Tuesday 03 November 2020……
Sunderland 1 vs America 0, (Gooch, 52)
The games keep coming thick and fast, just 2 more sleeps and then we go again vs Ipswich.
Are they any good?
They flew out of the traps last year and then faded badly. They’ve had a good start this time around too, if I was to offer a prediction I don’t see them finishing in the top 6, but that’s just my opinion. I just think there’s better equipped squads than theirs.
Two 1-0 wins in the last week is 6 points obviously, but Gillingham really should have got at least a draw and they were outplayed in large parts by Crewe yesterday, but….. as often cited, it’s a results business. One thing that their form does lend itself to is that, it’s very much up for grabs this season? We are doing pretty well, I read earlier in the week that we couldn’t cut it against the better teams….. yesterday Hull, Lincoln and Portsmouth lost to Swindon, Doncaster and Charlton. Peterborough are the new leaders, (who’ve we’ve already beaten), one team, (hopefully us), will pull away, but it’s ridiculously competitive and we are as competitive as anyone.
How do we line up?
On the off chance anyone reads this regularly, they will know I’m 100% behind Phil Parkinson. We weren’t at our best at Rochdale, the midfield were piss poor, Parkinson got a bit of criticism for not hanging the midfield performance out to dry. If he’d not changed things yesterday I’d have probably been critical of him – he isn’t daft, he will have known Power and Dobson were poor on Tuesday, he dropped them both, (I didn’t think he’d drop Power). It’s a seemingly unpopular opinion to offer him any praise, but that is good man management & progressive team selection. As regards Tuesday night, I’d hope and expect Maguire to come in for O’Brien and I’d leave it at that. The more I watch this team, and bizarrely I watch more of the game and the pattern of play not being at the games, I don’t see the benefit in Power and Grant in the same starting 11. Grant can’t play twice a week every week, so there’s scope for both, but we only need 1 of them to sit in front of the defence, they are too similar in style to play in the same team. It’s not quite on the level of the Gerrard & Lampard England situation, but it’s similar and on current form Grant is the Scouse poor mans Keano and Max is the fat lad from West Ham.
After we’ve played Ipswich we’ve got 2 cup games, that will see Neil, Diamond, Embleton & Kimpioka given an opportunity. It’s then up to them to stake a claim.
Recent history…….
They beat us twice in the championship, (easily achieved), all I can remember from the 5-2 down there was Jason Steele looking like he’d never played in goal before? Back in the days of 1 sub, it used to be class when an outfield player occasionally had to go in goal, it was like that – except he was actually a goalkeeper.
The town of Ipswich……
I’ve only been to Portman Road a few times, but I’ve always quite enjoyed the day out. I had it in my head that they became a city in 1992 when we did, but I’ve checked, (ahem… researched), and they didn’t. The town is probably most famous for the exploits of the football team in the 1980s, apart from that there’s not much else to report……
SAFCBlog Predicts ….. SAFC 2 vs ITFC 0
Countdown to Lockdown……..
So……we go back into lockdown on Thursday, as has become tradition, a few days notice has been given so that people can get completely Ant McPartlined for a few days. At least this time we will have footie on TV.
SAFCBlog ditched commenting on ….our owners, EFL shithousery, Politics, Behind closed doors fiasco, paradoxical bearded fantasists etc some time ago. Lockdown is a fucking tough gig, realistically it’s going to be 12 weeks not 4, (don’t think they had the heart to cancel Christmas yet?). I’ll continue to write about all things SAFC in lockdown, (what else is there to do?). Let’s all try and stay positive, be kind, get out walking, running, talking … whatever. The pressure will be on for loads of us financially, relationship wise, physically, emotionally etc…..don’t be alone, it’s ok to be not ok, (safcblog1@gmail.com, @ShaunSAFCBLOG)
Winter is shit, but there’s another summer next year…..
