Who’s having the match thread?? Looks like me. - Sunderland away leg

[HoylandOwl]

Post game gaffer

post game Storey

 

[HoylandOwl]

One thing that really fucked me off last night was the ref.

There we’re so many times we should have had free kicks and didn’t, yet they did when they went down. He certainly seemed to be influenced by the crowd on many occasions. 

 

[HoylandOwl]

Looking round on YouTube this morning, there’s a few Sunderland videos with headlines on them like ‘we’re going to Wembley’ etc etc. 

It’s not over, by a long stretch. And as much as I obviously want us to turn it around, it makes me want us to do it even more to shut stupid fuckers up like that. 

[Billysboy]

10 hours ago, MAL said:

I admire your confidence.

Have you only just started following this clubs results 😁

Over 50 years mate, probably why I  make the odd senile comment🤪

[HoylandOwl]

https://www.swfc.co.uk/news/2022/may/darren-moore-post-sunderland-talking-points/
 

ON THE GAME

The game started exactly the way I thought it would and we were prepared for that. The atmosphere was ferocious, it was a full house, and their fans really got behind their team. But we contained them, we stuck to our jobs and as half time was coming it looked like we would be going in level. Obviously it’s a shame that it was a mistake that led to the goal and my team talk changed in an instant. It was now about settling them back down, regrouping and making sure we did not concede again.

ON FIGHTING BACK

Credit to the players because they left everything out there and although we know we can be better on the ball, we were dogged, we were determined and on another day we take something from the game. But it’s half time, they will come to a sold-out Hillsborough packed to the rafters like we had to come here tonight. It’s two massive clubs battling for one prize and now we turn our focus to the second leg, we recover and prepare for Monday.

IMPORTANCE OF THE FANS

Sunderland’s fans were loud tonight, really loud, so what do I want from our fans on Monday? To be louder, simple as that. I could hear them tonight high up in the stands and that was against 40-odd thousand Sunderland fans, so what could it be like at Hillsborough? They have to be our 12^th man, get right behind the boys and sign your hearts out because the players appreciate it and thrive on it.

ON THE SQUAD

Everyone seems to be okay in there and we will see if there are any bumps and bruises in the morning. In terms of the selection tonight, Baz was fine to play and I thought he worked really hard throughout and he was constantly encouraging like good captains do. We thought long and hard about putting Harlee back in but my goodness what a performance. He headed everything, he kicked everything and made one vital block to prevent a goal. With Hunty, we went for Liam because we wanted that little more physicality and Liam knows the right back role like the back of his hand. Listen, everyone wants to play, the whole squad wants to play but we can only pick XI and we will select the XI we think can win any given game.

 

[Hirstys 12th Pint]

53 minutes ago, HoylandOwl said:

One thing that really fucked me off last night was the ref.

There we’re so many times we should have had free kicks and didn’t, yet they did when they went down. He certainly seemed to be influenced by the crowd on many occasions. 

 

Yes same here.  Nothing major but quite a few nudges in the back. 

[1banana2banana]

Morning after the night before 

going into last night I said to everyone around me I’d take a 1-0 loss there and then. 
what really knocked the stuffing out of me was the performance AND the fact that I really Didn’t see anything special from that Sunderland side. 20 minutes in once we’d quietened the crowd down I started to think we could have a good go here and turn them over 

if we’d got to half time at 0 0 and ended it 0 0 we’d all be welding completely different. It’s 1 mistake and mistakes do happen in life and football. 
 

Hillsborough will be much louder and much more intense on Monday (aside from the numbers I wasn’t impressed at all with their crowd). 
I hope the players turn up as we KNOW they have it in them. If we go out with a whimper having not had a proper go I’ll be devestated. 

[JBO]

I haven't been welding at all this morning tbh

[HoylandOwl]

4 minutes ago, 1banana2banana said:

Morning after the night before 

going into last night I said to everyone around me I’d take a 1-0 loss there and then. 
what really knocked the stuffing out of me was the performance AND the fact that I really Didn’t see anything special from that Sunderland side. 20 minutes in once we’d quietened the crowd down I started to think we could have a good go here and turn them over 

if we’d got to half time at 0 0 and ended it 0 0 we’d all be welding completely different. It’s 1 mistake and mistakes do happen in life and football. 
 

Hillsborough will be much louder and much more intense on Monday (aside from the numbers I wasn’t impressed at all with their crowd). 
I hope the players turn up as we KNOW they have it in them. If we go out with a whimper having not had a proper go I’ll be devestated. 

Fair points there mate.

I tweeted on the OO account that we needed half time. Not because I thought, we were under the cosh particularly, just that they’d have been frustrated at throwing things at us but we hadn’t caved (nor did we look like we would).

