Match Day Thread Sunderland AFC v Bournemouth FC - Saturday 29th November 2025 - KO 15:00

To be fair you cannot blame them

 

Brilliant...I watched that last night and thought it was you.

 

As I get closer they instantly start praising Sunderland while I stare at them ...

... completely changed the tone of the conversation.

You can see the bald lad giving me the sideways glances and shuffling around

 

Spot on. The game makes less of these characters now.

You only need one like that. Then the others, the lads who might be leaders elsewhere gather around him. It makes a very strong dressing room.

All teams suffer in this league for spells, maybe not Arsenal this year, but every other team will have a run of games that go away from you, and a strong dressing room is one of the main things that gets you out at the other end of a bad run.

Bargain of the season, and we have a few of the next best bargains too!

 

Can you sing "Bring me sunshine" and do that little dance, off into the distance?
If so you've cracked it

 

The significance of coming back from 2 down is huge imo. Heads didnt drop from anyone, players, coaches or the crowd.

The options we have off the bench are fantastic and rumours of bringing in more quality in January.

 

Aye, he shat the bed Smith mind, him and Xhaka contesting a ball on halfway in front of the dugouts second half, he left one on Xhaka and ran past him to get the ball. Xhaka just glowered at him and muttered something to him, Smith then protesting his innocence, Xhaka having none of it. I thought, right that's Xhaka's yellow sorted, he'll flatten him next time he gets chance. Few minutes after the goal Smith is subbed off.

I think he was glad to get off the pitch unscathed.

 

Does he know you

Only joking!!

 

Can I say I thought Mundle looked reasonably sharp

 

Tom Petty's "I wont back down" could be a canny song to end on at the SoL.

I wouldnt say the lads battle or grind their way out of bother. They play the same good football. Nothing phases them. They just know they are good enough.

 

Also how good was Xhaka's reverse pass on the goal

 

We hark back to really good times like Reidy's and Keano's. Glorious to be in the middle (or the start?) of another.

Makes us appreciate every bit of it, down to our core, after the league 1 days.

 

And how good were RLB's subs ....

 

Le Fee went straight over to Xhaka after the goal to congratulate him on the vision and the quality of that. Nice disguise on the pass from Le Fee as well, to set Xhaka up. Shaped as if to cross it.

 

Massively underrated imo. Utterly superb pass. Still. Can’t believe we signed him!! Or rather that he signed for us!

Absolute baller

 

Avoiding the heavy rain, were full at kickoff, is my guess

 

Petrovic and Diakite rumoured to be our first choice GK and CB signings in the summer, and a few on here were convinced they were "next level" players... Would anyone take those two over Roefs and Alderete, now? Not for me, glad we got our "backup plan" players, instead!

Edit: I'm not disparaging those who said the Bournemouth duo were a level above, I thought exactly the same... Funny how things work out sometimes, though!

 

Was thinking similar. Petrovic in particular hasn’t been great for them so far. Still early but feel we ended up with the better options even before you consider the value.

 

Caught up with the thread after a good drink post match and I agree with what most have said, we were the better team, they had threat going forward and the ref was ****e.

I thought we started well and we're on top with being dominant when they scored. Talbi should have done better with a blocked shot when he tried to place it instead of putting his laces through it. Their first goal was due to Nordi slipping, probably due to the weather. It was too close to our goal to react properly and prevent a chance. Hard luck on our part. After that I thought we were ok and still the better team, though at times we were sloppy, again probably due to the weather. Then they scored again. Personally I thought it was a mess up from Talbi, Traore and Roeffs. Talbi was loose with the pass, Traore was slow to react and cover and Roeffs was too far off his line. Good finish, but we should have done better. The penalty was just rewards for not letting our heads drop, even though I thought the ref was going to over rule it. It kept us in the match and competitive. Watching it again on MOTD it could be considered "soft" as Reinaldo moves his leg out expecting the challenge, but it was a rash challenge and a tackle from behind is always going to be a foul. Scott could have been sent off for conceding it after being booked a couple of minutes earlier. He was lucky not to be sent off through out the first half and it wasn't a surprise he was subbed at halftime.

At half time I thought the next goal was vital, they get it and it's potentially game over, we get it and we get something out of the game. Fortunately we got the equaliser straight after halftime, personally I thought it was a lovely well worked goal and deserved for Traore who had a good game. Their disallowed goal was bizarre, he was clearly offside standing 2 feet from the goal line with no defender near him, but it took an age for the flag to go up making you think he'd been played onside somehow. They had some pressure after this without really punishing us, a lot of it due in my opinion to us being a bit slack, but we certainly looked at least as dangerous as them. A lot of end to end stuff at times and it was one of those bits a pressure that lead to the corner for our winner. A good corner and a great header from Brobbey, well deserved. Both teams had chances including them hitting the bar but I think overall we deserved it. Bournemouth are a good team, but I did think they were also niggly and petty. I agree with Areola that the ref never had control of the game, but I think it benefits them. A lot of niggly, cynical fouls and gamesmanship. An example is in the first half, Isadore was cynically clipped outside the penalty are as he was running through the middle seconds before Le Fee was about to play him in to run on goal (Le Fee played ye pass just as Isadore hit the floor), their player lying down "injured" when we got the penalty along with their time wasting. Areola and his bench were up and down as if they were on springs appealling for anything, putting pressure on a weak ref.

The referee was awful, allowed some soft free kicks to them but allowed similar for us to pass, Scott could and should have been sent off in the first half for his repeated dirty fouls and was subbed at halftime to avoid it. Ironically his replacement was sent off for elbowing Sadiki and they lost their heads in the later stages of the game. A stronger ref might have prevented it by clamping down earlier. Maybe he didn't like the cold and rain?

A word about their fans. The most spawny, pathetic bunch we've had at the SOL since the league one days, in my opinion. My ticket was in the premier concourse on the corner, fairly close to them. They were largely pathetic throughout with the usual "is this a library" chant starting just after kick off and calling the SOL "a **** hole", pathetic when the SOL is nearly 5 times as big as their home and they couldn't sell all their tickets. After we equalised they started on with the mags Adam Johnson chants. They never seemed to be getting behind their team, just trying to wind us up and we're pretty much silent after we took the lead. A pathetic bunch of small time fans with a small club mentality.

 

I know it's the Daily Fail but this is a decent write up on the match

There was a smile. Of course, there was going to be a smile. Regis Le Bris had just overseen a comeback that gave the locals goosebumps, one which left Sunderland in the top four, but while his contentment was obvious, he wouldn’t let joy dilute his stance.

‘We are still looking at 40 points,’ Le Bris said. Caution is understandable but the message was at odds with the scene around him. Sunderland’s magnificent form continues at pace and what a joy it was to be inside the Stadium Of Light, as a storm battered the roof and goals rained down.

This was what a midwinter Saturday at 3pm should be, a glorious throwback to an old-fashioned dust up. There was drama, incidents that made you gasp, noise that made you lose your concentration. The pace was breathless, the teams were committed and, at the end, the right side won.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...land-bournemouth-premier-league-analysis.html