So far, the opening of the transfer window has been about as pointless as having Cisse as a mystery guest on Question of Sport. Hardly anybody has gone anywhere, and Ricky has discovered that you can’t trust anybody to either keep their mouths shut when they’ve promised to or leave your players alone when you’ve told them they’re not available. Some might call this naïve, others might call it natural.

On the one hand, we’ve got Spurs in general and Redknapp in particular, allowing comments about Kenwyne to reach the press, either by accident or by design. The problem with Redknapp is that on some occasions he talks proper sense and you can’t help but like him, but on other occasions (most of the time, as it happens) he behaves like a proper wide boy who thinks he has his own set of rules and that everybody else’s rules don’t apply to him. On these occasions, he gets right up your nose, and this is one of those occasions, but on the bright side he’s just got Tottenham to buy Defoe for more than twice what they sold him for less than a year ago.

On the other hand, we’ve got Phil Brown. He’d been held in fairly high regard in these parts, for several reasons. Firstly, he’s a Sand-Dancer and one of us, secondly we won 4-1 at their place, and thirdly he keeps putting it up the mags. During Hull’s latest win on Tyneside, he became involved in a tete a tete, so to speak with Jokey Near, and was sent to the stands. How much better would that have been had he, in his post-match interview, simply said, instead of the usual “heat of the moment, nothing in it” stuff, “Kinnear’s a bloody arsehole.” That would almost, but not quite, made up for his revelation that McShane was on his way back to Wearside, and that Hull had put an offer in for Whitehead. Bad Mr Brown.

Without Steed, but with Carlos surely back to fitness and awareness, we welcome Villa, surely a side we should be seeking to emulate. Carlos and whoever plays wide left will have a big say in how effectively Villa can get Milner and Young into the game. I reckon out secret weapon against Young should be that when he knocks the ball past his marker, for that marker to simply get well out of the way and watch Young fling himself at a non-existent opponent in his usual attempt to win a free kick. That or tie his boot laces together.

So to the real game.

Fulop
Chimbo Noz Ferdy Collins
Edwards Teemu Deano Diouf
Jones Cisse

After a thankfully brief encounter with Villadave last night (nice lad,gob like a skip) it was on to TJ Doyle’s for a warm-up, then on to the real thing. We forced a corner after only a couple of minutes, and there was a decent shout for handball in their penalty area, but the ref set his stall out very early-Villa’s game appeared to be all about kicking us up in the air and very little about playing football.

Fulop produced a couple of good takes, as hey call them, and all seemeD sweetness and light when we floated in a free after yet another foul on Jones (yep , yet another after only ten minutes) and Danny got on the end to head home. No more than we deserved, and no more than Villa deserved for their non-football approach. Carlos almost created a second with a good cross, then Jones turned well but shot wide. Villa continued with being very good at falling down, but lifted their game to hit Chimbo with a ridiculously late challenge. At least there was a yellow shown to Luke Young for that one, but they got away with much more. We did well to clear a corner, and broke only for their man to dive and win a free-kick. Where Boro had broken up the play last week by falling over, Villa did it this week by kicking us, and the ref let them get away with it.

We won corners on wither wing, and Carlos almost got in a killer cross before Brad Frieieieiedlll clearly picked up a back pass – another one the ref missed. After half an hour or so, Villa had a decent amount of possession but didn’t really get into our box much, as we defended well to take it into a deserved 1-0 half time lead.

No changes for the second half, and our first action was a booking for Cisse that looked a tad harsh to say the least. The ref decided to over-rule the linesman who was only a foot away from the action and award Villa the decision, and the visitors followed that with a lot of niggly pay. Chimbo and Cisse played well down the right to get almost into their box, but Villa cleared. They then broke down their right and seemed to use a hand to equalise, but hey, this is Sunderland, they can do what they like. Twenty minutes to go, surely we had time to win it back. Collins and Noz were hurt in the same incident, and on came Bardsley at left back and McShane in the middle. About Paul’s first contribution was to make a challenge that was adjudged by the ref to have been both inside the box and a foul. If that was a penalty, so was the one that Edwards didn’t win in the last minutes. Needless to say, it was put away clinically, and we were on the back foot from there on. It was at times difficult to see which tem had only ten men after Young’s horrific lat one on Deano saw him deservedly off the field, but we had chances to get shots in. Reid came on for Diouf with ten to go, but he just couldn’t manage the killer ball we needed. When we had the numerical advantage, we didn’t play to feet and run them out of steam, and never really looked matching Villa for professionalism.

In the meagre three added minutes, we piled forward but couldn’t make it count, and it was a bad result from a decent day’s work. We really need to forget about being a football side and concentrate on falling over, kicking our opponents, and winning free kicks. If Villa are anything to go by, that is. Or perhaps bribe the ref. you may have gathered that I wasn’t over enamoured with the official’s performance today, and you’d be right. He was shocking.

Man of the Match? Not an easy one, but I’ll give it to Edwards for his bets game in yonks.

Keep the faith

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