View from Sunderland post game

[terryr]

Well, that was a right kick in the teeth, wasn't it? A horrible rainy old afternoon down at Craven Cottage, and we've walked away with nowt after a 1-0 loss to Fulham.
Before anyone kicks off — aye, we knew it'd be a tough one. Fulham are canny strong at home and have a bit of quality about them.
But even so, this one feels like a proper missed chance. They weren't exactly world beaters today, and we still managed to make life difficult for ourselves.

The first half wasn't actually too bad. We kept the ball alright, moved it about, and didn't look scared of them.
But every time we got near their box, it just fizzled out.
Same old story — good build-up, nowt at the end of it.
You could see the crowd getting a bit restless on their side, because we were doing enough to make them sweat.
Problem is, as usual, we just didn't make their keeper work. If you don't have a shot, you don't score. Simple really, but we seem to love ignoring it.

Fulham nicked their goal halfway through the second half, and honestly, it was soft as clarts.
Ball dropped in the box, we hesitated, they didn't. Bang — 1-0. Typical.
That's what proper Premier League experience gets you: a bit of sharpness, a bit of composure, and the ability to punish daft lapses.
And us? We're still trying to walk the ball out like Barcelona 2011.
Sometimes you just want someone to go through it, clear the lines, and stop the faffing on.

What annoyed me most wasn't the goal, it was the reaction. Heads dropped. You could feel it.
Fulham didn't even have to do much after that — they just kept it tidy, slowed the game down, and waited for us to run out of ideas. And, like clockwork, we did.
The subs didn't change much either. Fair play to the lads for trying, but we never looked like scoring if we stayed there all night.

There were a couple of positives, mind.
Defence looked alright for big chunks of the game, and we weren't overrun.
Midfield grafted. But you can graft your lungs out and still lose if you've got no killer instinct up top.
That's the difference. That's why we're going home empty-handed.

And for the love of god, can we stop giving the ball away in stupid areas?
It's getting beyond a joke now. We invited trouble more than once with sloppy passes.
Fulham didn't take advantage every time, but better teams will.

Anyway, that's that. Another away day, another lesson learned.
It's not doom and gloom — we've seen far worse than this — but we can't keep coming away from games saying "nearly". Nearly doesn't get you points.
A bit more belief, a bit more bravery in front of goal, and we'd have taken something today.

On to the next one next week - home to Bournemouth, and we need all three points.
Haway the lads — even after a day like that - I'm still upbeat."

"We struggle against the little cubs, but it's the likes of these that we must get a result!"

"No harm done-Leeds wolves Burnley all got beat again."

" I think the title challenge is probably over though."

" City and Liverpool both lost so champions League place still on"

" I think I'd settle for champs league I suppose"

" Arsenal absolutely thrashing Spurs is another example of how good a point that was, and what we are capable. Every team has off days once in a while, we had one yesterday. No big deal. And best of all we get a chance of putting it right in 6 days at home."

" Is everyone on arsehole pills today?
Fulham will be very close to us for the rest of the season.
But you knew that."

"If that  twit terryr does a postmortem that lot will be chortling at us into their pimms"

"IMHO we are in a fight to stay in this league. Nothing more.
If we can stay in this league we have won the fight and we can then improve.
I'm not looking any higher than that.
We've had a great start but I think it's just about to get a lot harder."

" We played poorly yesterday and should've done much better against an average Fulham side but hardly the end of the world. We've been fantastic overall. I'm sure Burnley and Leeds would snap their hands off to swap places."

" Load of rubbish
We were very poor yesterday and had 3-4000 away supporters .
The effort wasn't there and that isn't acceptable .
Hopefully we can get 3 points this Saturday as the next few weeks will be very tough . It's been a great season so far and so long as they have a go then getting beat is fine but yesterday we looked tired and almost uninterested at times as if a friendly .... IMO"

"Leeds losing was a tonic after the Fulham poo show."

"Shows how far we have come when we are all disappointed to lose at Fulham.
We are still 8 points clear of the bottom 4.
Special mention to the ref, who appeared to make the rules up as he went along"

"bad day at the Office.... Regroup and put it right next week ."

"well we were bad, never really got into the game, too many too slow and misplaced passes...no complaints at the result
ref watch: i hope i never see that tw@t in charge of any more of our games, possibly the most one sided performanc ei have ever seen, disgraceful for an official, so many fouls by them ignored completely.
my MotM going to ELF, best performance from him so far this season."

" Worst we've played this season. Just looked totally off the pace and some looked exhausted at times. Didn't agree with 5 at the back but very surprised how open we were playing that way. Hopefully its a one off we can put behind us and get back to winning ways next week at home"

"  These lads don't like the rain. Very similar performance to man u away."

