Report on Tuesday’s match from our guest reporter…..TAFKARLC!
Can I start off by saying what a fantastic turnout by the lads and lasses in red and white, yes I appreciate that a lot of exiles find this an easy match to take in but even so, I take my hat off to the lads and lasses that made the slog down the M1 – made me feel guilty for only doing 25 miles!
Anyhoo the match….. It seems that it is a tradition for Sunderland teams to come to Watford and not wake up for the first ten minutes, true by the time Watford took the lead we had received half a chance from a free kick which Deano whacked into the wall but the defending that led to their goal was questionable to say the least – ho hum, 1-0 to the Golden Boys they sang, what followed was completely non-Sunderland like. Sunderland composed themselves, realised that there was a game here and proceeded to roll their sleeves up and get on with it. Elliott fired over with nothing more than half a chance but the build up play was steady, assured and at times incisive. Stevie Wright’s cross found Marcus Stewart and his header flashed wide, although he’ll have been relieved to see the offside flag. Watford often threatened on the counter and Ringo did some good stuff to deny Webber on a couple of occasions, Collins also looked composed and won some vital headers… then with the pressure mounting on the Hornets goal, Jeffrey picked out Elliott with a superb defence splitting pass (please note, not sideways, nor backwards) and the little gem slid the ball under the floundering keeper and into the old onion bag. Surprisingly we kept the pressure on, Elliott turning and firing a left footer in which caused no problem, then Hoolio’s well floated freekick was tipped over, we were on a roll. A bit of ping pong in the area resulted in Sean Dyche trying to beat his own keeper and then almost on half time Deano’s volley ws deflected wide by someone’s backside, half time came and I must admit I felt we played canny.
The second half started brightly enough and Whitehead forced a save from the keeper with a rasping drive then Stewy nicked the ball and fired just wide. Then we went to sleep… no not us the fans but the lads on the pitch, for some inexplicable reason we just could not get a foothold in the game and the impressive Dyer worried the hell out of our defence – for all their domination there weren’t any clear cut chances, infact the closest either side seemed to come when was when Ringo raced into the area and smacked the all straight at the keeper when a cutback was probably the better option…. that is until POOOOOOM performed his now compulsory wonder save – Webber broke through against the worringly out of sorts Lugsy and sent a cracking shot in which somehow our wonderful Estonian marra turned round the post… that was about that, Mickey came on to his adoring public but failed to make any real impression although it was that sort of fast and furious game that subs struggle to make an impact on – he’s still GOD.
Overall, pleased as owt with a point after the second half showing and in any case I said 4 points from the next 2 would be good so roll on Rotherham
Quick player comments:
Poom – steady all night and a wonderful save at the end
Wright – very very dodgy performance
Caldwell – please can someone tell him that he can’t pass a ball 30 yards diagonally ALL of the time
Collins – looks good enough to me, probably help him with someone like Breen alongside
Mcartney – hmmm… did some canny stuff going forward and some canny crap stuff at the back
Hoolio – some wonderful touches, best game for a while for me
Whitley – superb assist to his credit and not a bad holding job
Robbo – went missing again for long parts of the game, not sure he’s the answer for these scraps
Whitehead – he ain’t a winger but god he grafts his arse off for the cause
Stewart – hard to be too critical as its his first start for eons but looked a bit lost at times
Elliott – man of the match by a country mile, looked knackered when he was subbed but ran his backside off
Subs:
Liam Westlife – Got no service so we couldn’t see the best of him
Browny – came in too late to warrant much comment
Bridges – one superb ball to Hoolio but still looks short of match practice, thats all though… he’s still got it believe me!
