I have to say that I think Adams did get it mostly right and it was plan that was put into place most of the season- so hardly imaginative, but what else would you do. if the ball had not hit the post and crept in we would have been screwed, fine margins fine margins this season
i don't believe we were playing for a draw. i thought we were gutsy and played very well (turner in particular was fantastic - we've missed him badly this season) and not too sure how else we could have approached the game but certainly longsight and munky are correct that had we played that way under hughton and not 'gone for it' in the final 10-20 minutes, he'd have been slaughtered. however, i think adams took the right route and tried to pinch a goal on the break and not leave us open. it didn't work out but for me this was the first time adams has got his tactics spot on and he was rewarded with a good result, even though it is almost certainly too little too late. what a shame we didn't play well against united the week before - they were there for the taking. sunderland's form has been excellent so there is a chance that we'd have gone down regardless of who our manager currently was. i've accepted it'll happen. it's not the end of the world. disappointing yes, but it gives us a chance to regroup at a lower level, maybe bring through one or two academy products, get ourselves a new manager, new approach and move on some of the players, a few of whom have 'greek top flight' written all over them. hopefully we'll bounce straight back. if we do, i wouldn't be surprised to see us stay there a few years once again.
Absolutely I'm not criticising Adams tactics by the way, I could kinda see what he was trying to do, and even though I believe it was a MASSIVE risk, had Snoddy managed to put that chance away it would have paid off. I do think we could have gambled a bit more, it was a game we desperately needed three points from so I would have liked to see us try to commit a few more men forward when we did break, but I'm guessing Howson, Olsson, Johnson were pretty knackered by then. Perhaps he could have brought more fresh legs in, perhaps he actually was happy to take a point, I dunno. What I do know is that if Hootun had done it he would have been absolutely slaughtered no question at all. And that's what gets my goat. You're absolutely spot on about the fine margins by the way, the chances missed by our strikers, individual errors by defenders, the missed penalty against Villa, the world class saves that have denied us, stunning goals against us that no keeper could have saved. Everything seems to have conspired against us this season, it is as if we are destined to go down and I honestly don't think it's as simple as blaming the previous manager for all our woes, I really don't.
certainly fine margins involved. much like last season i think the majority of the bottom half of the table are very similar in terms of ability. you only need a couple of mistakes or even a refereeing decision to go against you and you could be in serious trouble. i felt before the season started we'd hover around 15th (obviously i hoped we'd do better) and i thought we'd be close to the drop but i didn't think we'd go down. for me, it was the two games against cardiff which will have 'done' for us more than anything. quite how they escaped with a point at carrow road i will never know and if anything, we were even more dominant at their place yet came away with nothing. those extra five points that we should have had, deserved to have, would have kept us up, i'm sure. but hey ho, it wasn't to be. we probably have a 10% chance of survival so we should cling to that until tomorrow night at least! sunderland's home record is pretty abysmal, so you never know...
