https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/24921832.luke-onien-sunderland-luton-lightbulb-moment/ By Dominic Shaw THE visit of Luton Town to the Stadium of Light this week reminds Luke O'Nien of a hugely pivotal moment in Sunderland's season. For it was the first game against the Hatters, back in October at Kenilworth Road, that O'Nien truly realised how much the Black Cats had "evolved" and gave the defender real belief that Regis Le Bris' side had what it takes to last the pace at the top of the Championship…. … Yes, the Hatters are struggling this season after their relegation from the Premier League last term, but Kenilworth Road can still be a brutal test and it was a bruising night for the Black Cats back in October. But second half goals from Chris Rigg and Romaine Mundle secured a victory that had a major impact in the dressing room. "That's when I knew this team had really evolved," admitted O'Nien ahead of Wednesday's re-run. "Even if you look at the history of playing Luton. When we played them in the play-offs they had about 15 corners in 20 seconds. The lads put their head on the line, there was real togetherness and bite to the group. "That win this season is probably when I was most proud of the group. It's not just points you pick you, you get a feeling and build momentum and relationships in a win like that because they're the ones you really need to grind out. "That's the most proud I've been but that's in the past. We have to keep building and go again." O'Nien said: "We're all human beings and we all feel the same as you do about last minute goals and big wins. I live in the area, I go for beach walks on my day off and people tell me about how much of an impact it has on their weekend. "We will enjoy the highs and feel the lows just as much as you guys and the fans. We try to steady it a bit more, we need to stay consistent." Consistent is an apt description of boss Le Bris and his messaging to his players. "He's always pretty calm and calculated," says O'Nien. "He lets us lead the conversation and see what we think of the game. The gaffer is very consistent in his demeanour. He's calm, a bit like a professor, brings us in and sees what we think and then we reflect on the game like we always do."
If we fail to make automatic promotion it won't be for lack of effort or belief. I know some will write off articles like this as "rallying calls" or talk is cheap, but it does feel to me like this group of players really do understand what it means to all of us and what playing for the club is about
I think you're right. There is no lack of effort,or belief from these players. I'm enjoying watching this team play more than I have for many a day. I've resigned myself to play-offs and looking at Hotels near Wembley,, and I think this is because we are just coming up a bit tired mentally,particularly at the end of matches. Only recently,our penalty misses at Burnley,our last minutes against Sheff U and Plymouth,and missing two good chances very late on against Watford, to me are signs we're just not quite on top of it. It can't all go down to bad luck on the day. Maybe because the players realise how much it means and are so committed to it,a certain amount of apprehension and anxiety creeps in. However,there is a lot of action still to come and everything is possible,particularly if we can get our injured players back in the next week or two. This is going to be some run-in....put Luton away where they belong and then can't wait for next Monday!
I think at one point these types of articles were exactly that. Sound bites or a contractually obligated rallying call which was penned by someone in the media section then attributed to one of the players or given to them to say. Now I’d like to think that we have a group of players who have a genuine affinity to the club, the fans and maybe even the area. Something that I don’t think we’ve had for decades.
You know that Luke cares about this club - the rallying calls of years ago came from people who couldnt give a **** about the club.
Quite a timely article, not only because of the game Wednesday night, but also because there have been a fair few claims across social media this weekend that we Watford bullied us, we couldn't compete physically, weak as piss etc. Its sometimes feels like the first part of the season didnt happen, you know when we were competing physically and skillfully?
We did compete physically and skillfully at the start of the season. I'm not on social media other than here and only occassionally OTR so can't comment about that but I'd agree that we struggled with Watford's physicality for most of the game. Reading RLB's post match comments it seems that he thought so as well.
A little assistance from the referee would’ve helped … … it’s demoralising when you keep being fouled and having your short pulled. Not to mention their players dropping to the floor after every attack.
I still can't get over how we didn't get a penalty when Wilson was bear hugged and lifted up in the box!
Totally agree, ref was abysmal, most of them are. Bit rich of Cleverley to be complaining about Norwich's use of the dark arts given what we saw on Saturday, but we both know that we are likely to have to face more of the same on Wednesday. It's up to us to set the tempo and keep it going and putting teams away when we are on top. We've not done that for a while.
I hate hypocrites, all respect for him gone now and I hope he's sacked. I agree that it's time to let loose and attack teams at the SOL, the only way to get the crowd up for it. Teams love to come here and quieten the crowd but, to be honest, we sometimes do that ourselves. I love the patient football and I can honestly see we're trying to tempt their defence out and get them to commit ... ... but sometimes we just need to utilise our pace, our skill and our rapid passing to make them panic. It worked, in the last ten nimutes against Watford, and we could've won the game.
Absolutely we could, the SOL is a completely different place when we play on the front foot and we need harness the crowd and exploit our skillset. Reid's side had the benefit of two quality forwards in Quinn and Phillips but the fast, front foot football had the crowd bang at it as well. We've got bags of pace and skill, so lets have those lads in from the outset and set about teams. Watford and Plymouth were both nervy initially but grew into the games and got on top due to the slow, predictable nature of the football we were playing. Front foot and get into them, get in front and keep our foot on the throat. Get in front and then utilise the likes of Samed from the bench later on to see a game out, Obviously, it won't work against everyone but we are costing ourselves points in being so conservative and not putting games to bed.
