Were they shyte or were we totally unplayable? Best performance I have seen from us for a very very long time.
We were class first half and good second half. That team, formation and performance would’ve battered any team, stay unchanged unless injury forces it.
And that's with Gooch was no where near his best, Onien is still getting match fit and our full backs are no where near full fitness. We can get a hell of a lot better
The OP is usually optimistic and there’s a lot to be said for that, but we are sixth and four of the five clubs above us have games in hand. Simple maths woukd suggest that gaining second place is not as easy as the OaP suggests.
Bit of both, McGeady was awesome and Wyke was lethal but if you concede literally the exact same goal four times in a row the defence has some questions to answer.
That was a deliberate exaggeration on the back of people saying how we should fear Doncaster, give up on automatic promotion and accept 'the fact' we won't be promoted. The reality is that there's a long way to go and the teams above us all have to play each other so bound to drop points. The results, yesterday, show that the top teams are quite likely to have bad results. Teams like Lincoln have to come here and yesterday shows we should fear no one. The 'poor home form' theory was blown out of the water yesterday and Burge turned out not to be the worst keeper on the pitch. I didn't suggest it would be easy to go up ... ... just saying we can't give up especially when we have so many good players.
A couple of obvious crucial observations from looking at the table.. A lot of teams around us have games in hand... they have to lose them. We have the fewest defeats but the most draws... long may Wyke's goals continue and Burge saving penalties.
That's true, and the next batch of games may help. These are some of the 'six pointers' before we next have a game of that type. Our next 5 games are teams out of the promotion battle and we really need to build up our confidence, momentum and points. Doncaster v Hull Ipswich v Oxford Utd Hull v Ipswich Oxford v Portsmouth Ipswich v Doncaster Doncaster v Portsmouth Oxford Utd v Charlton
Crazy league this year. If we could string a few wins together then are fortunes could look much brighter very quickly.
For Smug and Raw, wins in football change everything. Burge even after an in off his head og, he kept on... Wyke and Mcgeady obviously worked well. I thought it would be the new players that would transform our game but it was the old guard. I hope the tinpot Cup is not a distraction and we do not get any injuries from it..play the reserves and not Wyke and Mcgeady
That was one crazy game yesterday. When you think of the criticism Mcgeady, (4 assists), Wyke (4 goals) and Burge (two penalty saves) have got. I read this yesterday. "Charlie Wyke and Lee Burge made history at the Stadium of Light as Sunderland thrashed Doncaster Rovers to reignite their promotion challenge. Wyke became the first man to score four goals in a game at the stadium, while Burge became the first goalkeeper to save two penalties in one game since the club moved home in 1997. Wyke scored a first-half hat-trick with Aiden McGeady providing all three assists. Burge then scored an unfortunate own goal when the ball came back off the post and hitting him before crossing the line. But Wyke added then added the fourth, with McGeady again the architect. That made Wyke the first Sunderland player to score four times in a game since Kevin Phillips did so in a 5-2 win at Bury in April 1999, and the first to do so on Wearside since Craig Russell did so in a 6-0 win against Millwall at Roker Park in December 1995." Hopefully we build on that now. I've been hoping for a click, the signs were there it could happen. Last week was a disappointment but to come back with that display is brilliant.
We are not chasing Hull for automatic promotion. Hull will be out of the automatic promotion spots by months end. 2 from: SAFC, Hull, Charleton, Stanley & Oxford make the playoffs.
Looking at that list Oxford and Donny have a difficult period coming up. Donny's games in hand could be meaningless after that run of games......but in the other hand, strange league this year as others have said.
Just watched the highlights and thought Donny were very neat and tidy with very little in the final third. Their goal was a complete fluke as was their first penalty award so 4-1 flattered them imo and if that's what a team on a so called good run have got then I Don't think we have a lot to worry about. Mind being 0-2 down before you've got warmed up doesn't help.
To get Automatic Promotion we will need at least 85 points and probably 90. We currently have 44 from 27 games.11wins,11 draws and 5 losses and are on track for 75 points. We have 19 games left with a possible 57 points up for grabs. To reach 85 we need 41 points more, that is a minimum of 11 wins with 8 draws and no losses. To reach 89 we need 45 points more, that is a minimum of 13 wins with 6 draws and no losses. Looks tough but if we can reproduce yesterdays form who knows, we need an Oxford/Man City winning run!!
Interesting form table. We're 7th in form. Only 2 teams in the top 6, also in the top 6 on form: Posh & Donny. Posh & Oxford the only top6 form teams we have not played our last 8 matches. Gives some context to our recent results. https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/league-one/form-guide
