Di Canio, pillock

[mangoputney]

Love it when you win ugly... It's a good habit... Especially for a team poor on the road and with a sizeable hole in midfield

[Logicalman]

We went there with a weakend team and played for a draw. We still created as many shots on target. I'd say that was a masterful defensive display and a great result. Sunderland can shoot from 25 years out as much as they want, it's what we would have wanted them to do. Great performance and result, spot on.

Did you honestly watch the game? that was a great performance? God help us when we play poorly then! fp.gif

Agreed, but the one thing was we came away with the three points from a pretty mediocre overall game.  If DC cannot understand that 21 shots with 3 on target is not good enough in the Prem, then he has one hell of a shock coming to his system when he meets a team that will punish them properly.

[Bassey the warrior]

We went there with a weakend team and played for a draw. We still created as many shots on target. I'd say that was a masterful defensive display and a great result. Sunderland can shoot from 25 years out as much as they want, it's what we would have wanted them to do. Great performance and result, spot on.

Did you honestly watch the game? that was a great performance? God help us when we play poorly then! fp.gif

Not great as such but a very mature and disciplined one. We nullified their attack, and they have some good offensive players, and took our chance. We were certainly no worse than them.

[HatterDon]

Don't get me wrong, I'm pleased with the win, but for long periods of the game, especially the first half, it did feel as if we were not only out-played but couldn't get the ball far past midfield.

I'm optimistic, but only that we won't be relegated this season. Boateng was reckless, Richardson + Steklenberg are hurt and we had trouble getting the ball to Berbatov. Though they couldn't put the ball on net,I think Sunderland have a lot more positives to take away from this game than we do.

But not as many points!
The prem is a tough league so an away win is a great result.
Remember this is real football not the MLS

Stay classy, Mr. Hairnet.

[HatterDon]

Don't get me wrong, I'm pleased with the win, but for long periods of the game, especially the first half, it did feel as if we were not only out-played but couldn't get the ball far past midfield.

I'm optimistic, but only that we won't be relegated this season. Boateng was reckless, Richardson + Steklenberg are hurt and we had trouble getting the ball to Berbatov. Though they couldn't put the ball on net,I think Sunderland have a lot more positives to take away from this game than we do.

But not as many points!
The prem is a tough league so an away win is a great result.
Remember this is real football not the MLS

I agree with what you say, though I'm not certain what the MLS reference is to, explain perhaps?

Just a little bit of the old, "You're a Yank; what the hell do you know anyhow?" Nothing new; nothing to see here.

And we move along.

[Scrumpy]

We went there with a weakend team and played for a draw. We still created as many shots on target. I'd say that was a masterful defensive display and a great result. Sunderland can shoot from 25 years out as much as they want, it's what we would have wanted them to do. Great performance and result, spot on.

Did you honestly watch the game? that was a great performance? God help us when we play poorly then! fp.gif

It's amazing how opinions can differ. I was at the match and thought that Sunderland were really poor. They were the home team and should really have taken it to us more. I haven't watched any highlights but we dominated the first 20 minutes (not bad for an away team) but suffered when we lost Richardson. Then it was fairly even (possession stats were 52%-48%) and I honestly expected Sunderland to put us under much more pressure. Once we scored, we pretty-much decided to hang on to what we had, and kept possession well, slowed the game down, spoiled their momentum etc. Not pretty, but professional and effective. I was well pleased, along with several hundred others.  049:gif

If I was a Sunderland fan I would be seriously worried.

[Jack Fulham]

We did the classic sit back and let them have their way with us after we scored. Sidwell and Boateng's passing was a little off which made difficult to put an attack together. We did only have 1 shot on target remember. Sunderland rarely had us in real danger though, not much apart from that shot to the top corner by the right back? and the save where Stek injured himself. Our defence held themselves well.

I think Sunderland could take a while to get going this season considering the amount of new players they've signed, will take a while to gel and not many of them have premier league experience. It won't help if Di Canio gets himself sacked as well.

[ron]

Solid defending coupled with the very best use of the chance that came along. What's not to admire in a display like that?

The stunned silence in the stadium as we scored spoke volumes of our performance. Rejoice without reservations over the three points !  049:gif

[alfie]

Di canio is right we played awful, and were lucky to come out with a win.... Dont get me wrong I am delighted with the win, its a great result and can really give the boys confidence for our next few games, but if we continue to play in this manner we will be getting hammered by most teams... Thankfully we have some attacking options to come into the team

Don't agree with the "lucky" stuff, they had chances and did not take them that is not luck for us it was just bad finishing from them and good defensive play from us. I am not a believer of the term LUCK, something either will happen or it won't.

[The Cat]

You make your own luck in football. Whilst I understand PDC's view, fact is Fulham wouldn't have been able to play the way they did if Sunderland had scored.
We didn't so you did, that's football!

[Berserker]

Mr B who is neutral, well supports Hearts, was with at Sunderland with me, he thought Sunderland should have won by 2.1. I think a draw would have been about right. I'm just glad we got the three points though, it's a long season and we will need every point we can get

[rusty shackleford]

It was an excellent defensive performance. Going forward we offered nothing but after we scored they didnt ever look like getting back into it.

[epsomraver]

We went there with a weakend team and played for a draw. We still created as many shots on target. I'd say that was a masterful defensive display and a great result. Sunderland can shoot from 25 years out as much as they want, it's what we would have wanted them to do. Great performance and result, spot on.

Did you honestly watch the game? that was a great performance? God help us when we play poorly then! fp.gif

It's amazing how opinions can differ. I was at the match and thought that Sunderland were really poor. They were the home team and should really have taken it to us more. I haven't watched any highlights but we dominated the first 20 minutes (not bad for an away team) but suffered when we lost Richardson. Then it was fairly even (possession stats were 52%-48%) and I honestly expected Sunderland to put us under much more pressure. Once we scored, we pretty-much decided to hang on to what we had, and kept possession well, slowed the game down, spoiled their momentum etc. Not pretty, but professional and effective. I was well pleased, along with several hundred others.  049:gif

If I was a Sunderland fan I would be seriously worried.

it's good to hear the view of someone who was there, Highlights and streams and GJ do not give a balanced picture and I would respect Scrumpys views over most. 065.gif

[MasterHaynes]

I wasn't exactly pleased about the way we just hoofed the ball in the last 20 minutes, but fair play to the lads - it worked. Sunderland only created one real opportunity with the cross into Ji who put his header wide.

Great start to the season, now onto Arsenal at home, at the best possible time to face them!

I think the hoofing was largely in part due to the enforced subs.  Taraabt, Kasami and Briggs were playing full games despite not having much pre-season time.  Karagounis will always be super old, as will Duff )who likely wouldn't have played the full 90).

Also, on an unrelated note, 3 bookings??  That doesn't usually happen until mid-April...

Some things were entirely familiar though, I have no issue with Duff being booked but a Sunderland player did the exact same type of foul 60 seconds later when we could have made a break but ref gave a free kick without a word to the player. Sunderland had a lot of decisions but you would expect that up there with a 40,000 crowd baying hopefully it will balance out when we are at home next week.