In the New Year we have 5 of the teams below us, plus Liverpool, Southampton, Villa & Newcastle, at home. That's 9 games with 27 points available and we need to be taking a minimum of 16/17. Our away fixtures are dreadful starting with Man City, Spurs & Swansea. We follow those up with teams like Man Utd, Chelsea & Arsenal. Yes, our style of play may benefit away from home but it's a risky strategy. Yesterday, at Villa, the Sunderland support was excellent despite some edgy moments. The home support will have a big part to play in our survival imo.
We need a minimum of 5 wins, and a handful of draws and I'm confident we'll get them. The away games look daunting but we're pretty good at pulling off the odd shock or two. We do it every season. We've got one of the best defences in the league, our position is obviously down to our problems up front. I'm actually excited about this window. A successful business window this time round, and my god we're due one(!), and a comfortable top half position is so close to achieving. I'm not looking over our shoulders at this stage, just upwards. With the FA Cup in the first week that gives us 10 days or so before our next run of league games to strengthen both up-front and creatively. Can't wait!
I'm not being negative, I'm just saying the home support needs to be careful of making the players edgy. I was at the derby and the players drained themselves physically & mentally. I know how they felt, when AJ scored I thought there was about 10 minutes left, I was drained by the time I hit the street. What a stupid time to have such an intense match, Newcastle looked whacked at Man Utd and lost easily. We have a potentially good run in with our home games and we need to make the visitors unwelcome. The Sunderland players looked like they were running on eggshells against Hull.
I agree about the home support. I was at the West Ham game and the support was poor. That said, if you give the fans something to shout about, they will usually oblige
Man City sold out ....... despite it being a difficult game, forecasted poor weather, expensive tickets & immediately after Christmas. Our support is ****ing mint!
Having the fixtures a little more evenly allocated could make all the difference, but there seems little chance of this ever happening unless somebody can sort out this fixture list scheduling scam.
Our vocal support at home has been dreadful this season, with the Chelsea game being a notable exception. Against Man City and Hull the atmosphere didn't even pick up when we took early leads..I'm sick of hearing that it is because we have moved the away fans etc, as this should make no difference whatsoever..All we need is a hell of a lot more people going to the game with the intention of vocally supporting the team..
Home support makes no difference, 45,000 versus Hull and they could not care. I worry about QPR, Burnley, Leicester, Villa, Palace, WBA coming here we will think we will win 4 out of 6 which I hope we do, but will we ? and who will Gus bring in ?. 4 wins and 7 draws should be enough. We might have to win at Everton, and Stoke and beat Newcastle, at home. Also I went for the cup ticket today and have been shifted from my seat in the concourse for the Leeds game so they must be bringing about 7,000 up.
It's the same all over these days mate, the away support is almost always better than the home. The cost has replaced the 'daft lads', who would sing their heads off, with people who turn round and roll their eyes if you roar and frighten the wife and 2.4 kids. The practice of playing loud music during the 'entrance of the players' hasn't helped as it drowns out the singers at exactly the wrong time. Villa was like a chapel of rest yesterday. My son actually had an argument, in a comic screeching Brummie voice, with a Villa fan in their end, it was hilarious. The Hull board has regular whinges about the lack of singing/support. Man City were 2-0 up yesterday and all you could hear was the Burnley section.
I wasn't suggesting you were being negative and I agree, the home support have an important role to play. I have a sneaky feeling we'll collect as many points away as we will at home by the end of the season.
Roker or SoL, faster attacking football always got the crowd going as shown in the second half at Villa.
Was interesting, there were 35k at Villa, our end was sold out. Birmingham is a much much bigger city than Sunderland and there are only Villa and West Brom in the prem. Their home fans were soooo soooo quiet, you could hear a pin drop at times. Make me realise how good our support is. We just need to get behind the team a bit more, a few goals would help.
the home support does need to boost its positive,vocal support and crank the atmosphere and intensity back up. when i come back to the uk and hav a choice of going home or away, 9 times out of 10 i'll choose the away fixture because the day out, banter, singing etc is always so much more fun.
