Elephants remain, some style, a slimeball, and a get well soon.
On Saturday at Sunderland Stoke City were awful. The glaring referee error shouldn’t overshadow the fact that this tepid spineless showing had relegation written all over it. We started well but Sunderland broke forward for the first time and, following a litany of lame tackles, found themselves in our box. A weak shot that Begovic should have held fell to Gyan who had plenty of time to put us behind. A truly pathetic way to fall behind and our inability to create anything substantial in the attacking third of the pitch left us us with an uphill struggle. A struggle we rarely looked likely to conquer. Some have questioned the role of Walters and pondered what he brings to the team, well on Saturday he made a needless clumsy challenge and gave a penalty away. Begovic saved the scuffed spotkick in relative comfort. That miss emphasised how nervous Sunderland were, our inability to take advantage of such a piece of undeserved good fortune emphasised how toothless we were. We threatened in the second half for spells until THAT bafflingly diabolical decision from another gutless official. The ridiculous thing about the non decision is how he couldn’t see the handball. Atkinson was so obsessed by the issue of whether the ball had crossed the line he forgot that handling the ball isn’t actually allowed in football. Tony Pulis was near the halfway line and immediately appealed, what was the ref watching? A penalty and a red card would have altered the course of the game immensely as dire as we were. From that point our players felt sorry for themselves and indiscipline spread through the team. There was something inevitable about Ryan Shawcross’ red card… an appropriate conclusion to an horrendous day for Stoke City. We made a poor team look average and that’s all it took to beat us. Don’t allow the bad reffing decisions to obscure the Increasing quantity of elephants in the room, and prevent the issues being addressed properly. We now have two home games to try and find form and avoid being well and truly ensconced in the relegation struggle. Liverpool’s impressive win over Chelsea demonstrates that they are well and truly over their rubbish start to the season, in fact they are in good form now. A draw would be an excellent result… which makes the Birmingham game crucial. it’s too early to talk about must win games but all at SCFC must be aware of the implications of defeat. The Liverpool match kicks off at 3.30am here. Whatever happens, Sunday will be riddled with fatigue, hopefully this will be blissful fatigue.
Brisbane Roar beat Adelaide 4-0 on Saturday night to go clear on top of the table. It was actually a brilliant display of stylish football with moments of wonderful fluidity and movement. When you think that shortly after half time Brisbane went down to ten men with the score 1-0 it makes the result and performance even more impressive. 13,000 attended which is an improvement. Next time they might all bring a friend along! Mysteriously, there was a bloke sat two rows in front of me and he kept doing everything wrong. If Roar got a throw in level with their own penalty area he’d suddenly start shouting all excitedly. If Roar got a corner he’d look on disinterested. After each goal he sat indifferent but a goal kick would give him the urge to get up and yell. A most unusual yet amusing circumstance!
Few could deny that Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the outstanding players of this era. However, if anyone wants an explanation of why he is also one of the most loathed football figures of this era they only have to look at this clip for an example. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VgWGo5D6aU His cheating is, at times, so blatant it beggars belief. For all his brilliant skill and the excitement he generates the incessant cheating is a large filthy stain on him both as a footballer and as a human being.
It’s baffling that recently Chris Hughton’s future at Newcastle has been under threat. He’s done a marvellous job there. Got them promoted with the minimum of fuss and are stabilising well back in the top flight. Against Arsenal they weren’t at all overawed and played with admirable composure and discipline, scored a goal from a well worked set piece and got the win they deserved. As an ex Spurs man it must have been the sweetest moment of all for the manager! They wanted a big name for all them years but the answer was under their nose. They could sack Hughton, appoint Rijkaard and it watch the good work unravel. As well as all this Andy Carroll must be worth an England call up for the game against France.
It was bad news to read about Danny Baker dealing with cancer. But it’s good news that he has a good chance of full recovery. A good proper football man who publicly defended the rights of supporters, even back in the bleak mid 80s when we were social lepers Danny Baker would defend our corner with enthusiasm and humour. Get well soon Danny.