Sunderland Preview

[andrew92]

I actually agree with what the commentator said. I felt their penalty was a definite penalty because Samba was too reckless. As for our penalty, if we were on the receiving end then I expect I would be very angry to have a penalty against me in that situation. The reason why his arm was up high was purely because of the way his foot came up to block the shot. It wasn't his fault, it's just the way the body moves.

ur making a habbit of disagreeing with everything i say, you cant have your hands above your head like he did and not expect to get punished for it, after seing samba challange again its more of a pen than i thought but it wouldnt get given against players like john terry!!

[brfcs5359]

We were absolutely abysmal tonight. I can't recall a shot on target in open play, even against 10. And a team which is very poor. The only plus is we have in previous seasons been dropping points in these games.

Yes it was cold & windy. Yes the manager has problems with ego's, fitness, knocks, form. Yes we won.

However Dunny should have started. Tugay played centre half all game and allowed Yorke the freedom of the midfield. Terrible. Samba was excellent but what on earth was he doing when giving away that penalty.

They had very few players of any merit. Kenwyn Jones but a loose tackle on his ankle from Nelsen saw him off substituted.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

ur making a habbit of disagreeing with everything i say, you cant have your hands above your head like he did and not expect to get punished for it, after seing samba challange again its more of a pen than i thought but it wouldnt get given against players like john terry!!

I agree that you can't have your hands above your head in the box because you do get punished for it however there is a difference between putting your hands up in the box and your arms physically cant go anywhere else due to the movement of the lower half of your body. Especially when a footballer is trying to block a shot from 3 or so yards away like he did. Fair enough if Samba hit the ball on the edge of the penalty area, then Danny Higginbotham would have had time to adjust his body and block the shot but we are talking about half a second from the moment Samba hit the ball to when it struck his hands. I personally felt it was unintentional and was a harsh decision. I'm glad the ref gave it though but i'd have been gutted if that was against us.

[Jordan]

We played rubbish and got three points - I'm happy!!

[colin]

Hope Colin's happy.

Maybe once I've thawed out! I've still get me thermals on.

Anyway, completely rubbish game, shots on target (apart from the two penalties) were probably none.

That was a very ugly win, but three points is three points and that is some consolation.

The thought of the Sunderland fans returning to their damp and violent city after suffering another loss is warming the cockles of my soul.

[trueblue]

I'm sorry to say but Sunderland played us off the park in the first half... they were firsht to the ball, closed us down quickly, and over run the midfield we didn't have !!! we weren't much better in the second half, and when they went down to 10 men we totally lost the plot !!

Something has gone drasticaly wrong since the first part of the season when Rovers looked up for it and worked for each other, tonight all I saw was a set of players who looked like they had never met each other before let alone played on the same football pitch !

Things need sorting out...... and quick.

I had to smile when I got home after that farce of a performance and saw the back of the L.E.T where Hughes is quoted as saying 'Europe is still achievable' ... Ha ! on the basis of tonights farcical performance, the only way Rovers will see Europe is if they go there for an holiday !

[Presty On Tour]

Well for what it's worth here is my view.

considering how crap we have been playing, we have taken 7 points out of a possible 9.

pedersen with all his critics was the best player on the pitch tonight by a mile, well smooth considering the conditions and he worked his socks off.

some of samba's clearances reminded me of peter kay's av it kick from the j smiths advert, better to be safe than sorry though.

1'st clean sheet for a while, it wasn't pretty and we needed more heroics from friedel but it's something to build on and get confidence from the fact that we conceded no goals tonight.

[AggyBlue]

I'm still shivering too (Oh for a terrace to bounce around on).

That was a performance of 'Larissa Away' proportions.

Sunderland, to be fair, worked very hard and gave us no space whatsoever.

Nevertheless we hadn't one player who could consistantly pass to a team mate, or run with the ball under contol, never mind bringing it under control with their first touch.

I'd have taken an ugly 1 - 0 pre match but I'd never imagined anything that ugly.

[RevidgeBlue]

Good three points on paper but an absolutely abysmal performance in reality - on that showing we have some major problems coming up.

Really can't understand the manager's love affair with Mokoena who is completely USELESS.

Can't head, shoot, pass in a forward direction, close the opposition down or control the ball. Apart from that he's great.

You can't blame Savage for being miffed. He's better than Mokoena on one leg.

[AggyBlue]

He's better than Mokoena on one leg.

I'd be better than a one legged Mokoena

[RevidgeBlue]

I'd be better than a one legged Mokoena

You know what I mean.

Actually, you're probably better than a 2 legged Mokoena.

[AggyBlue]

[grizfoot]

Bitterly cold night, a terrible game and three points.

Not perfect but a win is a win. Just watched the game back on Football First, my gosh how biased are thoose commentators i wouldn't be suprised if they were wearing Sunderland shirts.

[cletus]

An extremely poor 1-0 win. Better than a defeat ofcourse but the team were shockingly poor. We were outplayed for large parts of the game by a team who`ll probably get relegated. If it wasn`t for our decent start to the season, we`d be down there with them.

[USABlue]

On the bright side, last season teams like this beat us. On another bright side I am glad I don't gamble, after my mouthing off about getting no points over Xmas we have 7 out of nine, you can see why I don't do predictions. Sorry for those who froze their butts off but good on you for going. I have seen nothing of the game so fortunately for you all I can't comment.