"Absolutely dreadful today throughout the side.
Got what we deserved.
Onwards to next week."

"  We were poor today Fulham were better. Thought we would end up getting a point but we conceded relatively late. Don't think we can argue with the outcome we would have been lucky to come away with a 0-0. Dissapointing? Yes. Cause for panic and uproar? No"

" can anyone tell me what the free kick was given for leading to the fulham goal?

me and son sat watching it and never saw a foul, and not for the only time either....i mean, isidor was blatantly shoved off the ball in their box and ballard had a hand to his throat, one of their lads fell over in the box while ballard was shoved over and they get a free kick, only three off the top of my head there...shocking by the official."

" They got free kicks for **** all, soft free kicks are bad enough both ways but even worse when its only one way"

" Dis - jointed, lethargic, ball retention questionable, slow at moving the ball, 5 at the back to obvious, referee dodgy.
We looked jet lagged.
Time for Talbi starting on left, Adingra on right.
Start back three of Mukilele, Ballard and Alderete.
Fulham really were there for the taking.
Our set up was showing far to much respect to Fulham.
I can understand playing the so called bigger teams with five at the back.
Rant over just my observations."

" Still think we're more than good enough to stay up. Next month is going to be ropey though, big decisions for RLB next week"

" Sobering performance. We never gave them cause for concern imo. Too little in midfield and they always had a man over. Disappointed Regis didnt see it tbh, he normally does.

A lot of players below par today. I thought we would be really up for this but we were flat. Fulham didnt have to be great to beat us, and they almost didnt. Mind the number of shots they had is a worry.

Our lack of creativity is a concern. None of the wide lads have settled yet, at least to be consistent. Maybe they need a run of games but Regis has his set. I hope when Mundle is fit he plays him - we need agressive direct wingers on one side at least.

Sorry to be a misery. But not much to shout about today imo."

" Didn't lay a glove on them to be honest Smug.
Really poor on the pitch and in the dugout."

" Well, that ruined a good day out. Never seemed like we were in that game from the off and nothing changed.
Away fans were immense, all game. Well done - clearly a few away fans around me based on the number of folk sat down when they scored and slagging the ref off for being a twit.
Must learn from that and onto the next one"

" One thing about the game, the cross in for Fulham's goal was superb. Too much space and time to put it in mind."

" hmmmm...despite us being below par, maybe fulham got the tactics spot on.

xhaka and sadiki seemed to get little of the ball (mind you could see them running around the pitch) so le fee appeared to be the only 'outlet' apart from long, wasted passes.

maybe RLB over-thought this one or silva played a blinder, usually we see the small changes but don't think i saw any today...credit to fulham though they were relentless."

" Something wasn't quite right today! Really if Fulham players could finish they wpuld have scored 3 or 4 easily. We don't usually give away so many clear chances!
I'm not worried about one off day, see another 2 or 3 like that in a row and I'll be saying different but I can see things being better next week!"

" Disappointing today but we were never in the game. Felt like a needlessly defensive setup. Hopefully back to our 433 next Sat and go again. 3 points important with some tough games coming up,"

" Poor performance today, seems like heads went down a bit after some strange decisions by the Fulham 12th man... the ref. What was the free kick for when they went and scored? Oh well, onwards and upwards just beaten by 12 man Fulham, will be much better 11 v 11 next game."

" They looked a yard quicker than us all over the pitch, and our subs came on very late again, possibly due to them not scoring till late on, I was hoping they would score earlier tbh , to force a change. Having said that the Talbi decision to turn right was a shocker as has been mentioned. We should give credit to their manager and players who got it spot on imo., and I don,t know where to start about the ref. , totally one sided or useless is the best I can manage."

" Maybe not blown away but a bit better finishing and they could have had 4 yesterday. Gave away more clear chances yesterday than we have over 2 or 3 matches combined previously!
Nothing at all was at the level it usally is, Roefs is the exception he made at least 1 very good save!"

" In the cold light of day despite being off it we were in the game

they squandered chances and their goal comes from a combination of mistakes, such as the bizarre foul, Hume being out of position to effectively close crosser down due to the foul, and the mix up beteeen Ballard and Roefs.

we could have blagged a point, reminded me off the united performance in a way.

I do think we're short a midfielder, he doesn't like the combinations available to him there at present. he won't put Enzo in there because he either doesn't want him there or because more likely we don't have an option on the left that he prefers so trust Enzo.

Many said an X factor winger was the one thing we didn't come away with in the summer, ultimately you can't have everything tho.

