When Plymouth fans begin chanting ‘easy, easy’ you realise just how bad our football club has become. After being relegated as the worst team in football history you’d think that things can’t get any worse and that the only way we can go is up.
However, Sunderland are proving that theory wrong. Three straight defeats and things don’t look like changing, not soon anyway. The whole team is filled with gutless footballers; things definitely need to change and fast. We need to get rid of some of the many players who are simply going through the motions each game.
We started the game well, going one nil up in the opening two minutes, I started to believe that maybe today is the day we begin turning the corner and revive this football club. However the lead only lasted five minutes, after Plymouth scored their first the familiar feeling, which we all had last season came back. When the ball hit the back of the net you could sense all of the enthusiasm the fans had before the game and which had grown after Daryl Murphy opened the scoring, left quickly. We played abysmally for the rest of the first half but seemed at least to be heading for the break on level terms. Until a poor Alnwick goal kick eventually led to a weak attempted back pass from Cunningham, which presented the veteran Hayles with the seemingly easy task of rounding the statuesque Alnwick and passing the ball into an empty net for Argyle’s second. 1-2
Half time, no magic carpet ride on the horizon!
The second half started as poorly as the first ended. The introduction of Jon Stead and Chris Brown seemed to improve things and we began pushing for the equaliser.
Stead played a great diagonal ball to Murphy and from Murphy’s cross came our second goal, neatly headed in by Stephen Elliott. With the crowds hopes lifted the lads began pressing for the winner and a much needed three points. However, it was Plymouth who scored the third and decisive goal totally against the run of play, yet an all too familiar story for the Sunderland faithful. Diabolical defending from Collins lead to the winner, twice the Welshman could have headed the ball back to Alnwick but he failed to attempt it both times, instead he tried a bicycle kick when Chadwick was bearing down on him. Collins made no contact whatsoever with the ball and Chadwick had an easy chance to score past Alnwick. Neither team played with any attacking flair and were both as bad as each other. No disrespect to Plymouth but we should be beating teams like them comfortably at the SOL.
There are just over two weeks left until the transfer window closes, Quinn needs to make changes quickly. We need to get some class in midfield, someone who can make decisive tackles and who can also open up the opposing teams, hopefully we have already found this in Reira which is yet to be seen. The defence definitely needs some improvement they’ve looked vulnerable since day one and don’t look like improving. Those aren’t the only two areas which need improvement; we still need a natural goal scorer something this club has been lacking for a while. For the future of SAFC and the fans sanity improvements must come soon or the magic carpet ride will begin to look like a British Airways 747……grounded!
Man of the Match – Jon Stead, the only player that showed any class.