[HoylandOwl]

1 minute ago, JBO said:

I haven't been welding at all this morning tbh

Good. 

[1banana2banana]

3 minutes ago, JBO said:

I haven't been welding at all this morning tbh

I’d like to say I did that on purpose to illustrate my ‘mistakes happen’ comment, but I’m not sharp enough to do that 😄 

[1banana2banana]

3 minutes ago, HoylandOwl said:

Fair points there mate.

I tweeted on the OO account that we needed half time. Not because I thought, we were under the cosh particularly, just that they’d have been frustrated at throwing things at us but we hadn’t caved (nor did we look like we would).

I’ll give the account a follow. Let’s hope for a massive performance Monday. It will be electric! 

[Otto_Man]

Should have brought FDB on about 20 mins before he did, we looked a different side and he drove us forward.

[owl4ever1867]

One thing I don't understand

Why are the 2 games being played over a 48 hour period when the Final isn't being played until the 21st May?

That goes for both sets of games, surely it would've been better to play 1st on a Friday (as it was) followed by the 2nd leg on the Tuesday or Wednesday? 

Gives them 3 days rest & not just 2.

Edited May 7, 2022 by owl4ever1867

[Reesh]

No defending Sam for that, schoolboy.

 

[owl4ever1867]

13 minutes ago, Reesh said:

No defending Sam for that, schoolboy.

 

Should've been on row z, had plenty of time to wack it out.

No excuses for BPF though in Regards to that header to Sammy, that was fucking horrendous 

[Reesh]

Cold light of day. 

 

We were under par

They should have put the tie to bed in that 10 or so mins after the break. 

Last 20 or so minutes they dropped that deep I put ITV Humberside on to watch the game. 

For me the 1st ten on Monday is now key, we don't let a sloppy goal in we win the tie. 

They called that a good performance 

[OptimisticOwl]

So frustrating and so typical of this season that we lost the first leg due to a stupid mistake. Hutch cocked up, plain and simple, but he also saved what looked a certain goal with his block on Roberts' shot. Overall, I had Hutch as one of our best performers (cock-up aside)

 

If that was typical of our season, we can hope for a typical home result on Monday too, which should mean a victory. I hope it's by more than one goal though, I couldn't cope with extra time and pos. penalties 😮

 

1-0 was a vast improvement on the 5-0 earlier in the season too. 

[Beaconowl]

3 hours ago, HoylandOwl said:

One thing that really fucked me off last night was the ref.

There we’re so many times we should have had free kicks and didn’t, yet they did when they went down. He certainly seemed to be influenced by the crowd on many occasions. 

 

I said it throughout the game Terry, the Ref gave us fuck all. 

[Owling_Wolf]

26 minutes ago, Beaconowl said:

I said it throughout the game Terry, the Ref gave us fuck all. 

Correct.  

[Reesh]

Danny Batth elbow on Gregory 😂

[Bellsview]

I still think Sunderland started to tire towards the end and that we finished the game the stronger and fitter side - hopefully that transfers onto the pitch on Monday.

Tactics we’re utter shite but that doesn’t matter now, as we rode our luck and came away with a scoreline which very much keeps us in the tie.

Monday, start with Gregory and Windass, and if he’s fit switch Hunt for Palmer.

Then play our usual game and let Sunderland find a way to stop us, not us try to reinvent the wheel. Our home form has been outstanding, and as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! 

What I will say though is that we need to up our concentration, stay focused and don’t fuck about with the ball at the back when we have it. We switched off and gave a needless goal away v Portsmouth early on last week (we can’t do that on Monday) and we saw what Sam and BPF did yesterday, with us paying the ultimate price for Sam’s mistake. 

I’m confident though. We are a strong side at home and we have goals in us - and having Windass back is an added and welcome bonus! 

[KrolMong]

I didn’t watch it live, but did watch it back this morning. The plan was clearly to contain and quieten the crowd and then try and step on the gas second half.

We almost succeeded, but for the bad mistake from Hutch. That lifted them and we got a battering up to about the 70 minute mark when they should have secured Wembley. They created and missed several good chances, we couldn’t cope with the press and tempo, we were stretched. But we did do the dirty things with blocks and headers.

And as others have said, we did get stronger and we looked half decent for the last 15. 

You could almost say that we succeeded with the plan.

Mondays message is very clear for us, we’ve got to win the game and the team has to reflect that.

BPF

Storey, Dean, Hutch

Hunt, Bannan, Luongo, Dele, Johnson

Windass, Gregory

Sunderland are in an awkward spot because they are in a halfway situation. Do they have a go? Do they sit in? Whereas we have to get after them.

I think it’s a next goal winner tie. If we score and score early, I can see a very easy night. If they score early, I can see us collapsing.