[JamieUK]

Mokoena seems to be a lucky omen tho...!? Had a quick look on soccerbase and he's played in 20 games this season and we've won 13 of those losing only 4!

[RoversFanUSA]

Havent seen the highlights but am very happy with the result. hopfully we can get benni scoring again and the team revitalized and we finish this year stong!

[Blueboy Downunder]

all round, a very poor performance. first half playing into the wind, we decided to go the long ball route, food and drink to their centre halves as it was for ours in the second half. passing wise, we were awful and against a team that is bottom of the league at home, this is not good enough. brad saved a penalty fair do's but if that is the sole reason he has been voted by most as the MOM, then ithat is dumbfounding. 2 definate penalties and why they where complaining when we got ours is beyond me. he lifted his arm as the ball was struck towards goal, is a penalty any day of the way.

[Paul]

Diabolical game, Sunderland are terrible, which is nice after spending the whole summer reading about Roy the Messiah! I shall be nearly as happy as Colin when they go down. Sunderland fans will know their team could have won this game, but when you're at the bottom that's the way it goes,

Clean sheet, McCarthy scores, we beat two bottom three side, 7 points from 9 when it could easily have been 0, two saved penalties, decent crowd, Pedersen much improved. Plenty to be positive about but nothing can disguise the poverty of our football last night. A good team would have slaughtered us and we created very few if any chances.

[Paul]

Looking at the table the home defeats to Villa and Portsmouth have cost us very, very heavily.

[LDRover]

Utterly shocking game that was and whoever deemed Nelsen MOTM wants sectioning (anyone see the way Jones turned him easily first half).

Cannot remember a performance as bad as that in a long long time and there's been some bad ones. Mate of mine even rang his missus up with half an hour to go for a lift home, wanted to get home for the re-run of the 1983 World Championship Darts Final between Deller and Bristow on ESPN Classic.

Just as an aside, went in Ewood Club after game to see group of 6 Sunderland fans in. Apparently Northumbria Police had been in earlier to check on them as they were well known 'faces'. Anyway one of the group (chap knocking 50) came over to a couple of friends to tell them he was from Burnley and he'd been 'fighting all over Europe' and had tagged along with the Sunderland lads for some 'action', where were all of our top boys. The friends had no problem showing him and his new mates the way to Mill Hill via the Fox, Moorgate, Cow and Bull. With any luck he'll have been filled in, the scrote.

[philipl]

Looking at the table the home defeats to Villa and Portsmouth have cost us very, very heavily.

Agree. As an aside, imagine being a Pompey supporter- remove the Reading game and their home record reads W1 D6 L2 F4 A4 !!!

Sunderland were set-up to harass and rush which they did to great effect. OK they wouldn't have succeded so easily against other teams but they would have frustrated every other Prem team for a long time based on last night's effort (won't call it a performance).

It is a horrible thought though looking at what £36m buys you. Is Chopra injured by the way or so useless he cannot even get picked in that pile of rubbish?

Anyway 7 points out of 9 is a very nice Festive Season especially the one in Manchester- if only Sparky had not mucked around unneccesarily at right back in that one.

[only2garners]

Mokoena seems to be a lucky omen tho...!? Had a quick look on soccerbase and he's played in 20 games this season and we've won 13 of those losing only 4!

I think it's the Mark Atkins syndrome - everyone used to slate his performance but we always missed him when he wasn't there. Mokoena does the stuff which isn't pretty or memorable but which needs doing, breaking up the play, getting the ball back, protecting the defence. He wasn't brilliant last night but he did the job he's paid for and helped to get us back in the game after a very poor first 20 minutes.

I can't believe Freidel is man of the match. He had nothing to do last night except save a very poor penalty from Whitehead - all he had to do was guess the right direction. It's not of course his fault - he can only have a great game if he has plenty to do. Personally for me man of the match last night was between Nelsen, Mokoena, Pedersen and McCarthy, all of whom had decent games in a fairly poor team performance. Given these 4 have been the butt of most people's anger on here for the last few weeks I'll now bunker down now for the reaction.

[Guest Kamy100]

I thought that Morten was much improved last night. Everything seem to go through him on the left. Granted his final ball was poor in the first half at least he was showing for the ball and in the second half he put some good deliveries in. I went to last night's game expecting a "dire" game. The conditions were atrocious, Sunderland were set up to spoil and the tough away games at City and Derby really took their toll on the player. The team looked tired to me. It was only when Derbyshire came on that we had someone prepared to run in behind the Sunderland defence and stretch them.

Still very happy that we got the 3 points and 7 out of 9 over Christmas is a superb return.

[den]

I don't think many people are taking the conditions into account when they're complaining about the quality of the game. First half as BBDU mentioned, rovers were kicking into a gale, - that's probably why rovers kicked towards the BBE first half, hoping to take advantage in the second. Someone mentioned that we used the long ball too much that half, - well you can't do much else in those circumstances. The priority is to clear your lines, which in itself is difficult.

Second half, the wind dropped completely. Did no-one notice how calm it was coming out of the ground? That was the reason for a much more even second half. Having said that, it still wasn't easy. Even Bentley couldn't play his usual game on that surface. The conditions all contributed to even things up, because our ball players couldn't play the way they like and that suited the Mackems down to the ground.

The booing off, of our players at half time was the height of ignorance IMO!