For me there’s a big part of our online fanbase that remains in crisis mode. Many haven’t recovered from the Donald years and treat all situations as if we still have Remi Matthews in goal. Every momentary setback is treated as a crisis. Makes me worry about what happens if we miss out this season. I assume that everyone will once again be ****e, Speakman will be a fraud and KLD will lack ambition, despite everything that people will have seen this season. At the end of the day, a fair few of our fans just know **** all! I think there is a general component to this, though. The internet remains something that has been bad for football in many respects - in similar ways to its effect more generally. It’s the permanence for me. Someone posts some absolute horseshite, perhaps in the heat of the moment (and there were one or two choice ones on here last night). If you say it in the pub it’s quickly forgotten. Might not even be heard. However, say it on here and it becomes something that can be pored over and brought up again and again. Then the poster has the choice of saying ‘yeah that was absolute nonsense’ or trying to claim they were right all along. Human nature leads people to choose the latter too often.
I was bored with the penalty debate last night … … this morning is worse I just feel it’s obscuring a wonderful performance and a real kick in the guts for Burnley. Despite all the arrogance they know they’ve scored once in four games, looking ordinary and off to Leeds this month. After which I think we’ll be above them.
well said Felltop. Onwards to Derby and more of the same. The results will follow if we play to that level!
So, I missed the game last night as I was drowning in booze on the Grassmarket. Kept in touch with the score of course and had the agony of “watching” the penalties on the bet365 app. Naturally disappointing not to score one of those pens, buts sounds like both were soft awards? Ref let the Burnley keeper get away with a bit of ****housery before each one too… How was the performance? Is Mepham’s injury a concern?
I have zero idea how to process what the **** went on last night, especially with a hangover The 2nd pen was a stonewaller though
Don't forget you wanted a poacher buying last night but wouldn't say where he should play cos that's down to the manager
1st one was outside the box but the 2nd one is a penalty, defender slide in and caught Cirkin Performance was really good outside the 1st 15 minutes Mepham was walking OK at the end so hopefully only out for a game or 2. Be shocked if he's playing against Derby So many more positives than negatives yesterday Hope you enjoy your weekend in Edinburgh
Well a quiet ride home last night . Thanks to @becs and her daughter for keeping me company on the way home. Stopped me running the penalties through my head for the entire journey. A very good performance bar the 1st 15 20 minutes. Good stop from patto turning one around the post. After that thought we were in control of the game and should have taken all 3 points with a little bit of composure. Thought their goalkeeper should have had a yellow before the 1st pen for fannying on but not to be. Wilson keep ya head up and fire us to the premier league. Well done to our ssupporters for singing his name at the end. A dominant 2nd half and biggest disappointment for me was the injury to mepham. Le Fee looks quality jobe is a beast Neil is on top of his game. Cirkin had a great 60 mins once he sorted out the problem he had on that side. A fully deserved point disappointing it wasn't 3 but we have nothing to fear in this league. A couple more additions and we will go close to taking a top 2 spot. We go to derby another difficult game and one where we need the 3 points. Keep the faith lads and lasses.
That’s what I’m talking about when I mention culture, a significant proportion of our fans (mainly online but also some match attending home fans - not the away following as they’re elite in my opinion) have been shaped and conditioned into what we see now - the inherent mistrust, the self loathing, just the whole (adversarial) relationship with the club - by what we’ve experienced but equally, for me, by the voices that have risen to have the most prominence within the fan community. I hope in time we can move away from it and recover as a fanbase but seeing it so prevalent even when we’re competing at the top of the league with a squad packed full of young exciting talent, built on solid foundations with an incredibly bright outlook for the future, means I’m not holding out much hope. One of KLD’s and Speakman’s virtues are that they’re not generally dissuaded by the noise from the vocal minority (with a couple of exceptions, the poor outcomes of which decreases the likelihood of it being repeated) so hopefully even if we miss out this season they’ll continue to push on in the same vein.
There are some who forget this is, like others, just an insignificant chat forum and not an address to the nation. They obviously believe their relentless ‘campaigns’ will be listened to and that their wishes will be acted upon. Whether it’s ’Get O’Nien out’ or ‘Get Ellis Simms in’ they’re sure they know better than the club. I'd love Sunderland to be doing better but I know they’ll do things the way they feel is right … … and they’re right much more often than the supporters.
Yeah I think it’s just his philosophy. The amount of times we’ve heard a variant of ‘the players learned and adjusted as the game went on’ in his post-match interviews. Also there’s a world of nuance behind what he said last night. Maybe they haven’t designated a taker but Isidor was rattling them in during training. Whole load of stuff could have happened out of sight i guess. I have little doubt that Le Bris will have the players learn from this too. Maybe that learning is to prepare for it in a different way. However with one eye on potential playoffs I’d hope that they work on the psychology of it all. Let’s ctrl C ctrl V whatever Jobe’s big brother learned under Southgate for starters.
Yes. In a year, this lad has shown exponential improvement. He looked handy in the bit we saw last year, but now we can all see a real player emerging. What a find.
Wanted to say this last night. I’m at peace with Roberts. He’s been playing deeper and I think he’s better deeper. His work rate, link play and all round play has improved so much under Le Bris and he’s better when releasing the ball earlier. His touch remains good and he can wriggle out of tight spaces but he isn’t doing those repeated things that become obvious to defenders and surrender possession. A few were irritated with him last night but if you remove the thought that he should be getting behind he had a smart, mature game.
Just went back and read this properly, the penalty thing distracted me the first time … … absolutely cracking post and is just how I feel. I may be totally wrong but I really believe these players care about the club and that's not always been the case at Sunderland. We should drink this all in, who knows how long it will last.
Said this last night but I’ll say it again. All I heard was good things from Burnley fans. Best team we’ve played, some class players, praising our recruitment etc. It was lovely to hear and it wasn’t being said because I was a Sunderland fan, it was to each other.
It’s all outcome bias imo. Same as the idea that Isidor isn’t a finisher - as if his goal against Portsmouth didn’t happen. Mayenda spurned a couple of high profile chances but whoscored suggests that he’s got the joint 6th highest on target shots per 90 and the lowest off target shots per 90 in the championship. Add in his age and inexperience and ‘raw’ is what people reach for. It’s better than ‘****e’ I guess!
On the penalty / Isidor debate before I sign off from this thread and move on to Tuesday. Isidor would have been my chosen penalty taker. It is what it is. I do think we need another type of striker in the mix, but that’s in no way a bad judgement of our current lot who make chances with their excellent talent and running power. There are some who can touch and bang on target instinctively. Marcus Stewart type, Maja is one of them. Our currently lot are fine athletes but not that type.You need a squad with a broad range of options and I think that would be a good addition.
