Before
If any of us had any lingering affection for Fabio Crapello, surely it's now gone following his recent alleged utterances about Bent. At least it's boosted another quest for this season i.e. for us to finish above Villa. I'm hoping to watch the match at the Sunderland pub in Covent Garden this afternoon but this depends on the boiler engineer arriving at an appropriate time. Anyway, after last Saturday's disappointment we've got to bounce back against Spurs. Injury news has been getting better but there'll be no returnees today though it looks like Mensah will still be playing and the side will be almost the same as last week's with the possible omission of Henderson. Spurs have plenty of fine players but Bale, Modric and van der Vaart will all be out today while Crouch is doubtful, which is great news for us. They were all over us in the first half of the November match but we defended well and took our chance when it came. If we can get our defence playing like it did then, I think we'll win. Sess and Muntari are shaping up well and I fancy Gyan to get another goal so I'm predicting a 2-1 win for us.

After
The only change from last week was Steed replacing Ferdinand while for Spurs Crouch and Lennon didn't start and Woodgate was on the bench after a lengthy absence through injury. A bit of pre-match news was that Liverpool only drew at home to Wigan which meant we could overtake them if we won. It would also mean that we'd reach the 40-point mark, though for once I've been looking up the table all season and not down. Another bit of news was that Sunderland loanee-sensation David Healy had scored for Rangers. In the end I listened to the match on B.B.C. London. The crowd sounded lively, the game flowed quickly and the first real incident was after six minutes when Krancjar got away with bringing Onuaha down in the box. We started to take over in midfield and a few minutes later Rico crossed for Gyan to put us one-up so I hoped the other part of my prediction would come true. That's ten goals for him so far. I was surprised how complimentary the B.B.C. commentators were being about us as they heaped praise on Bramble and Sess in particular while ex-Premier League centre half Matt Jackson (who?) said we'd been “absolutely excellent” so far. It sounded a high-paced game and we were giving them little space. I could see us getting another before the break. Bardo tried another long-distance effort that went just wide while Rico was buzzing. After forty minutes or so a telling comment was that Onuaha had spent most of his time in the Spurs half. Pavlyuchenko had a decent effort that went over and Spurs started getting into it more. Just before the break they equalized through a Dawson free-header following a second corner when the ball went through Gordon's legs. After dominating the half we went in equal after another sloppy goal from a set-piece.

We sounded deflated in the opening minutes of the second-half while Spurs were buzzing and we soon had to clear off the line. This bucked us up and then Steed had a good effort which Gomes parried. I'd love Steed to get a goal as I think we'd then see quite a few more from him. Ten minutes in Krancjar put them 2-1 up with a volley from some distance and my heart hit my boots. We were losing impetus and a draw appeared to be all we could hope for. With a quarter of the match left neither side had made any changes and I'd have liked to have seen Bolo come on. Our fans were in good voice and Gomes helped this along by making far too much of a soft challenge by Gyan. With fifteen minutes left Elmo replaced Steed and I could see him powering us back into the game. Lennon replaced Pianaar, which wasn't good news as I think he's a very dangerous player. Soon afterwards Rico hit the bar and hope flickered. With five minutes left Bolo came on for Onuaha but we couldn't create any decent chances, despite four minutes of stoppage-time and it ended 1-2.

This was very disappointing and from two games that we really looked like winning we've come away with nothing. We've got two weeks to the Everton match and with the injury situation on the mend let's hope we can stop the rot then.

On a happier note, I had a very pleasant evening last night with a load of Argentinians and they confirmed what I'd heard somewhere that one of the biggest tango clubs in Buenos Aires is Club Sunderland.

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