[Reesh]

15 minutes ago, KrolMong said:

I didn’t watch it live, but did watch it back this morning. The plan was clearly to contain and quieten the crowd and then try and step on the gas second half.

We almost succeeded, but for the bad mistake from Hutch. That lifted them and we got a battering up to about the 70 minute mark when they should have secured Wembley. They created and missed several good chances, we couldn’t cope with the press and tempo, we were stretched. But we did do the dirty things with blocks and headers.

And as others have said, we did get stronger and we looked half decent for the last 15. 

You could almost say that we succeeded with the plan.

Mondays message is very clear for us, we’ve got to win the game and the team has to reflect that.

BPF

Storey, Dean, Hutch

Hunt, Bannan, Luongo, Dele, Johnson

Windass, Gregory

Sunderland are in an awkward spot because they are in a halfway situation. Do they have a go? Do they sit in? Whereas we have to get after them.

I think it’s a next goal winner tie. If we score and score early, I can see a very easy night. If they score early, I can see us collapsing.

1st ten minutes are key, we don't concede inside that I back us

[Mark]

2 hours ago, Reesh said:

No defending Sam for that, schoolboy.

 

It was but I think the ball skipped on a bit quicker than he thought and he couldn't adjust his feet. Gutted 4 him but he's mentally strong enough 2 deal with it. Wish had more like him. 

[Mark]

Might sound daft but I just think we're better than them. It's the fact we just lumped it forwards time and time again. It gave front 2 no chance. The tie is far from over, even if we concede first. If we play our way, we're more than good enough 

[Tank_Owl2,0]

I don’t think anyone would deny last night was disappointing including the players and staff. However coming away at 1-0 isn’t the end of the world.

I think DM was beaten by the more experienced manager and the tactics of Sunderland. In the post match interview AN said his tactics had been changed.

Having said all of that and as some have said we lost the game bc of a mistake even if we did ride our luck at times.

In hindsight maybe we would have been better off playing CP alongside LG last night. Sometimes when we play a team that has got a big centre half group like Sunderland did LG is better as the foil to someone like CP, neither of our strikers got much joy. I do think that was partly down to our wing backs and midfield weren’t high enough up the pitch though to make the runs that LG and SB feed off.

I’m not sure we can say BB wasn’t fit last night. He may not have been 100% but I suspect it’s more down to how we and they set up and how they planned to nullify BB. I suspect they expected him to play.

As for Monday, we will need to be a bit more positive but I’m not sure we need to do anything over and above how we approached any of our home games since the turn of the year. In fact if we do it could be our downfall. Bringing Hunt in would seem likely but the rest would seem to me be about tactical choices.

The SB or JW choice seems to be a tricky one. Would DM spring a surprise and bring in CP, I doubt it.

I also wonder whether Gibson is fit enough and worth starting instead of Hutch. Although he wasn’t even on the bench yesterday, you could look at that both ways though, ie he’s saving him given the time between games (to change out Hutch) or he simply isn’t fit enough - he’s not been brought on in any of the recent games.

Its still all to play for and we can do it, but I think it’s 60/40 in Sunderland’s favour.

I guess we’ve got to hope we can only play better than we did yesterday and with a good backing like against Pompey even if they score first it’s all still possible.

[Owling_Wolf]

3 hours ago, Bellsview said:

I still think Sunderland started to tire towards the end and that we finished the game the stronger and fitter side - hopefully that transfers onto the pitch on Monday.

Tactics we’re utter shite but that doesn’t matter now, as we rode our luck and came away with a scoreline which very much keeps us in the tie.

Monday, start with Gregory and Windass, and if he’s fit switch Hunt for Palmer.

Then play our usual game and let Sunderland find a way to stop us, not us try to reinvent the wheel. Our home form has been outstanding, and as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! 

What I will say though is that we need to up our concentration, stay focused and don’t fuck about with the ball at the back when we have it. We switched off and gave a needless goal away v Portsmouth early on last week (we can’t do that on Monday) and we saw what Sam and BPF did yesterday, with us paying the ultimate price for Sam’s mistake. 

I’m confident though. We are a strong side at home and we have goals in us - and having Windass back is an added and welcome bonus! 

Windass looked nowhere near fit. I wondered if he got a knock in his first contact.  

[Bellsview]

6 minutes ago, Owling_Wolf said:

Windass looked nowhere near fit. I wondered if he got a knock in his first contact.  

I only watched the game on tv so didn’t have the view of him that you did, but he didn’t seem to be blowing out of his backside or struggling to keep up with the pace of the game from what I saw.

I still think I’d like to see him start, in the hope that he makes an impact, rather than see him brought on because we are chasing the game. But if we do start with Berahino instead, then I hope we are set up in a way where he can get into the game, because for long periods it passed him by last night.

