Any winning’s good winning
So you take what you can get
Yes you take what you can get
When you play for me in those Sunderland shirts
(Hopefully) you ain’t seen nothing yet

From the caviar and comfort of Ashburton Grove, to the pies and park benches of Bolton. As they always seem to say, football’s a funny old game. While Arsenal’s apparent demise since last season can be put down to the loss of those two donkeys Nasri and Fabregas, and the current best centre forward in the world (that’s Bendtner, you fool), Bolton’s woes are a little harder to pinpoint. They’ve still got Davies (the most fouled player in the history of the Premier League as well as the one who has committed the most fouls) and Cahill (probably the best English centre half at the moment) but their goal difference is ten worse than ours – hence their position one below us, right in the claggy stuff. Owen Coyle seemed to have them playing good stuff last season and being effective with it. This season – who knows, but their current situation meant that a visit to the Reebok should have been the source of three points.

We, on the other hand, have a stadium full of people who can apparently see where our problems lie, and that includes myself, who isn’t being sarcastic. One up front – well, without the kind of support Sess can give when he’s behind the main man, and not the main man himself – means that the ball comes back at the defence and midfield pretty quickly, and free kicks are conceded. With Bendtner last week, we could well have won. With Ji or Wickham on from the start, we could have given the Gunners’ defence a shed load of problems. Today’s team should have been picked with this in mind – the most frustrating thing about last week was that we didn’t actually do that badly. Mebbe Brucie listened to us wannabe managers in the stands – he let us have a cracking few hours in Chorley, watching Ron drink Lee’s beer (by accident) and having great craic with the locals, then picked the team we’d probably have picked. I bumped into Skinner inside the ground, and he regaled his offspring (one at his first away game) with tales of the nonsense we’d got up to at away games in our youth. Ah, the good old days – nice to see he hasn’t grown up one little bit.

Ming
O’Shea Turner Brown Rico
Larsson Colback Vaughan Sessegnon
Bendtner Wickham

To be honest, as an advertisement for Prem football, the first half was awful. Bolton struggled to pass water, and the amount of times they played it straight off the pitch was embarrassing. There were a few chances at both ends –at our end, Brown got and O’Shea got through a few sticky moments each to fling themselves in the way of what chances the home side created, and at the other end, young Connor and almost as young Nicklas hoyed themselves into Wheater and co as if there was no tomorrow – which there might not have been had the second half not been a bit different. They’d shown how shockingly slow several of their players were, and it looked like we’d scored a couple of minutes before the break when a free from the left went just wide – from our end, it looked like a goal all the way, but that’s the effect of failing eyesight (and beer). No goals at the break, but at least we’d showed a proper shape – two solid central defenders, two fullbacks willing to break forward, Sess on the left and Larsson on the right (although tending to pull inside) and Vaughan and Colback looking steady in the centre, added to a front pair with no fear. All we were missing was the crucial goal.

The second half, as I said a few words back, was much better from our point of view. We bossed it for long periods without that elusive goal, and won corner after corner. Shame that Cahill is quite decent in the air, otherwise we’d have made more of Larsson’s quality (apart from one stinker) deliveries. They pestered us from the stands with that bloody drum, Vaughan and Bendtner had efforts charged down, and we actually got round the back of them a few times. Petrov, once such a good turn, produced a shot I’d have been ashamed of on a Sunday morning, and Coyle threw on their last sub with twenty five to go as Kakuta, Klasnic, and Gardner replaced Boyata, Davies, and Petrov in the space of seven minutes. Sess rode an awful challenge on halfway that merited a retrospective booking and galloped clear, but their defensive numbers crowded him out. We got down the right then played it in to Vaughan, and we contrived to head it over. Wickham won the ball well and moved out right, then put in a cross - or was it? It baffled Jasskaleinen (sp) and bounced off the bar. As we entered the final ten, we were commenting that a point away from home was always a good point, then Larsson’s corner was knocked up by Brown, Sess took the ball on the edge of the box, turned in a flash and fired in a low shot that beat Jasthinkgy’s left hand and nestled in the corner of the net. Gerrin, magic, and old men (like myself) and young men (several worried lads near me) cuddled each other. Only seven, plus added time, to go – and Bolton were giving theirexcuse for a forward line no service whatsoever. There was a bit of pressure from the home side, with Ming saving well and O’Shea making a crucial clearance, but we got hold of the ball and Vaughan calmed things down, Bardsley replacing Rico with four on the clock. Sess pulled the defence towards him before playing in Bendtner, who did what all good forwards do, and placed it nicely beneath the keeper for our second. More pandemonium in our end as the old buggers cuddled the young pretenders again and the ref signalled four added minutes.

Any win is a good win,
So you take what you can get
Yes, you take what you can get
And you play for me in that Sunderland shirt
I hope we aint seen nothing yet.

Man of the Match? Vaughan was cool, Brown and O’Shea grew into the game, and Turner loved the physical battle with Davies – which he won hands down. Larsson did what he does, with quality balls in to the danger area. OK, so the first half was rubbish - Bolton will go down if they keep playing that badly, and better teams than us will butcher them – but you tend to get dragged up or down to the level of your opponents. Up front, Bendtner did what we’ve come to expect of him - good close control, held the ball up well, played in his mates - and Sess ran from midfield to good effect, but for me it was Wickham. Reminiscent of a young Marco with his attitude, which was basically “I can, so I will”, and he was a breath of fresh air. Great game from the bairn.

Keep the Faith - and Skinner, bring the young’uns again.

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