God these weeks fly by but at least it's back to the bread and butter tomorrow and a win game we cant really lose on. A win would be great, a draw would be good, a loss would not b the end of the world, that said I don't expect a loss these days. I would expect a win to take us back to 8th hen we can start and build up to the derby, a game we all love and hate in equal measure. When you sit and think about it you realise just how big the past few months have been, Bruce and Quinn have left us and O'Neill is in with the quiet man taking full control, a lot of major moves in a short time and moves that IMO may have set us up for that next level. Quinn set us off on our carpet ride, lots of passion, emotion and in Keane and Bruce we had high profile in your face management. It was a good ride with lots of highs and lots of lows, we never seemed to have that middle ground, looking back it was a time of excitement, talking points, raw emotion, a trip that was vital but draining. Now we have a quiet, professional, determined workmanlike style, Short and O'Neill seem a perfect fit in that, both speak quietly and intelligently. Both seem to know exactly what they want and how to get it, neither seem the sort who will panic or be thrown of course and the performance of the players reflects that. I feel, looking at it now, we may have already started on that next level, no more wholesale changes of playing staff but quiet improvement, no more big ups with Chelsea wins then bigger downs with lots of losses, just a steady quiet progress. We are struggling to find topics to talk about on here because its just the same steady moving forward each week, nothing dramatic just a steely grinding professional, hard working push forward. I wrote a few weeks back how I was struggling with this new style an I think that was why, I'm used to highs and lows and its taken me time to adapt to success after success. Some thought I was having a pop at MON, how wrong that was, I was adjusting to MON and success, when you have had a lifetime of grabbing what highs you can then enduring the lows it takes some getting used to, this success thing. Yes I know its early days, things could go wrong, bad days will come, its just I now expect just that, a bad day, not bad months. Happy days.
It will be a tough game tomorrow, I'd be happy with a draw. I'm already feeling the nerves, ahead of next week.
To hell with being happy with a draw/point, these days. We need to show confidence we will beat West Brom, not might/maybe beat them. I want us to win every game. What's wrong with that?
We could beat WB but they are coming off a 5-1 victory and it would be foolish to underestimate them. I know I go on about 41/2 points and anything that gets us closer I appreciate, we did after all lose our last home league game! As it is goals that make the difference, the difference since the MoN era is that goals have been coming lots of different players, it seemed in the SB era once our 3 England forwards Bent, Welbeck and Campbell were out of the picture goals dried up. Although I hope tomorrow we start with Sess behind Frazier.
WBA are a very poor home team ,regardless of their big win (have to say against a very very poor Wolves side) we have more than enough to go there and take 3 points. The only change I would make is to take Colback out and put Campbell in, this would be tough on Colback who had a very good game in the cup but I think we will play with a front 2 and Campbell's confidence must be massive at the minute with his call up to the England squad. I am going for a 2-0 win
The man himself is confident..... Martin O'Neill says his Sunderland side will meet a West Brom team brimming with confidence tomorrow after their recent derby win. O'Neill was an interested spectator in the directors' box at Molineux two weeks ago as the Baggies hammered local rivals Wolves 5-1. The result snapped a three-game winless streak for Albion and saw Mick McCarthy's reign as Wolves boss come to an end. Meanwhile, Sunderland are looking for their fifth win in six games in February and are eyeing the chance to move back into eighth position in the Barclays Premier League when they head to the Hawthorns tomorrow. "We must try to continue in the same vein and if we can do that, then it'd be great," O'Neill said. "I watched West Brom play Wolves and Molineux a couple of weeks ago and they played very well indeed that day . "It was a big win against their near neighbours. Wolves went into the game on the back of a great win and performance at QPR and were looking to bring West Brom in alongside them. It just never happened. "Obviously West Brom come into the game with good confidence, and likewise ourselves." Meanwhile O'Neill has tasked his side with getting off to a quick start as they search for their fifth league away win of the season. Only two teams have lost more home games than the Baggies this season but the Sunderland chief knows his side must give their all from the off if they are to achieve a favourable result. "Getting off to a really decent start would put a bit of pressure on and then perhaps their players might start thinking about the recent past at the Hawthorns and that things haven't been going so well," he said . "But that's too much to ask for. We must approach the game in the right frame of mind and really start to set some sort of play in motion for us from the beginning. Hopefully the rest will follow. "That does not mean West Brom wouldn't cause us problems because they have shown that they are capable of doing that."
Agreed but better to take Cattermole out in case he gets his 10th yellow card and misses the derby match.
West Brom are one of those teams that are wholly unpredictable...For that reason I wouldn't be too disappointed with a draw...
where has this board gone?!? it was really good a few weeks ago and i come on now and everyone is gone?
West Brom may return for Sunderland midfielder Craig Gardner in the summer. The Baggies failed last month with a bid to take the unsettled ex-Birmingham ace back to the Midlands on loan. Gardner, 25, is now finally established in the Sunderland side, and has scored three goals since joining for £4.7million in June. But Baggies boss Roy Hodgson, whose side host Gardner and Sunderland this weekend, said: “The idea was first mooted because he was homesick.
