muttywhitedog

This is exactly the reason why Sunderland are playing 3rd division football this season. I lost count of the number of draws that were turned into defeats and wins that ended up as draws because the team were not capable of sitting back and defending what they had. Similarly, I struggle to remember many points gained in the last few minutes.

Perhaps its fitness – are the squad as fit as the opposition?

Your saving grace could well be Rotherham’s run-in, which on paper looks horrendous.

QPR, Norwich, Derby, Forest, Villa, Stoke, Swansea, Birmingham, WBA, Middlesbrough.

Form Guide in last 5:

Wigan – 6pts
Reading – 6pts
Millwall – 5pts
Rotherham – 5pts
Bolton – 3pts
Ipswich – 3pts

None of the sides below Wigan are reeling you in. Rotherham’s next 5 games are Blackburn, Sheff Utd, QPR, Norwich & Derby. They’ll not have 35 points in 39 games, let alone 33.

As much as I find what she did and with who utterly disgusting, the fact remains that she is a British Citizen, just like you and I. International law decrees that nobody can be made stateless – the only way the Home Secretary can revoke her British Citizenship is if she held dual nationality, which would then leave her as a citizen of the other country. Before anyone says it, Islamic State was not recognised as a country, so they have no standing in the world.

That said, she has made her choice, and as a British Citizen, should she choose to return here, she must face the consequences of that choice. She is not entitled to be brought back here using public funds as she is there by choice and not being held hostage, so it remains the responsibility of her, her friends and her family to arrange to get her home.

Upon arrival, she will probably be investigated, charged, incarcerated, have her child put into care, and live the rest of her life with extremely strict monitoring conditions. She will probably never get a British passport again, despite being a British Citizen (the issue of one can be denied by the Home Secretary), so she will find travelling to like-minded countries impossible. As she is an adult, she will not receive the same level of identity protection given to the Bulger killers, so if she is fortunate enough to avoid some right-wing nut job beheading her on the street, she will be living in fear of it happening for the rest of her life.

Her child, who will be born a complete innocent, should be re-homed with a loving, caring adoptive family that have nothing to do with IS.

Once he gets that first, he’ll score bucketloads. As you saw, we create chances-a-plenty, and the only reason we haven’t been humping sides is that our strikers have been wasteful (even 20-goal Josh Maja).

That said, the sitter he missed on Tuesday wont have done his confidence any good, and he desperately needs a tap-in to get off the mark.

Personally, I’d have kept Maja and let him leave in the summer for free. Sure, it would have cost us the £3.5m we got from Bordeaux, but it would have meant our search for a replacement could have been extended over May-July rather than a panic purchase on 31 Jan. The replacement may well have still been Grigg, but I’m sure the cost would have been much less come summertime and another 5 months warming his arse on the DW bench.

I can fully understand you not understanding it Egg, but you may want to check out Sunderland’s full honours list before you make a statement like that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunderland_A.F.C.#Honours

Football wasn’t invented in 1992 by sky.

They don’t.

What does make it harder is when every club you face plays like its their cup final, then comes crashing back to earth the following week. See my post further up, when I pointed out that only 4 of the 23 sides we faced before Christmas managed to win their next game, and one of those was Charlton who we faced on day one.

The attendances are a side-effect of Sunderland being in town, where massive away followings and bigger home followings further increase the “cup final” atmosphere. My lot wont be inspired by playing in front of 8,000 at Walsall or Scunthorpe, but Walsall and Scunthorpe will be inspired because its twice their normal crowd. Think how Peterborough celebrated when they beat Wigan 3-2 last season and multiply it by 10, and you may just have an idea of how everyone views Sunderland in Div 3.

Luton have benefitted from having no expectation, an early exit from the Checkatrade cup, and a lack of injuries. They’ve also played three more games. Now they have the pressure of being there to be knocked off, we’ll see how they handle it.

Justified or not, it is a fact that all bar two of our opponents have recorded their highest home attendance when Sunderland are in town. I’ll have a wild guess that Oxford will beat their highest crowd thus far come Saturday.

Was that how you found it in 2015/16 and 2017/18 – sold out awaydays and packed grounds?