[Archived] Rovers v Sunderland Preview

[colin]

Well, after Saturday's away win against Wolves everyone's all jolly happy. But, as we all know, after The Lord Mayor's parade comes the man with the shovel.

Tuesday 20th March - 20:00 kick off

Well what a difference a new manager makes. Steve Bruce was dismissed as manager of Sunderland on 30th November.and was replaced, with little delay, by Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill OBE on 3rd December.

On his first game in charge he saw Sunderland come from a goal down to beat the opposition 2-1 at The Stadium Of Light. It would be an impressive debut but given the pi55-poor opposition.........we know who the opposition was.

Steve Bruce was manager for 98 games and won roughly 30% of them. O'Neill has, at the time of writing, been manager for 17 games. He has guided them to nine wins so giving him a win ratio of 53%. Statistics eh?

So what's his secret? From anyone's point of view it's because he's a better manager than Steve Bruce, just the same as Sam Allerdyce is a better manager than Coco.

Mind you, who isn't?

So, Just back to Martin O'Neill. Back in the days when we were a half decent team we were in the Euopean Cup and we went to Celtic Park. Sounness was in charge of Rovers & O'Neill was manager of Celtic and we completely wooped their sorry ar5es. They beat us 1-0. Before the game I was chatting to a Celtic fan and I couldn't understand what the hell he was on about until he said he was from Dublin, so I changed my accent filter from Glasgow to Dublin and all went well.

That's funny, that is.

In the return leg Chris Sutton ran the Celtic midfield and they completely slaughtered us.

Sunderland remain the only top flight club to win all of their home games in a season. That does date back to 1891 - 1893, and they played just 13 games.

Statto heaven here

Sunderland's record may be under threat though as Manchester City has currently won all 14 of its home games with just five games left.

Our own 3 consecutive FA Cup wins record goes back a bit further to 1884 to 1886.

As for our recent home record against Sunderland

2010-2011 it was a 0-0

2090-2010 it was 2 -2

2008- 2009 it was 1-2

2007 - 2008 it was 1 -0

So that's bu99er-all use.

I was going to have a look at Lee Cattermole after his post-final-whistle potty-mouth at Mike Dean after Sunderland's game against Newcastle on 4th March. What kind of idiot can get himself sent off after the final whistle I thought to myself?

Then I stumbled upon the never less than interesting wonderful and frightening world of Nicklas Bendtner who currently plays for Sunderland, on loan from Arsenal:

His first Premier League start for Arsenal came at Everton in December 2007 and he was sent off for two yellow cards.(Bettered by Flitcroft, straight red, no problem.)

He scored his first FA Cup goal against Burnley on 6 January 2008 as Arsenal won 20. Hurrah Niklas!

In 2009 he decided to change his shirt number from 26 to 52 and offered to refund anyone who had bought an Arsenal shirt with "26" on it. "I chose to move to 52 because it's a special number to me personally, and I hope that it brings me good luck for the new season." It must be thenumbers of weeks in a year, rather than the number of fortnights in a year then.

In May 2009 he was seen leaving a night club after Arsenal's 31 home defeat by Manchester United. He was pictured with his belt undone and jeans pulled down. He later said that "I may be young, but my actions were a poor error of judgment and something I deeply regret."

In September 2009 he was involved in a car accident while driving along the A1. He suffered cuts to his knees and shoulder pain as well as writing off his Aston Martin.

Rumour has it that he is the father to the son of Baroness Caroline Iuel-Brockdorff, a socialite and close friend of the Danish Royal family. 13 years his senior. Nice one Niklas, now't wrong with a bit of posh & mature totty. I'm sure that Jim Mark2 & Thenodrog would have a wonderful scrap over the right to help Princess Anne overcome any mounting problems that she has with any of her stallions.

He's said he'll never go back to Arsenal.

In September 2011 he was arrested after a fight in a Gateshead hotel. He was released without charge.

In December 2011 he was arrested (along with aforementioned idiot Lee Cattermole) for kicking wing mirrors of cars in Newcastle's Chinatown in the shadow of "The Sports Direct Stadium." Did you know it was once called St James' Park? (stop press 12/3: charges dropped, Cattermole's still facing the beak though)

"Known for his extreme self-confidence, Bendtner once received a confidence rating that *exceeded the scale* in a test carried out by an Arsenal psychologist."

One to watch then. Not quite on the Joey Barton/Eric Cantona/Robin Friday* scale of behaviour, but he looks like he's

slowly getting there.

Anyway here's the Leonard Cohen/Eeyore/Colin version of events on Tuesday evening

Turn up at Ewood at 20:00 on Tuesday 20th, it'll probably rain, & Coco directs another hopeless display.

At approximately 21:45 plus time added on, the ref will peep & the Sunderland team will walk over to the Darwen End to applaud their fans. It has registered another win engineered by Martin O'Neill. You will all go home feeling dejected and thoroughly cheesed off. Coco will do an interview and bring out the positives of the defeat and will, soon after, be on his way to Pune to explain something about football to some people who know absolutely nothing about football.

Here comes the man with the shovel. His rhubarb & roses will be great this year and he will win prizes.

More than happy to be proved wrong on this.

