Game Results

League Cup

Sunderland 4-1 over Norwich Shiity err City

With any match report I only report the Black Cats who score, because if you want to know about the other team, read their blog. (I’m greedy).

Teeemu, Andy Reid (two goals)

Reaction from Black Cats Boss Steve Bruce

“Andy Reid’s done extremely well with his fitness and conditioning – he’s come back and lost something like nine kilos from last year. All he can do is play like that and he’s posed a few questions.

“That’s the nice part of management, when you’ve got people knocking on the door, so we’ll see what happens.

“It was the first time I’ve seen Craig Gordon live and he made two or three wonderful saves. We were comfortable but the goalkeeper’s had to make a couple of really important saves.”

I almost don’t want to report on the next match we’ve played because it wasn’t a win, and it wasn’t against Stoke. And then bug me to no end, they’re just so boring. But we lost 1-0 and that stinks.

Reaction from Black Cat Boss Steve Bruce

“Our Achilles heel was to defending corner kicks.

“Bolton, Blackburn and now Stoke have asked the questions and three out of five goals we’ve conceded have been from set pieces.

“We were more spirited in the second half but couldn’t deliver that final ball into the box.”

Sunderland: Gordon; Kay, Ferdinand, Collins, McCartney; Edwards, Leadbitter, Reid, Malbranque; Murphy, Healy. Subs: Colgan, Bardsley, Whitehead, Richardson, Yorke, Colback, Luscombe.

Blackburn: Robinson; Simpson, Nelson, Givet, Khizanishvili; Treacy, Mokoena, Dunn, Villanueva; Santa Cruz, Roberts. Subs: Bunn, Ooijer, Tugay, McCarthy, Pedersen, Olsson, Doran.

Referee: Phil Dowd.

Well, that’s all I want to say about the match, but I’ll go on. We lost 2-1 because Benni McCarthy has a good foot. Well, that and he was facing a keeper who has been out on injury for a bit. Never a good sign.

What Ricky said after the match: “”But we didn’t put away our chances and then we switched off. We shouldn’t have given a free-kick away and then we switched off when it was taken.

“We really need to be able to see games out, we’re not doing it. At 1-0, we should take control of the game and dictate it better but Blackburn came back.

“On too many occasions we’ve gone one up and not seen the game out, it’s disappointing.”

The only goal for us came: 7 mins: Goal Blackburn 0 Sunderland 1 Murphy’s left-foot shot is deflected into the path of Healy and he finishes well into the corner, it’s a great strike.

Ok, so lets hope this can be the last time we see Blackburn? (looking at the fixtures, it is) I’m sick of writing about them. I’d rather write a recap on Notts County or Wimbledon than the freaking Rovers. Not to get into some smack talk but, I just don’t see their relevance to the league. They really haven’t done anything since winning the league in the 90’s.

Sunderland (from): Gordon, Fulop, Colgan, Bardsley, Ferdinand, Collins, Kay, Hartley, McCartney, Edwards, Malbranque, Whitehead, Richardson, Leadbitter, Yorke, Tainio, Reid, Murphy, Healy, Cisse, Jones.

Just when you think you’ve seen the Rovers enough, we play them again. I wish for once, we’d play another team, I mean come on.

Some more Match facts from BBC Sport:

HEAD to HEAD

All competitions

This is the fifth time these clubs will have met this season. Prior to this tie; Blackburn won 1-2 at the Stadium of Light in the fourth round of the Carling Cup, but Sunderland had the better of the exchanges in the league, winning 1-2 at Ewood Park and drawing 0-0 on their own patch.

FA Cup

This is the sixth time Sunderland and Blackburn have been drawn together in the competition. Blackburn have progressed in all five of the previous occasions.

So what’s my fearless prediction? Well, I hope that the Black Cats win 1-0, with Cisse getting a late goal.

I guess I’ll take the tie, it’s better than being taken out of the FA Cup. (Something we need to be in anyway). While, another match isn’t what these two teams wanted. At some level, yes you want to keep playing games, but your body can’t take as many games without wearing themselves out.

I wish I could give you a run down of the scoring, but it was a nil nil tie. To the typical American Soccer fan (sorry folks, I am), this is boring. It just shows that the Black Cats need to beat Fulham and beat them soundly.

Do I expect a loss? HELL NO. But I do expect like a lot of our matches, that this will be a close one, and could get even better if Ricky signs a defender tonight. (oh and drops McShit back to the Unibond leagues. Or better yet, send him to America and to the NPSL. I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t be ripping on footballers, but he’s a professional and can take it.

Anyway, sorry for the digression. I think the score will be 1-0 Black Cats, with Cisse getting a goal in the second half, just after the 70th minute.

Of course we know all about Blackburn, since they’re a big club, and we recently played them But what do we know about Blyth? Well from their official website:

The history of Blyth Spartans is not complete without reference to the teams FA Cup exploits. Having beaten a number of league clubs over the years the club reached the 5th round of the FA Cup in 1977/78. Having beaten Chesterfield and Stoke City the club drew 1-1 with Wrexham before loosing 2-1 in a replay at St James Park watched by a crowd of 42167! Yes 42167!

