I’d left home with strict instructions to enjoy the match, and the day out. Hardly surprising, considering the foul mood which I’ve been in since Saturday. If this report seems more than a little more verbose than the last one, it’s because on Saturday I had fifteen minutes after the final whistle to get my thoughts in order before hitting the keyboard. This time, I’ve had eight hours on a bus to think about it.

Leaving the SoL at eleven in the ALS charabanc, I was armed with enough reading material to fill a small library to help pass the time. It was a fairly uneventful journey, but an expectedly long one before the Amex Stadium hove into view (see what I did there?), and pretty impressive it is. Despite an eerie mist rolling off the South Downs, it appears that they’ve made a cracking job of the place – the open plan turnstiles are a pleasant change, as are the smiling stewards and bar staff. An added bonus was the casks of Harvey’s proper beer behind the bars, and the inside part of the ground – padded seats and curving rooflines – is a bit of a mini-Emirates, and a nice ground for it. They even had a bar supervisor who was a dead ringer for Darren Bent (boo hiss), and who immediately took Anne’s fancy.

There were over 1200 travelling fans, who saw the team line up thus:
Westwood
Elmo Brown Ferdy Rico
Larsson Catts Colback Gardner Vaughan
Sessegnon

Given Sess’s propensity for playing the deep forward this was a bit of a weird formation. The midfield wasn’t made up of attacking players, only Gardner having a reputation for scoring, and that mostly from outside the box. We did make a lively start and get in a shot which flew wide after a few minutes, but the home side were no slouches either, forcing a decent save out of Westwood, but they should have done better than fire the parry well over. Too many of our passes in our defensive third were going astray. With Larsson and Rico firing in the crosses, backed up by Vaughan and Elmo doing likewise, we really needed someone bigger than Sess as the target. We won corners, from which Brown got up to win a couple of headers, but it was when Elmo was fouled on the corner of the box (invoking that stupid rule which kept the fouled and injured player off the field until the set-piece had been completed) that we almost fashioned a chance. They wasted another chance following a Westwood-Elmo mix-up by shooting high again, and we put some patient play together with Colback and Vaughan going close, then Gardner at last pulled the trigger from distance only for the keeper to be in the right place for a comfy save.

No goals at the break, and a fellow fan, older and wiser than I, advised me to prepare for extra time and penalties.

No changes for the second half as we attacked the end occupied by the visiting fans, but it was Brighton who won and early corner, then had the ball in the net from an offside position. Eight minute in, Bruce decided to give Sess a hand by replacing Catts with Wickham, and the youngster started to put himself about straight away. Westwood collected a header from Lewis Dunk when a goal would have taken the biscuit, and Sess had an effort turned round the post after cutting in form wide. Colback could only slice wide from an Elmo cross. We had a good penalty shout that came to nothing, and Rico got in a superb tackle to save Westwood in a one-on-one with the tricky Ashley Barnes. Gardner hit a free into the wall after a foul on Colback, then they hit the post. The pleasantly named Inigo Calderon looked to have won a penalty when he went down as Westwood came off his line, but as we feared the worst, ref D’Urso booked him for diving. With seven to go, Ji Dong-Won replaced Vaughan as we went for broke, and the Korean fired way over and the clock ticked down. As extra time loomed, many fans from both sides drifted out for the last train home.

Extra time it was, and even though we forced a couple of early corners, it took the home side just five minutes to sling in a cross from the right and find Mackail-Smith in acres of space at the back post, and he thumped his header past Westwood. Sess continued to run himself silly, and on 103 minutes we went four up front when Gyan replaced Gardner. Wickham showed that he has a really long throw, but reprised Ji’s earlier effort by firing way over the top. Gyan had a shot on the turn saved, but it was no real surprise when the whistle went and we were out at the first attempt.

Better managers than Bruce have lost their jobs over better results than that, so he has to do something fast to turn things around. Like Saturday, we had huge amounts of possession (against a much livelier side, it has to be said) but again failed to really trouble the opposing keeper.

Amongst the reading material mentioned earlier was Matthew Norman’s 101 Most Infuriating Things In Sport, which, while containing both Shearer and the fat shirtless mag, it made no reference to SAFCs’ repeated inability to deal with lower league opponents who show anything more than just heart. I also read Norman Kirtlan’s book Characters of Old Sunderland, and how we could have done with one of those so far this season. One of those characters like Clough, Marco, Pop Robson, Phillips, or (dare I say it) Bent – characters whose only thought when they got the ball was to hit the target rather than have a think about it before either laying it off or being crowded out.

Man of the Match? Well, despite not getting enough efforts on target, I’ll give it to Sess for tireless effort, for the most part with no discernible support.

Keep the Faith

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