Last time I went to Blackburn in this festive period (it’s still my festive period) some dosy pillock ruined my day by forgetting to switch the undersoil heating on, at least this time a new “undersoil heater switcher on” was in place, first objective successful…..
Blackburn is really good for pubs, there’s a huge one almost adjacent the away end which is very inviting (they always have a banner up saying Welcome Sunderland – I bet they don’t do that for all the teams) but there’s a better one which is a little walk up a long hill. Normally the control freak in our group would have insisted upon going to the better pub but as he is trying his utmost to kill himself on a mountain in France and we that were left don’t have a brain between us we went to the former, The Fernhurst. Canny craic but nee home fans which kind of spoils it, I like going away and talking to other fans that aren’t as fortunate as ourselves.
When the team came up on the large screen at Blackburn I was completely confused, ok we had Gordon in goal and Collins, Higgy, Macca & Whitehead across the back but then we just had a multitude of left foot players to play either up front or in the middle – to be honest I’m still none the wiser now, after the event! Annoyingly we kicked towards our fans first half, I hate that as it means nee mental celebrations with our lot in injury time. We played without doubt the better football during the first half, we battled and harried them all over the park, we passed the ball as well as we have done all season and but for poor finishing and a lack of a second striker we could have been very comfortably ahead at half time – the fact that the Blackburn fans boo’d their lot off at half time tells you everything you need to know…. I went into the game fearing Santa Cruz, Pedersen, Bentley et al but it would be fair to say none of them scared me even a jot.
2nd half started off pretty much as was, although Jones’ absence due to injury became a huge blow for us, we simply didn’t have an option upfront anymore, an “out” ball if you like but we were still playing well… then disaster struck, we won and then missed a penalty. Won’t say too much on the pen but Deano, put your laces through it and pick a corner. As Roy Keane said we missed ours and then 10 minutes later (ish) they got their pen for handball and scored, just for the record Mcarthy put his laces through it and picked a corner.
As if that wasn’t a big enough blow, what happened next from the most experienced pro on the pitch was just ludicrous. Dwight Yorke lost the ball in midfield and proceeded to chase back (quite rightly) to atone for his error but then tackled badly from behind and unsurprisingly earned a yellow card – stupidity…no, no, let me tell you about stupidity – about 5 minutes later Dwight Yorke lost the ball in midfield and proceeded to chase back (quite rightly) to atone for his error but then tackled badly from behind and unsurprisingly earned another yellow card. Yorke what on earth was that all about? Surely a man of his experience could have learnt from the first stupid tackle and gone about the second a lot more surreptitiously, or even not tackled at all? On both occasions there were covering defenders who know how to tackle – leave them to it Yorke man. So that in a nutshell was that really, we never had the chance to bombard their goal, we did well without creating anything but Blackburn closed the game out and yet again we walk away from a game utterly frustrated at the way we snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Some fans on the final whistle chanted the “referee’s a wanker” and even though I am the world’s biggest ref hater I just don’t understand why they would chant that, sorry but he was left with nowhere to go on any of the decisions, maybe it was a spill over from the Arsenal game where he was absolute fucking shite (ahh that feels better) or maybe there was summit else.
The Hero – A joint award, firstly to each and every hardy soul that sat there in Siberian conditions and sang and sang again – Sunderland AFC are a bloody lucky club with support like ours, pats on the backs again lads and lasses. The 2nd part of the award goes to the lad who misheard the lady at the services. He asked if there was any hot food on and she advised (in a silly accent it has to be said) “I can do you a portion of chips” to which Banana Boy replied “Parsnip and chips, aye gan on then” – well done mate, it made the journey home very bearable.
The Villain – Dwight Yorke, you’re an idiot mate but I bet you know that
Happy New Year
TAFKARLC
(Paul)