I cant wait for the game tomorow night, who else is going?? I am disapointed to hear that O'shea will play no part in this match. With only one more friendly to go, im beginning to worry about his match fitness for the Liverpool game! He has been our most high profile signing so far, so its been bitterly disapointing he hasnt hardly kicked a ball for us. We need to win these next two friendly's convincingly to set us up ready for the start of the season! Haway the lads!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I worry about most of our teams fitness to be fair especially the defence, Bramble/Turner/Brown all look slow and rusty
O'Shea was never down for this game and I dont expect a lot TBH, testimonial, fun game will give little clues to the coming season.
I'm going tomorrow, not sure what to expect. I'm guessing that the team will be a mix of reserves and some first team players. I think the game vs Hibs is gonna reflect the starting XI for the season. I'm not to concerned about the ring rusty friendlies so far, provided everyone gets (and stays) fit, we should be fine. I still think we need a pacy man out wide but looking at everybody else's pre season signings (or lack of) I'm happy.
TBH I am getting a bit down at the moment, sorry if its upsets anyone but I can feel a bit of doom and gloom coming. We seem to be expert at taking the positives and turning them into negatives. We sign 9 new players, none are that marquee signing but all goo IMO but rather that celebrate that we complain about who we have not signed, still a month to go. We are playing at 80% in pre season friendlies and try and compare that with our game v Liverpool, Leeds beat Newcastle yesterday, it happens and it means little.
Personally I am am not displeased at all with the signings to date, but IMHO we have not replaced Bent (as promised when we sold him) and a LW has been required for getting on 2 seasons now. I am not saying we have made bad signings it is just probably a couple of the more important ones have not been done yet. If we play 4-4-1-1 perhaps we are going for are going for a proven striker and LW, due to lack of funds and inability to shift those not in the squad, if that is the case sobeit, however it does see to be a glaring mistake again!
I'm going to the match tomorrow. I work in Hartlepool and can occasionally get free tickets there and its a lovely little ground. Only thing is my free ticket tomorrow is in the Pools end. Never mind. I went to a Pools freindly a couple of weeks back against Barnsley as a colleague of mine is a massive Tykes fan and as much as I don't like saying it, Pools were terrible (along with Solano) and Barnsley walked to a 3-0 win. In fact I've been to 5 pools matches now and have yet to see them win! Hopefully that continues tomorrow. I hope with it being a testimonial we might see a few 'stars' to boost numbers for the lad Humphries who's been class for Pools over the years.
Enjoy Dan.. Just look at this as a pre-season friendly and watch the players that will make the difference next season.. See you Thursday son..
Thanks, i will do! Shame you couldnt make it, see you Thurs ! Apparantly Gardner, Dong, Wickham and Vaughan are not in the squad which is a shame. I was looking forward to watch them for the first time in a Sunderland shirt!
You will get to see the rest, which is probably well penciled as proper pre-season. Should be a good game and should give Stevie B a good idea of where we stand. Had a beer with a few Leeds fans tonight and they were bantering on about beating the Mags yesterday. Good fun but thought '****ing championship waffle' haha. Let me know when your arriving kidda and I will pick you up at the main entrance at York station. ps, what's this about Bellamy joining? any word?
