Paris Mackem
Midfield
My Chelsea mate said that they were very average on Saturday but that Newcastle were just sh*te... he asked about our lot and how much longer for Reidy..... Here is the response I sent to him :
Hi Niall,
For me, Saturday was the watershed. Any lingering doubts about whether Reidy could turn things around were stunningly dispelled during a disasterous display on an afternoon where total and utter despondancy was the order of the day.
It wasn't as though we started-off badly. First half we spent mainly in their half without ever looking convincing and without ever looking like scoring - save for an effort from Matty Piper from which Van De Saar made a good save. It was like waiting for the inevitable and the inevitable eventually happened. The ball fell to Inamoto and he sent a well placed shot diagonally across goal and into the inside side netting. From then on the rot began to set in and to grow increasingly worse. The 2nd half is probably the most soul-destroying 45 minutes of football I have ever sat through as a life long Sunderland Supporter. Ok, we've had relegations and bad defeats before, we've even been as low as the old Division 3 but never have I been as low as I was at ten-to five on Saturday afternoon in an empty Stadium of Light. In the past there has always been HOPE. An old Sunderland adage is the phrase "It's The Hope I Can't Stand" (ITHICS) - even when we've fought relegation we've battled and we've had hope.... What marked Saturday for me was the realisation that we have no long-term hope while the current management and coaching regime remain in place.
It is hard for anyone who was not there on Saturday afternoon to fully comprehend what went on. Driving back after the match I listened to Six-o-Six on Radio Five Live.... a Sunderland fan called in from the M3 to say that Reidy should be given more time, the team need time to gel, etc etc. I just carried on driving and thought "No,No,No unless you were there and experienced that complete hollowness in the pit of your stomach, then you just simply can't comprehend".
Today, it has come to much more than 'putting things right on the pitch'. Peter Reid has lost the fans and when you lose the fans you lose any hope of retrieving the situation. All this has not just happened over the last few weeks. Sunderland fans have suffered 21 months of abject misery and awful performances. The Reid In Reid out debate took hold last season and has refused to go away and has divided sections of the fan base. The Leeds and Man. U results gave us a shock and a real lift, from an all-time low we suddenly had a 'new hope' injection - 4 points when we expected 0 was a major shot in the arm. We then had Boro away and Fulham at home, surely we could pick up 3 or 4 points from those two..... Boro was bad enough, but then Fulham at home. Six goals against and none scored... Nope, I'm afraid he has lost the fans and from the body language on Saturday, the players have gone too.
Firstly, it hurts when you get to kick-off at 3-o-clock and you look around the ground and it is less than three-quarters full. Admittedly Fulham didn't bring very many but 13,000 Sunderland Supporters have voted with their feet since last seasons debacle. Once upon a time you would go to a game and wait for the spark that would kick-start the Roker Roar. Now we go and we wait for the spark that will kick-start the SOL boo-boys. The chants are stuck in your throat choking the life out of you as you wait for the first boo. Reidy had it last season. Kevin Kilbane has been hounded out. On Saturday, a young lad named Tommy Butler who is Kilbanes replacement started getting the treatment and was hauled off. Tommy Sorensen, our best keeper for years made a few bollocks and screwed-up for the 2nd goal and he got the treatment too.. people started to get up and leave making an all ready seemingly empty stadium even emptier... When the 3rd went in, can't remember the timing now but I think we still had about 15 or 20 minutes to go, about half the remaining fans just stood-up and walked out en-mass. It was almost heart-breaking. The fans were leaving in their droves. The players on the pitch were playing like 11 total strangers. I sit quite close to the pitch. I can see their faces and I can hear the players when they are close to me. You could tell that they were dying out there and couldn't wait to get off the pitch. I looked across at the 2 dugouts. The Fulham one was compact. Management & Subs sat together intently watching the game... the Sunderland one, Reidy stood at the back slumped & leaning against the back corner, a coach here... a few spare seats... someone slumped back in seat, his legs outstretched resting on a cool-box..an empty seat, a player in the row of seats behind, head-in-hands, feet on the back of the chair in front. The dug-out resembled the team, a shambles...... and more fans got up, turned their backs and walked out.
Should Reid go? Yes, I think the time has come. He has given us 7 years solid service. Given us some of our greatest moments as Sunderland Supporters but sometimes you reach a point where you have done as much as you can do and you can do no more. The old motivational tactics become 'old-hat' and no longer work. I believe that we have reached that stage now with Peter Reid. He should go now while most of us still remember him fondly. I think he should go NOW. There is a BIG game looming on Saturday. Three things could happen. We could beat Newcastle again at Sid James's and Reid would win another little reprieve (just as with Leeds and Man U), but eventually the fans that he has lost will turn on him again. We could lose, we could get thumped and Reid will become even more vilified. He doesn't deserve that after what he has done for us. We could play out a draw, Reid could survive until our next home game against Aston Villa.... if that goes pear-shaped then the place will go ballistic and he will be hounded out. So Go Now. Let's face the Mags either without a manager or with a new guy in place who won't get blamed.... even managerless we could raise our game into something better than we witnessed during the last 45 minutes of 'soccer'.
For me, the only way the atmosphere at Sunderland will change from waiting for the boo's into waiting for the cheers, will be for a new manager to take the reins - to lift the fans and to lift the players too.