Well, if I may say so, I want Blackburn to lose. Not only because it would be a neat story for Blyth to get to the fourth round, but I don’t want to see Blackburn so soon after our last match.

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For some, this could be a good way to work out the kinks and get us another win (and winning money).

General news:
• Sunderland are currently 15th in the Barclays Premier League, following their 3-0 defeat at Everton on Sunday.
• They’re just a point away from Bolton, who are 11th in the league on 23 points.
• Sunderland have won three games at home this season (Middlesbrough, Newcastle and West Brom), drawn two (Arsenal and Blackburn) and lost five (Liverpool, Man City, Portsmouth, West Ham and Bolton).
• League form guide: L L W W D L

Match officials:
• The referee on Saturday is Steve Bennett from Kent, who took charge of Sunderland’s 2-1 defeat at home to Portsmouth earlier this season. Mr Bennett has so far issued 70 yellow cards and one red card in 16 games so far this season.
• His assistants are Glenn Turner and Jeremy Simpson, and the fourth official is Clive Oliver.

(taken from Sunderland’s amazing website)

What do I think is going to happen during the game? Well, I hope that the Blackcats will win pretty soundly, and make Bolton useless again.

Prediction?

Sunderland 3-1.

Jones, Cisse, Steed!

What a better thing to talk about, than one of our greatest days? May 5th, 1973. For most young Sunderland Fans, that’s the day when we won our last FA Cup. It’s especially fun to think we beat Leeds. But the great thing with the Internet is that you can find amazing amounts of stuff about anything. The side was led by the amazing Bob Stokoe.

It was a one goal game for the Black Cats. Fortunately, that’s all was needed to bring home the second FA cup in club history. 31 minutes into the game, Sunderland took the lead as Vic Halom chested down a corner from Billy Hughes. Halom took a ball through two defenders and kicked the ball ahead. The high ball controlled by Ian Porterfield, who took the ball past the Leeds goalie David Harvey for the only score of the game.

Now, wouldn’t it be great to go back and see that game? Unfortunately science hasn’t progressed to the point where we can go back in time. However, with the use of Youtube, we can get a feel for the game.

As I have said above, that was our second FA Cup, the first one coming in 1937. So historically speaking the next time you’ll see an FA Cup paraded in Sunderland, 2037. Yikes. I hope, that like usual my math is off. Could we with the right gaffer (SGE?) do it in the next three years? Oh boy I hope so. To take away a cup from one of the big clubs, would be a great slap in the face in of the establishment.

Isn’t it nice to finish a game 1-0? It means, three points, or a Cup win!!! It also shows at least to my eyes how good our defense could be turning back run after run. Now, would our current side be able to do that? Hmm, outside of the Manchester United game, I don’t know. I hope so, but we’ve only had two clean sheets this year. Middlesbrough (why do they exist?) and Fulham. While the Black Cats won’t hold everyone goalless, it would be a great step for the club to get some more wins under their belts. Let’s start the next winning streak against West Brom Albion.

I plan to make a historical blog every week, because we must never forget where we came from. We must always respect our old boys, and remember what the good times were like, so the younger generations can fully understand what it means to be a Sunderland supporter.

Before I leave for today, I’m going to leave you with the FA Cup.

See you guys again, on the weekend!

• Rumor has it Roy Keane is interested in US int’l midfielder Michael Bradley (whom the Mirror values at £3m). Bradley, son of US manager Bob Bradley, is currently in double plus good form for Dutch club Heerenveen, having scored 8 goals in the past 8 games. His coach at Heerenveen is cautious, but says, “He is ready though for the step to a top club. Bradley has a great mentality; he will always make it… I am almost certain that he will make it elsewhere.”

  (English fans may also get a chance to see Bradley wearing the USA kit if this rumor is true, that the US will play England in a friendly at Wembley on June 28.)

• Kieran Richardson is back in full training, and with an extra week between games he may be fit for the trip to Portsmouth Feb 23. Keano is adamant though that he’s not going to repeat his mistake from Anfield and rush Kieran back if he is not entirely ready. Also taking advantage of the extra week, Grant Leadbitter, Danny Higginbotham and new arrival Andy Reid continue to work off their respective injuries. Leadbitter and Reid saw action as subs during last weekend’s win over Wigan, and Higgs is nearly back from his broken toe.
• Keane has sent the players to the Lakes District for more team morale/bonding type stuff. This day of “quad-biking, clay pigeon shooting [and] sheep-penning” is reminiscent of last September’s boot camp, and joins other team building days which have included white-water rafting, paint-balling, go-karting and mountain biking.
• Turning to the kiddos, Sunderland youths defeated Liverpool to move into the quarterfinals of the FA Youth Cup. Martyn Waghorn, 18, who has gotten a couple run-outs with the first team under Roy Keane, scored 2 goals in the 5-3 extra time affair.