*What? You've never heard of Robin Friday. He made George Best look like Bobby Charlton. read & enjoy

[braddock]

I'll read the preview in a second, but my prediction is 2-1 to Sunderland.

[purplegrover]

Thanks Colin. Great read !

Loved your research. Bendtner sounds like he indeed likes to go on the occasional 'bender', and (ability to attract posh totty aside) looks like he may be in the running for 'tossbag of the year'.

May I suggest to anyone with pitch access who may be reading this, to poke both 'The Bendt' and 'The Catt' with a pointy stick repeatedly prior to the match, in the hope that they will be goaded enough to do something stupid.

I'd fancy our chances much better if Sunderland were reduced to 9 men.

[philipl]

Great preview Colin.

I am encouraged by the fact that Rovers came within 5 minutes of wrecking Martin O'Neill's first game for Sunderland.

I am discouraged by the fact Coco got us playing so far back that the two goals by Sunderland were utterly inevitable.

Then I think of Coco vs O'Neill and feel almost suicidal.

OK Sunderland have some key players out so we might scrape a second home draw running. That might not be a bad result considering the opponents of our fellow travellers in trouble.

[Mercer]

Three points to Rovers nailed on !!!

Rovers will be fresh after having played no match for 10 days whilst Sunderland will come off the back of a quarter final at Everton and will be missing Sess & Cattermole (both suspended).

Stop messing about, this is a certain Rovers win and get your bets on now !!!

[jim mk2]

When did we last beat a team managed by Martin O'Neill ? Our record against Villa under him was abysmal and he generally got the better of us when he was at Leicester. And I'll never forget the Uefa Cup match at Celtic when Rovers literally ran rings round the opposition but still managed to lose. O'Neill's team also won the second leg.

1-1 draw at best.

[Majiball]

Any result and I mean a real result IE our goals scored being equal or more than theirs, will be a bonus.

[AggyBlue]

Good preview Colin.

I can't remember Robin Friday but that's a helluva wiki page for a player who's career only lasted four years.

This will be a tough match but our new found confidence and 'togetherness' will see us take something from the game.

[joey_big_nose]

Hmmm. I am feeling raesonably (unjustifiably?!) confident about this one. Team will largely stay the same as the win against Wolves but the questions are:- 1) Should Orr come in at right back and Lowe go into midfield? 2) Should Givet play?

After our first clean sheet I think it probably will stay the same to be honest.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Three points to Rovers nailed on !!!

Rovers will be fresh after having played no match for 10 days whilst Sunderland will come off the back of a quarter final at Everton and will be missing Sess & Cattermole (both suspended).

Stop messing about, this is a certain Rovers win and get your bets on now !!!

I hope you are right - our first clean sheet for ages - followed by first back to back wins - what are the odds ?

[m1st]

That is totally brilliant, colin; must be a strong contender for "Wittiest preview of all time". [Thanks for the statto heaven link, btw.] Having read it, I'm [almost] not bothered how the game itself turns out. If the result's as good as the preview, then we'll be laughing.

My mackem-supporting mate reckons that they'll prove tougher opposition than Wolves gave us [Dagenham & Redbridge probably could, too]; and the er, "opportunist" [his word] "fluky" [mine], goal they scored against Liverpool means they can never be written off, even with two of their better players suspended.

Even so, given that we've scored loads more Premier League goals than Liverpool this season and have now discovered how to "do" clean sheets, I'm quietly optimistic that you'll be wrong, colin, and that we'll be on the right end of a 2-1 scoreline.

[Mattyblue]

Few players banned and injured, eyes on the FA Cup, we have a decent chance of 3 points.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

As I said on the other thread, we'll never have a better chance given the respective circumstances. Come on Rovers, hit the ground running for once.

[1864roverite]

Would love to be able to see a Rovers win but with idiot in charge we just wont be able to secure a successive 3 point haul. The giddiness of Keans first clean sheet may well be detrimental to our cause.

Rovers lose by the odd goal in 3.

[colin]

purplegrover; philipl; AggyBlue; & m1st

Thank you for you kind comments. They are much appreciated.

Colin

[Amo]

Smashing preview, Colin!

Now we've got that long-awaited clean sheet, the sky's the limit!

In Kean we trust.

[ABBEY]

Working I think for this one:(

[Majiball]

Have we had back to back league wins under Keano yet?

[Rochdale Blue]

NO!

[braddock]

Maybe we are due one then.

[Ralfinho]

My heart says win but my mind is saying a 1-1 draw

[JAL]

The key to this game for me has to be ERIC BLACK, he knows everything about the Sunderland players, hes been here long enough to assess the Rovers players, so..... can he help his current boss and Rovers to victory over the mackems.

cheers for the preview Colin!

[braddock]

The key to this game for me has to be ERIC BLACK, he knows everything about the Sunderland players, hes been here long enough to assess the Rovers players, so..... can he help his current boss and Rovers to victory over the mackems.

cheers for the preview Colin!

Possibly an aspect, but not the key.

[Amo]

I'll read the preview in a second, but my prediction is 2-1 to Sunderland.

I hate the negativity here.

[john-rover]

Bentner (sp) changed to 52 the same time his wage did!