep of the night, when they felled Miller twenty five yards out. Wallace fired in a shot which took a defection, and we drew in our breath expecting it to go in, but Doyle somehow palmed it up in the air. Nuggsy leapt into the challenge and nodded it across to John, who had a fairly simple job to head it in against his former employers. Simple goal, manic celebrations. Once again, we fought tooth and nail up to and beyond 90 minutes, and that’s a brilliant and valuable character trait to have.

A draw away from home anywhere is a good result, even against a team that came up with us, and I mean that with no disrespect to Brum. We had superior fitness, which showed in the latter stages, and which will stand us in good stead against many teams in the season to come. Roy showed again that he can chop and change personnel, formation, and tactics to good effect. Fourth in the league, despite it being only five days in, is a good place to be. It was also nice to hear Bruce say that his team had “Lost their concentration late on, and while you might get away with that in the Championship, you won’t get away with it in this division.” Which is a nice compliment, implying that we’re a Premier League team, which I guess we are now!

Man of the Match? Well, the man who had the biggest influence on the game was Stern John, who added the physical presence up front that we’d been lacking for the first hour. He scored, he scared the opposition’s defence, in short, he did his job. Dicka showed tenacity right to the death, and the Collins/Wallace left side partnership was more than decent, but I’ll give it to the current Premiership player who’s scored the most international goals, Big Bad Stern.

Where’s that Wigan Pier?

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