16 MARCH 2014 Sunderland boss Gus Poyet has warned his players there will be further twists and turns before their destiny is decided. One the face of it, the Black Cats passed up a glorious opportunity to ease their Barclays Premier League relegation fears on Saturday when they squandered a series of chances to claim three precious points against fellow strugglers Crystal Palace. However, had Kagisho Dikgacoi thumped his late shot just inside, rather than just outside the upright, they would have emerged empty-handed, and a 0-0 draw at least gave them some reward for their efforts. Head coach Poyet had classified the game as a must-win affair in advance but, having been thwarted, has challenged his players to redress the balance when they head into what represents another six-pointer at Norwich on Saturday. He said: "That's the way, and now we need to make this point be a good one by going and winning three at Norwich or winning three at Liverpool or wherever it is because, if not, it's going to be like two points dropped. "I remember at the end of December everybody was saying, 'If you can nick something from Everton and beat Cardiff...'. "And then it was the other way around and the four points were there somehow, suffering one way and coming back encouraged the other way, because it's like that. "It's going to be tight, it's going to be a goal, and we need to make sure we don't give that goal away, we don't give any mistakes, any presents to anyone, and we tried our best to do that. "The future will tell if we are good enough to stay up or not." Ultimately, another eventful weekend of football saw Sunderland end it one place better off in 18th, but two points further adrift of safety. Such is the depth of their plight that news of arch-rivals Newcastle's 1-0 defeat at Fulham was greeted by silence rather than the usual roar of approval, with the bottom-of-the-table west Londoners having closed to within a point as a result. Poyet's men have three games in hand on Fulham, Cardiff and Norwich and two on Palace, West Brom, Swansea, Hull and West Ham, all of whom are within striking distance as a result.
Well there's me as smug as Smug. Post 161 re twists and turns. Not one to blow me own horn but just this once....