I seen enough from the game to not throw toys at the pram and believe 17th is on at the very least.

different game next week at home"

" To me it looked like they had just finished a large cod with double chips before starting the game.
I agree with just about everyone else about the formation being wrong.
Opposition teams seem to be targeting our right side when attacking, this needs looking at.
Do we have any coaches who concentrate on passing because we give the ball away a lot by either poor passes or just heading it back to the opposition area who then take the ball down and get possession. Maybe the passes weren't on or nobody made themselves available but whatever it is we lose possession too easily.
Maybe they all had an off day but I fully expect them to get back to their normal levels for the next game.
The ref was rubbish (for us)"

" They were good, ( they ARE good mind) we were a bit off it. Maybe a bit of tiredness.
One thing which might have been mentioned was that the ref gave them a free kick every time one of them went to ground. And they seemed to know this and kept going there. Some were fouls, some were not, but they got the decision almost every time .
We got nothing like the same treatment from the ref.
But a tight game lost. We've won and drawn a few of them."

" Agree with all of that. On the ref, it seemed like a switch went off in his head depending on if we had the ball or Fulham did. When we had the ball, he would apply the new guidelines where more contact is allowed and not every contact is a foul. When Fulham had it, it reverted to last year's where every touch against their players falling down is a foul.

It has been refreshing to get the rub of the green from refs as a promoted side but yesterday felt like a step back to X are the established PL side so I'll favour them."

That's all she wrote for this week
See ya next week
T

[fulhamfever]

Any mention of how Wilson could of put Fulham out of sight had he scored his two great chances either side of the post 😂😂😂

[demeant0r]

"If that  twit terryr does a postmortem that lot will be chortling at us into their pimms" 🤭

[BestOfBrede]

Got a mention there Terry 

"If that  twit terryr does a postmortem that lot will be chortling at us into their pimms"

Chortling into their Pimm's! 


Oops sorry demeant0r!

[Twig]

That "twit terryr" done well! Some of the realistic of them recognised we were good enough to have won by a much bigger margin and they're right to identify our poor finishing as an issue for us.

Ah well pour me another Pimms.

[onecupsoon]

I took a look at Sunderland's version of the brief highlights, seems we only had one shot on goal.  No wonder their fans get deluded if that's all they see.

[Nero]

Wow some of their fans really doo have rose tinted glasses, they were lucky to get nil

[Shredhead]

When I met my Sunderland mate after the game, first thing he said was how bad the ref was.I said I thought he had rather a good game! And the so did the lino in front of the JH.

[Jim©]

They're quite a deluded bunch as summed up by a small group of their lads wandering up Ellerby street shouting about what a sh*thole fulham is.
3-4000 fans according to their comments
"should've done much better against an average Fulham side"
Now, I know there's been a lot of injury time played the last year or so but the comment "Fulham nicked their goal halfway through the second half" made me laugh.

[demeant0r]

I took a look at Sunderland's version of the brief highlights, seems we only had one shot on goal.  No wonder their fans get deluded if that's all they see.

How did they even collate enough Sunderland action to make a brief highlight when they only show one shot by us?

[HV71]

You can see the gentleman had a point

[HV71]

Apologies I failed to post a picture of the Pimm's stall that was out side the Riverside stand

[cookieg]

They're quite a deluded bunch as summed up by a small group of their lads wandering up Ellerby street shouting about what a sh*thole fulham is.
3-4000 fans according to their comments
"should've done much better against an average Fulham side"
Now, I know there's been a lot of injury time played the last year or so but the comment "Fulham nicked their goal halfway through the second half" made me laugh.

I was next to those kids and it made me laugh, that was all they kept singing. If Stevenage Road is a sh*thole what does that make Sunderland?

[alfie]

Ahh that old chestnut blaming the ref, mind you I wasn't there so was it the refs fault giving the foul that led to the goal ?

[Bill2]

I had to laugh when someone said Champions League places. They are seriously deluded. They had a good start to the season playing some of the clubs who will more than likely be going down, which no doubt gave them a boost. But know we are entering the serious part of the season and they look like they are struggling.

[Rambler]

Quite funny to read that comment about terryr halfway through. Haha, didn't realise taking a few quotes from another clubs forum was so inflammatory.

Well done terryr. Keep up the previews and post mortems. Very enjoyable reading

[Sgt Fulham]

A relatively small number of sensible heads in there. They were well beaten, and 1-0 massively flattered them. Some of them recognise that, but some seem to think theyre actually top 4 material and see us as scum on the bottom of their shoe, robbing them of the 3 points they were entitled to. I fancy us to finish above them.

[_Putney_]

 

[Jim©]

A relatively small number of sensible heads in there. They were well beaten, and 1-0 massively flattered them. Some of them recognise that, but some seem to think theyre actually top 4 material and see us as scum on the bottom of their shoe, robbing them of the 3 points they were entitled to. I fancy us to finish above them.

After watching them a few times already (TV) and live on Saturday, if we don't finish above them, I'd be quite concerned.

[AJW48361]

I would take that Ref every home game.