Does that explain it?
Cheers,
Hi Niall,
For me, Saturday was the watershed. Any lingering doubts about whether Reidy could turn things around were stunningly dispelled during a disasterous display on an afternoon where total and utter despondancy was the order of the day.
It wasn't as though we started-off badly. First half we spent mainly in their half without ever looking convincing and without ever looking like scoring - save for an effort from Matty Piper from which Van De Saar made a good save. It was like waiting for the inevitable and the inevitable eventually happened. The ball fell to Inamoto and he sent a well placed shot diagonally across goal and into the inside side netting. From then on the rot began to set in and to grow increasingly worse. The 2nd half is probably the most soul-destroying 45 minutes of football I have ever sat through as a life long Sunderland Supporter. Ok, we've had relegations and bad defeats before, we've even been as low as the old Division 3 but never have I been as low as I was at ten-to five on Saturday afternoon in an empty Stadium of Light. In the past there has always been HOPE. An old Sunderland adage is the phrase "It's The Hope I Can't Stand" (ITHICS) - even when we've fought relegation we've battled and we've had hope.... What marked Saturday for me was the realisation that we have no long-term hope while the current management and coaching regime remain in place.
It is hard for anyone who was not there on Saturday afternoon to fully comprehend what went on. Driving back after the match I listened to Six-o-Six on Radio Five Live.... a Sunderland fan called in from the M3 to say that Reidy should be given more time, the team need time to gel, etc etc. I just carried on driving and thought "No,No,No unless you were there and experienced that complete hollowness in the pit of your stomach, then you just simply can't comprehend".
Today, it has come to much more than 'putting things right on the pitch'. Peter Reid has lost the fans and when you lose the fans you lose any hope of retrieving the situation. All this has not just happened over the last few weeks. Sunderland fans have suffered 21 months of abject misery and awful performances. The Reid In Reid out debate took hold last season and has refused to go away and has divided sections of the fan base. The Leeds and Man. U results gave us a shock and a real lift, from an all-time low we suddenly had a 'new hope' injection - 4 points when we expected 0 was a major shot in the arm. We then had Boro away and Fulham at home, surely we could pick up 3 or 4 points from those two..... Boro was bad enough, but then Fulham at home. Six goals against and none scored... Nope, I'm afraid he has lost the fans and from the body language on Saturday, the players have gone too.
Firstly, it hurts when you get to kick-off at 3-o-clock and you look around the ground and it is less than three-quarters full. Admittedly Fulham didn't bring very many but 13,000 Sunderland Supporters have voted with their feet since last seasons debacle. Once upon a time you would go to a game and wait for the spark that would kick-start the Roker Roar. Now we go and we wait for the spark that will kick-start the SOL boo-boys. The chants are stuck in your throat choking the life out of you as you wait for the first boo. Reidy had it last season. Kevin Kilbane has been hounded out. On Saturday, a young lad named Tommy Butler who is Kilbanes replacement started getting the treatment and was hauled off. Tommy Sorensen, our best keeper for years made a few bollocks and screwed-up for the 2nd goal and he got the treatment too.. people started to get up and leave making an all ready seemingly empty stadium even emptier... When the 3rd went in, can't remember the timing now but I think we still had about 15 or 20 minutes to go, about half the remaining fans just stood-up and walked out en-mass. It was almost heart-breaking. The fans were leaving in their droves. The players on the pitch were playing like 11 total strangers. I sit quite close to the pitch. I can see their faces and I can hear the players when they are close to me. You could tell that they were dying out there and couldn't wait to get off the pitch. I looked across at the 2 dugouts. The Fulham one was compact. Management & Subs sat together intently watching the game... the Sunderland one, Reidy stood at the back slumped & leaning against the back corner, a coach here... a few spare seats... someone slumped back in seat, his legs outstretched resting on a cool-box..an empty seat, a player in the row of seats behind, head-in-hands, feet on the back of the chair in front. The dug-out resembled the team, a shambles...... and more fans got up, turned their backs and walked out.
Should Reid go? Yes, I think the time has come. He has given us 7 years solid service. Given us some of our greatest moments as Sunderland Supporters but sometimes you reach a point where you have done as much as you can do and you can do no more. The old motivational tactics become 'old-hat' and no longer work. I believe that we have reached that stage now with Peter Reid. He should go now while most of us still remember him fondly. I think he should go NOW. There is a BIG game looming on Saturday. Three things could happen. We could beat Newcastle again at Sid James's and Reid would win another little reprieve (just as with Leeds and Man U), but eventually the fans that he has lost will turn on him again. We could lose, we could get thumped and Reid will become even more vilified. He doesn't deserve that after what he has done for us. We could play out a draw, Reid could survive until our next home game against Aston Villa.... if that goes pear-shaped then the place will go ballistic and he will be hounded out. So Go Now. Let's face the Mags either without a manager or with a new guy in place who won't get blamed.... even managerless we could raise our game into something better than we witnessed during the last 45 minutes of 'soccer'.
For me, the only way the atmosphere at Sunderland will change from waiting for the boo's into waiting for the cheers, will be for a new manager to take the reins - to lift the fans and to lift the players too.
Does that explain it?
Cheers,
