Latest ticket news
The F A Cup
Sunderland AFC v Northwich Victoria FC
Sunday 8th January, 3.00pm kickoff
Sunderland Stadium of Light
Tickets are now on general sale.
Adults £10, U16's £5, Senior Citizens £5.
If you enrolled on the Cup Payment Scheme at the beginning of the season, your ticket should have been sent to you automatically.
FA Barclays Premiership
Sunderland AFC v Chelsea FC
Sunday 15th January, 4.00pm kickoff
Sunderland Stadium of Light
Tickets are now on general sale.
This is a category A fixture.
FA Barclays Premiership
West Bromwich Albion v Sunderland AFC
Saturday 21st January, 5.15pm kickoff
The Hawthorns
Tickets are now on general sale.
Adults - £25
Senior citizens - £13
U16's - £1
FA Barclays Premiership
Sunderland AFC v Middlesbrough FC
Tuesday 31st January, 7.45pm kickoff
Sunderland Stadium of Light
Tickets are now on general sale.
This is a category A fixture.
FA Barclays Premiership
West Ham United v Sunderland AFC
Saturday 4th February, 3.00pm kickoff
Upton Park
Season ticket holders have until 5.30pm on Thursday 19th January to apply, using voucher 47.
General sale will commence at 10am on Tuesday 24th January, subject to availability.
Adults - £30
Senior Citizens - £16
Juniors (U16) - £16
Fulham report: You don't know what you're doing?
Fulham is not a bad game for a Bank Holiday. Plenty of decent boozers and a tidy little ground with a decent away end. A good following (although disappointingly the allocation was not quite sold out – there were a couple of rows empty at the front in one block) was in good festive voice. Fulham is unique in the Premiership (and perhaps the league) in having a “neutral” end next to the away end where both home and away fans can buy tickets. They are not unique in having close to no atmosphere. I am not one of those who looks back at the “good old days” and pretends that home crowds were always rip roaring, but the lack of passion at most Premiership grounds is quite striking. Football is pretty crap (ask Americans – they are right- nothing happens almost all the time). The only thing that makes it as attractive to us is the excessive partisanship. If we are just there to watch the match then crowds are going to fall even further.
Mick made one change to the starting line-up, bringing in Le Tallec for Andy Gray. Gray could count himself lucky to be on the bench. The competition is pretty tough but I am struggling to think of a worse performance by a player in a red and white shirt than Gray in the first 40 minutes that he was on against Everton. He was truly shocking.
We actually took an early (very early – six minutes) lead – Lawrence with a long distance screamer along the lines of his landfill effort. It is a nice goal to watch but frankly those sort of goals are freaks – they are lovely when they come along but we are still failing to find the bread and butter approach to goal – ball in box, striker gets scruffy foot or head to it. The rest of the half Fulham were looking to get back but we always looked comfortable. Fulham were attacking towards us and Davis had no more than fairly easy balls to pick up. At the other end we got a couple of shots on goal – but nothing looking particularly dangerous. So we were looking forward to the relief of half-time when the inevitable happened. A ball came bouncing into our box in slow motion and one of their players got a soft header that he shouldn’t have been allowed. The ball looped towards goal and with Davis stretching it nestled comfortably into the corner. Shit.
Second half and things were going along similar lines when a through ball sent one of their men away. Caldwell was with him and the striker went over. I had a pretty poor view down in row D at the other end but my first reaction was “he’s off”. Those of you who have seen the telly might feel differently. Certainly McCarthy after the match was talking about appealing. Nothing came of the free kick just outside the box but it didn’t matter because a few minutes later another easy ball into the box went in.
The most controversial moment (from an SAFC supporter’s point of view) came with the substitutions McCarthy made to deal with being down to 10 men. Stead, Le Tallec and Hoyte went off. Gray, Murphy and Nosworthy came on. Stead, as he has been for the last few games was by far our best player. Once again he had had to do a lot of running around and probably was somewhat tired – therefore maybe not best placed to lead the line in a ten man team. However, the away crowd saw this as a Stead for Gray swap and were livid. It is the first time I have heard widespread criticism of McCarthy (quite remarkable considering where we are – but I think there is a worry that attacking McCarthy for our predicament is letting Murray off the hook). There were loud boos and a strong chorus of “you don’t know what you’re doing”. I didn’t join in – it is just not in my nature – but I could fully understand why so many were angry. In the SwC at the SoL we have generally been singing support for McCarthy. It will be interesting to see if that continues (not on Sunday as that is weird – but at the next home league game) or whether this is a turning point. What it won’t be for me is a “turn to Keegan the Coward” point. That rumour looks like complete bollox – or it may be that having bottled every other challenge, he has pre-bottled this one and surrendered before he’s even started. Either way I don’t want the yeller bastid at our club.
We of course didn’t equalise – we don’t do we? Davis did make one great save from a free-kick. A lot of time was wasted (for which Gallagher added on the laughable 3 minutes) but it made no difference – we weren’t going to score. Ironically Gray wasn’t actually that bad. But maybe I am just judging him by the appallingly low standards of his performance on Saturday.
The players still got applauded at the end – which I know annoys some people – but personally I don’t hold any grudge against most of the players and generally I do think they are trying. Once they are on the pitch what more can we ask? The thought of travelling the country booing these lads seems somewhat perverse. I did join in the singing for Jon Stead as they were going off. Sadly I think that will be seen as anti-McCarthy, which is unfortunate. I’d much rather be explicitly anti-McCarthy than hide behind support for a player McCarthy brought in and stood by when he was absolute pants earlier on in the season.
Pathetically I am hoping for a mini-run in the FA Cup. It would be nice to have a few meaningful games to watch as a break from this week in, week out waiting for the Championship (perhaps Samuel Beckett could write a play based on us).