[JBO]

The last three teams to lose a first leg away 1-0 in the play offs have all progressed to the final 

[TheExile]

2 hours ago, Mark said:

Might sound daft but I just think we're better than them. It's the fact we just lumped it forwards time and time again. It gave front 2 no chance. The tie is far from over, even if we concede first. If we play our way, we're more than good enough 

It was painful watching it as we didn’t show anything of what we could do. Players who have performed well kept hitting the deck too, slipping.

[TheExile]

23 minutes ago, Bellsview said:

I only watched the game on tv so didn’t have the view of him that you did, but he didn’t seem to be blowing out of his backside or struggling to keep up with the pace of the game from what I saw.

I still think I’d like to see him start, in the hope that he makes an impact, rather than see him brought on because we are chasing the game. But if we do start with Berahino instead, then I hope we are set up in a way where he can get into the game, because for long periods it passed him by last night.

He wasn’t his best self but he made more of an impact than SB. He’s not a nervous player and looks strong and quick in those inbetween spaces so that alone adds something that is difficult to defend. I’d play him if he’s available 

[bricat]

Personally, I believe a player with play off semi final and final experience should have started, hence leaving an in form Jack Hunt out seemed a strange decision. 

[HoylandOwl]

32 minutes ago, JBO said:

The last three teams to lose a first leg away 1-0 in the play offs have all progressed to the final 

We’re great at breaking things like that, thanks JBO

[Owling_Wolf]

1 hour ago, Bellsview said:

I only watched the game on tv so didn’t have the view of him that you did, but he didn’t seem to be blowing out of his backside or struggling to keep up with the pace of the game from what I saw.

I still think I’d like to see him start, in the hope that he makes an impact, rather than see him brought on because we are chasing the game. But if we do start with Berahino instead, then I hope we are set up in a way where he can get into the game, because for long periods it passed him by last night.

Funnily enough any slight limp showed more when he wasn't near the ball so just walking or stood. He just looked a little awkward.  That's why I mentioned it as T.V. would probably not have had him on then. 

Ref. Berahino, etc, I hope he doesn't choose NML up front. That's just not worked imo. 

[Winco]

6 hours ago, Reesh said:

No defending Sam for that, schoolboy.

 

I’m not gonna hold it against him, a rare mistake.

 

[Owling_Wolf]

5 minutes ago, Winco said:

I’m not gonna hold it against him, a rare mistake.

 

👍

[MPB]

1 hour ago, Winco said:

I’m not gonna hold it against him, a rare mistake.

 

This.....a very rare mistake...

[owl4ever1867]

Wrong thread..   

Edited May 7, 2022 by owl4ever1867

[Baresi]

23 hours ago, Reesh said:

Bannan wasnt fit, shown by Mass being the most forward playing midfielder. 

Mistakes made today but 1 nowt is not the end of the world. Ref was average. 

Neil has them defensively solid but that last 25 mins must worry them, they did a Wednesday and dropped deeper than a Fred West burial

Agree regarding Bannan. Was obvious to me within the first 5 mins that he wasn’t fully fit. Was staggered that he wasn’t hooked and Dele-Bashiru put on on his place. And Berahino was just awful and no help to Gregory whatsoever. On the upside, Sunderland were mediocre and definitely beatable on Monday…but only with our strongest, fully-fit team.

[Footlikeatractionengine]

Don't suppose anyone has a spare for this, do they? 

 

[Andyben]

10 hours ago, KrolMong said:

I didn’t watch it live, but did watch it back this morning. The plan was clearly to contain and quieten the crowd and then try and step on the gas second half.

We almost succeeded, but for the bad mistake from Hutch. That lifted them and we got a battering up to about the 70 minute mark when they should have secured Wembley. They created and missed several good chances, we couldn’t cope with the press and tempo, we were stretched. But we did do the dirty things with blocks and headers.

And as others have said, we did get stronger and we looked half decent for the last 15. 

You could almost say that we succeeded with the plan.

Mondays message is very clear for us, we’ve got to win the game and the team has to reflect that.

BPF

Storey, Dean, Hutch

Hunt, Bannan, Luongo, Dele, Johnson

Windass, Gregory

Sunderland are in an awkward spot because they are in a halfway situation. Do they have a go? Do they sit in? Whereas we have to get after them.

I think it’s a next goal winner tie. If we score and score early, I can see a very easy night. If they score early, I can see us collapsing.

Not  playing Byers?

It'd be FDB or Adeniran in place of BB for me based on Friday 

 

 

[HoylandOwl]

14 hours ago, Footlikeatractionengine said:

Don't suppose anyone has a spare for this, do they? 

 

I’ll keep an eye out on the twitters mate. 

[HoylandOwl]

Apparently there were some on there last night 

[MPB]

Must have been Harold and Hilda's seats....