Match Day Thread Sunderland AFC v Cardiff City FC– Sunday 24th September 2023 - KO 15:00

Those were the days ...

... when Ballard, Ekwah and Ba were being written off

 

Shows how much a league can change over a season, out of the 4 playoff teams we were the only one in top half at this stage.

 

11 goals in 3 games.... but yesterday our problem was a striker

 

Was their goal an OG by Ballard? Really hard to tell on the highlights

 

If you look at the premier league table perhaps it was a good thing not getting promoted.
I know we would get lots of money but we would almost certainly be getting stuffed or outplayed every game just like the 3 promoted teams occupying the bottom three places with one point each.
It’s much better watching the lads now.
The thing is, we are getting lots of young ‘uns in who are good already and will be getting better. When we get the likes of the Jewi’s and Aldi’s fully up to speed we should be able to at least compete to stay in the Premiership which I’ve no doubt we will be getting into in maybe two seasons time.
This season may just be one too early although it’s possible we might go up.

For me, MotM was their goalie.

 

Don't think there is much need for all this panic, in the three we have lost we have hardly been outplayed, outfought or outthought. If anything we have been unfortunate to lose the games as those teams have held on and got a couple of against the run of play goals! These things happen and it doesn't get you any points to 'probably deserve more' from a match but one thing it should do is stop fans being pessimistic about defeats!

Nothing to worry about so far, the complete opposite in fact!

 

I remember when Stewart failed to score, in match after match, at a critical time in L1, right at the end of the season ...

... having a striker doesn't mean you'll always win games.

 

No, I think it skims off Ballard then hits their player who was having the tussle with O'Nien.

 

And we have the joint top scorer in the league

 

Where is all this panic, it was a very disappointing result yesterday and our home form has been our Achilles heel, and Tony got a few things wrong yesterday, there's no harm in saying it on a football forum, which as far as I can see is almost to a man thrilled with what is happening at SAFC, and when were Ballard Ekwah and Ba written off, I cant remember this census, and I read most of the threads on here. It would be tremendous if we make the play-offs this season and so far we look well capable of achieving this, once we get the squad organised we could with a bit of luck do even better, its just my opinion for what its worth.

 

Ekwah was written off after his first appearance, Ballard has been described as injury prone, Ba has received a lot of criticism until his last few games, I can remember some of it after his performance at Coventry City

 

My point was that these young players are often written off after a few games ...

... it's happening again with Hemir and Burstow.

I remember Danny Welbeck suffering the same fate, I wonder what happened to him.

 

He made attacking substitutions I don’t see what the issue is, we wanted to win the game that’s what you do when you’re going for it. If he didn’t make any changes and we lost from a corner late on everyone would be whinging that we have so many attacking options left on the bench.

 

I saw Ekwah and Ba all but written off early in their SAFC lives. My parents both did it too! Not sure I’ve seen anyone wrote Ballard off. Just wish he was English!

 

He is English, just made a poor career choice.

 

Pisses me off massively. We’ve seen neither of them for more than 2 games and they’re already “not good enough”! People need to get a grip

 

Spot on. He made the right substitutions at the right time...nothing was happening for both Burstow or Abdou. Some people need to channel their disappointment better and stop trying to attach blame every time things don't go our way. We're not the finished article...we'll have many more disappointments along the way this season...but that doesn't mean the wider view isn't bright. I loved watching our football yesterday...at times it was thrilling and it cut Cardiff to shreds.

 

That’s fair enough as well but with the forwards we have available I’d be giving Hemir a game on Friday in place of Burstow or one of the other 2 lads that came n yesterday. I’m not writing him off but we don’t need to persevere for too long with the back up we’ve got.