On a windy afternoon on Wearside the Lads pulled it out of the bag AGAIN. Norwich - couldn't cut the mustard. Ahthankyou.
Last week I caught some of the home team's commentary and discovered there's no more soothing a sound than a sad Welsh voice. We proved pressure does make diamonds. While there was some luck in Wales, the Swans fell to pieces because couldn't keep up with us. Let's have some more of that please.
With our list of injuries still a fair length our side remained largely unchanged. Tommy out until late January, Mundle also January, and it seems the thing only holding Alan Browne together was his Preston shirt.
The afternoon began with the usual mad light display. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. It reminds me of secondary school when someone would sneak off a lesson and faff about with the trip switch on the fuse box. Making half a dozen classroom lights go off and on mid-lesson. Then we'd start disco dancing. Anyway, football...
Patto made a great save early on, albeit under pressure, he shouldn't have had to deal with in the first place. Again, we seemed to be getting bullied and pressed where we shouldn't be. It’s great when we track back, but lately there have been instances where this has led to confusion and our players overloading space. Case in point, how we deal with a high ball in from a set piece.
Cue a high ball from a set piece...
They took the corner with no pressure from us at all.
One nil down against the run of play, after failing to deal with a high ball from a set piece. Deja vu and Black Bats go hand in hand. It was Norwich's first goal away from home in three games.
This quietened the SOL faithful down a bit. It was only the seventh goal we've conceded at home this season. Which isn't bad, but it certainly didn't feel that way at the time. However. We still had some silver linings going into the match...
13 different scorers
32 goals over 21 games
10 assisters
...and out of this
Jobe 3 goals 3 assists
Paddy 2 goals 5 assists
Mundle 4 goals 2 assists
Rigg 3 goals 1 assist
Interestingly, out of those players, three of them are in our top four for (in)discipline. That means they're getting the most involved. Maths is great, isn't it?
More tracking back and Wilson went toe to toe with Cordoba and after some rolling around and shouting, they both came out with a yellow. While Wilson's English is better than my French it's clear he still doesn't fully understand the phrase 'calm down' - calme-toi, for the record.
This was followed by a period of Norwich falling over and whinging. Yes, you play in yellow and green, but that doesn't make you Brazil.
Then the Lego haired Borja Stainz decided it was a good time to try to double down on their lead by winding us up with the first of many dives worthy of Jacques Cousteau. O'9 then proceeded to pick him up like big bag of cans. Argy bargy ensued, culminating in Mepham kicking the first yellow shirted player he saw as far up in the air as he could. A proper crunching tackle. To the ref's credit he seemed to recognise that tensions where high and no cards were given. Did that last long? No, not very. Stainz even tried to get Regis booked. Sneaky Basquetard.
Unlike last week in the land of rain and wool, we seemed to be running the ball too far down the channels before releasing it. It worked simply enough then, so why change it? The Lads seemed agitated, perhaps because the wind was against us. Let's face it - the wind was against everything and everyone.
We went into half time looking blustered and ruffled.
"Dear Santa, please can we have some proper crosses and a goal in the second half?"
The second half began after the pitch had been cleared of the Wearside tumbleweed.
Based on our recent form, I reckon the odds on us equalising moments after the restart would have been pretty low or even suspended. So unsurprisingly, that's exactly what we did.
Thanks Santa!
Ballard took a leaf out of 0'9's book from the opening games of this season and decided to score in back-to-back matches. Great plan, Dan.
A brilliantly taken set piece, with Issy cutting back, Mayenda crossing (properly) and DB getting the job done. Game on. While the ref had taken a measured approach to the opening 45 mins, he'd begun to dish out cards like nobody's business. It is Christmas after all.
Wilson beat his man and was set away, similar to his goal against Hull, and was 1 V 1 with the keeper. While many will say he 'fluffed it', this was one of many occasions he outran the opposition with the ball at his feet. That's a hard thing to do. Shane 'Currently on a 3 years driving ban' Duffy got just enough on Issy to cause him to blaze it over.
Then Cordoba turned up again, jumping into Mepham with his studs up. The ref didn't hesitate, second yellow, red, off, simple as that. But no, it's 2024 and the lad still thought he could calmly talk his way out of it, as if the official would turn and say 'you know what? when you put it like that, you're right. My mistake. I take it back'. Jog on sunny Jim, off you pop.
Moments later we pounced on them like some sort of dark feline creature might pounce on a small yellow domesticated bird. If only there was a better way to put that... Another set piece and another goal. Gerrup. Jobe broke some ankles and then smashed it home and a celebratory game of all-pile-on occurred by the north west flag. Not only had we scored but we'd scored by playing as a team. We saw an opportunity and took it. Well done Lads.
We then had a rough 10 minutes where 10-man Norwich still gave us a run for our money. RLB recognised this and began his usual substitution approach, Alese and O'Cheese for Cirkin and Issy. Adil provided a couple of great balls into the box just like he did last weekend. It’s a shame he can't get more first team minutes. To the groan of the masses, seven minutes of added time were announced, but we took this in our stride and managed to batter them for five of the seven.
Full time. 3 points in the bag.
We have a confident young creative team. RLB has brought us on leaps and bounds from the side that crumbled in the latter half of last season. Needless to say (but I’m going to say it anyway), we've got to fix the issues we're having dealing with and executing set pieces and signing a decent striker, or we could end up top-flight toast and nobody wants that. Having said that, it's all about the positive takeaways...
'Hey google, are Sunderland unbeaten at home this season?'
'Yes, Sunderland are one of four championship sides yet to be beaten at home this season'
Happy days. Let's keep it going.
Keep the faith.
GPD
