Do you miss Maine Road? Not really,nostalgically a bit but we got torn a new arsehole there far too often for it to have any real significance When Liverpool or arsenal came we hoped it wouldn't be more than 3
We're all realistic enough to know that anything other than a defeat in this one is a bonus. How do you beat City? Dunno. How do you stop them playing at their best? Close down the space between there midfield and strikers. If you give any of Toure, Silva or Johnson 2 or 3 yards to make a decision, you are ****ed. If you back off any of the above mentioned, you are ****ed. If you press onto them too hard, the ball heads out wide, and yep, you are ****ed. The only way is for Catts and Vaughan to sit and contain in a 5 man midfield, and effectively keep discipline and resist bursting out. If we do that, and get City pushing high up the park, maybe then Sess can exploit the space in behind. Yep, i'm suggesting letting a wonderfully attacking team come flat at us at home, but I genuinely believe this is how to get them, they only lose shape when they attack, and even then it's hardly disorganised. This is a superb team, in all departments, and even if the team isn't one it, they have brilliant individuals, maybe the best in Silva, and an absolute terror in Aguero, and we are in for a busy afternoon trying to keep shape. You know what though, we can do it, Sess can hurt them, IF we can create space behind. Down the wings we will struggle, so flood the middle, force them inside, and try and exploit the space this will create. Am i nuts, or does this sound plausible?
The thing that sticks in my memory from my visits to Maine Road was that woman with what looked and sounded like an old school bell clanging away... but I'm going back nearly 40 years!! Not expecting anything from this one... I think O'Niell would have to have longer to get the squad playing how he wants them before I would have any confidence; 1:3 for me I'm afraid, and I'd love to be proved wrong!
been to maine road twice, a 1-1 draw (Gordon Armstong headed equaliser) and the famous 3-2 defeat last game of relegation season, both incredible experiences for atmosphere
I was at that 3-2 as an 11 year old, and seriously, i reckon that is the one game that turned me from a football fan, to a football lover. I remember the header going in off the bar for 1-1, and even as a kid looking at the carnage around me, that moment right there made me realise just how much this game of ours meant. We lost, we went down, but that was a defining moment in my life as a fan, that was the day i got hooked forever on Sunderland AFC. The irony that SNQ sent us down that day, then went on to become the clubs saviour, of sorts. [video=youtube;Qp4f7-u-SWU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp4f7-u-SWU[/video]
You needed a blind linesman to overcome anything today. Any other day you'd have been pumped 6-0. Mark your diaries for the 31st of March lads...it'll be hilarious.
alternatively, any other day and bendtner and sessegnon find the target and you're looking at a 3-0 reverse... just saying.
Nothing to do with being a mystic, give more credit to Hertog Jan and Bacardi. but the result is well pleasing.
