Match Day Thread Sunderland v Walsall - Tuesday 11th December - KO 19:45

Thanks RTB that looks a lot better than we could have hoped for. I am watching the Liverpool game at the moment and its on a knife edge.

 

Inter - PSV
Tottenham are through

 

So are Liverpool

 

Yeah - I watched the first half - Salah is on fire at the moment.

 

And both Luton and Pompey coming up!!

 

Should be an exciting few weeks - got my tickets for Portsmouth should be good.

 

Its never great to loose a game, but this is the one I would have chosen if it had to be, the league is first priority and always has been this season. Onwards and upwards.

 

The bubble has burst with this team we have went downhill in the last 3 weeks so what the hell is the matter ? we will never catch Portsmouth I doubt, i would rather we lost in the cup though. They need need a rocket now or this season will go down the pan. That Accy game should have been postponed maybe that is the reason.

 

Player Ratings
Jon McLaughlin, 7/10: Made a fabulous save in the first half when Walsall looked certain to score, and really couldn’t have done a thing about Liam Kinsella’s wonderful strike.
Bryan Oviedo, 7/10: Comfortably the best player in the opening 45. He was a threat at both ends of the pitch and made some great last ditch tackles to keep the scores down.
Jack Baldwin, 5/10: His passing was off again and the pacey Walsall forward gave him issues.
Tom Flanagan, 5/10: Got battered for pace in the first half when Walsall should have scored, but did alright otherwise. That central defensive pairing doesn’t convince me though.
Luke O’Nien, 5/10: Did okay considering he was out of position.
Dylan McGeouch, 6/10: Did a good job in front of the defence and did the simple stuff well. Was sacrificed when we went behind as we had to be more attacking.
Max Power, 6/10: Quick getting the ball out of his feet but never really ‘ran the show’ like we know he can.
George Honeyman, 6/10: Closed down well and always offered us a threat going forward.
Chris Maguire, 5/10: Not as effective as he usually is but still looked to be creative in attacking areas.
Duncan Watmore, 6/10: Worked very hard but didn’t think we always played to his strengths. Still appears to have his pace, though, which is positive.
Jerome Sinclair, 3/10: Very poor and wasteful. Wish he’d just focus on doing the simple things well. His worst performance to date.
(SUB) Josh Maja, 5/10: Some neat touches aside, he offered little.
(SUB) Lee Cattermole, 4/10: Looked very, very rusty.
(SUB) Bali Mumba, 6/10: Got involved and tried to be positive on the ball.

Man of the Match: Bryan Oviedo.
https://rokerreport.sbnation.com/20...l-rusty-looking-mackems-are-out-of-the-fa-cup

 

You can't say that. They'll be people coming and going, if we get promoted. Nobody knows what sort of team we would have then.

 

Loving the knee jerk reactions! Twitter is rife too!! Christ it’s one game in a cup which we could really afford to not be part if. Had we had United or City or the mags in round 3 then I’d be disappointed. But we miss out on a trip to Bolton.

It could end up being a very good night for us in all. Pompey losing, Ross finding out who’s up for the fight. You learn more about a team from a loss than a win.

 

Flanagan was great a few weeks ago, Cattermole will not give us much up front, but can help win a game when we are leading but stuff the fa cup and onto promotion where it matters we still have the best unbeaten league record in this division.

 

Pilsner give a ****.

We weren’t gonna win it and we can do without the extra games.

We need to get back to winning though, only the poor standard of the teams we are playing is preventing losses in the league at minute.

 

Its never a good thing to lose a any game, but I am a bit ambivalent to losing this one. On one hand, and this is just my opinion, the common consensus is that we really haven't been firing on all cylinders in the last few weeks. If this is the kick up the arse that is needed to get back with the program then so be it. To lose our unbeaten run, for me, is better it went in the FA cup then any league game. I think this might actually help in the short term to focus minds. Pompey lost last night, ask their fans, would you prefer to be in the 3rd round of a cup you have no chance of winning, or be 10 points clear in a league you are trying to win.....No Brainer.

 

I bet Bolton are gutted we've lost, they could expect 5000 from us in round three instead of 500 that they will likely get from Walsall going on last night's away attendance.

 

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Quite right.
After all, it's not a competition we had a snowball's chance of winning and our fixture list is starting to pile up.

And after our first loss in sixteen games I'm not going to start beating myself up and donning the sackcloth and ashes.

PRIORITISE.

Has the fact that Portsmouth lost at home last night, in a league game, perhaps passed you by?

I suspect that there will be more concern in Portsmouth this morning than in Sunderland.

 

1. It was a cup game, League has to be the priority. If we had to lose a game, this was the best one to lose.

2. Walsall were always going to be more motivated playing us a 3rd time, than we were playing them. I bet even Ross, at least subconsciously, going "****, not these lot again"

3. Injured players got some good game time

Always **** when we lose, but overall I'm not that bothered