Does this really matter? Of course the getting knocked out of the Coca-Cola cup doesn’t matter much at all (although I do like cup runs). Will it have such a negative impact on our players that it affects our Premiership performances? Possibly not – we should still be capable of playing as well as we can (whatever that might be).
Maybe in the short term the largest impact is likely to be on us supporters. There are broadly three groups – those of us there (about 800); those listening closely to the radio; and those who just heard the result and will read some reports. The first two groups are likely to be the most depressed. The fact is we got beat 3-0 while playing (goalkeeper apart) nothing like a weakened team – it is quite possible that with Gordon in for Ward this could be the team that faces Reading in 2½ weeks time. However, the scoreline doesn’t do justice to how awful this was. It wasn’t that we were unlucky (even though we were a bit); it wasn’t that we were outfought (even though we were). It was that we were out played. Quite simply we were outclassed. How does that happen when no-one would deny that from 1 to 11 our players would be “better” than theirs on whatever measure one used?
I am sure readers are getting sick of me harking back to the 19 point and 15 point seasons. But it is inevitable that we will do that. Those teams were losers. Even in games when we should have won, losing was too ingrained and we could turn any advantage into a defeat. There is no way we can avoid the fear that once again we will become that. In particular the comparisons with last time are just too great. I am not one of those supporters who abuses Peter Reid or Mick McCarthy – both did great jobs for us even though both ultimately failed. McCarthy did a fantastic job to pull us around after the 19 point season, get us to the play-offs and then get us promoted as champions. His feat was as great as that of Keano last season. McCarthy then blew it. Yes, he did not have sufficient funds – but what funds he had he deployed appalling badly. He bought several players with no (or at best little) Premiership players who he thought could step up – but the chance of all of them stepping up together was minimal and in fact to a man they ended up being rubbish signings. He probably should have stuck to his promotion winning side and tried to just bring in a couple of really classy players (isn’t hindsight wonderful?). Instead he actually ended up in the Prem with a worse side than the one that had won promotion.
One couldn’t help but look out at the team last night and think “here we go again”. The side looked like losers. They even sounded like losers – or rather didn’t sound. It was a small crowd (just over 4k) and so you should have been able to hear the players communicating with each other. But there was hardly a peep from our players. It wasn’t helped by the fact that de facto we didn’t have a captain (Nosworthy nominally was captain for the night). Look then at the team – is this a team to stay in the Prem or a McCarthyite residue of a promotion winning side supplemented by some players who were good in their league but are going to have to perform a minor miracle to suddenly become collectively Premiership class?
Ward was in goal – the lad did great for us last season but was probably already playing above himself. He looked to have gone backwards last night – possibly a confidence thing with no longer being No. 1. He might have done better for the first goal from a free kick although the main culprit was the wall that the ball just seemed to pass through. For the second the problem was our non-working offside trap but Ward seemed to half come, half stay – inviting the lob. Getting Gordon instead of Kelvin the Klown will hopefully be the big distinguishing feature between last time and this time.
Along the back like Halford was again woeful. I thought he looked canny in pre-season but he has been awful since the real stuff started. Halford though is typical of McCathy/Keane syndrome – he looked great at Colchester in the Championship but is he going to turn into a Premiership player in time? His sending off was stupidity of the highest order – you are on a yellow so you handle the ball in the opposition half to stop a player heading down the wing?
Nosworthy is a cult hero and rightly so but, like Ward, he played above himself in the Championship last season. Is it likely that he can find yet another level to his play? Let’s hope so – but nothing last night suggested that would happen. Anderson looked OK I thought – but Premiership quality? The best you can say is “case not proven”. Wallace is not a left back. He might get away with it in the Championship (although ironically we never played him there). However, he is going to get cut to pieces by every decent Prem right winger. We ended up playing two players out of position on the wings – Leadbitter and Stokes. The two of them looked lively (Stokes in particular in the first half) but wide midfielders they are not. Etuhu I just don’t understand. He has had a number of positive reviews but I’ve never seen it. Gangling legs and continual poor passes hardly make a central midfielder. He picked up another booking last night – he seems to be averaging one per game.
Up front I am still hopeful for Chopra even though he fits into the McCarthy/Keane pattern of no proper Premiership experience but looked good in a lesser league. But Murphy? Give me strength. If we had failed to go up and were now involved in another Championship push I’d be despairing if we were still relying on him. But to have him as a first choice striker in the Premiership! Keep the razor blades away from me please. Not only did we not score last night – we rarely even looked like we were going to. In the second half when we were attacking the end we were at I can remember the keeper making one save.
There are two inevitable comparisons to be made. Both unfair but hey, I was borne a Sunderland supporter – don’t give me unfair. Fist a couple of months ago we came here and won 5-0 at a canter. Luton had been relegated and were pretty depressed. I suspect they have rebuilt well and credit to them for that. However, can they really have turned things round so much? Or is that losing mentality of ours now dictating our results? The second comparison is with Bury almost exactly 12 months ago when the then bottom of the Football League team knocked us out of the Coca-Cola cup. That was Quinny’s last game in “permanent” control (the next game Keane was in the stands with agreement to take over already reached). Handing over to Keane was the catalyst we needed to turn our losers into winners. What trick can we perform now to produce the same result?
I am not knocking Keane. He has tried to get Premiership quality players. But Sunderland is not an attractive proposition. We are a yo-yo club. We are in a catch 22. Premiership quality players aren’t going to come to us until they are convinced we are no longer a yo-yo club. But we can’t get ourselves to be a steady Premiership club without Premiership players. Therefore while we might go for, say, a Mido, we end up with a Kenwyne Jones. He of course might be great for us. But he (and Higginbottom) fit exactly into the McCarthy/Keane pattern that worries me so much.
When you get down to it you just have to pray that Keane can perform some magic on this lot (and that 3 other clubs are worse than us). On last night’s performance it will have to be some amazing bloody magic.
John aka Herts
