Despite last week’s defeat at Chelsea, the MON feeling still pervaded Wearside through the week. We’re not daft, we can see when a side is playing proper football and can give any side a good game. Last Sunday, a lot of us watched Swansea out Arsenal with a terrific passing display, and some of us had even backed van Persie to score the first goal. Some put it down to the coaching of Brendan Rogers, I put it down to the strict diet of Welsh biscuits that the Swans have been on – Dai-gestives.

Enough nonsense. A very quiet transfer window, not just for us, which I think is a good thing for football and a great big two fingered salute to Sky TV who’ve tried, with increasing desperation every year, to make it the biggest on-screen entertainment in the world – which is isn’t, and never will be, simply because you and I can’t compute the number of noughts on the end of players’ salaries, and because very few of us believe a single word agents come out with. This attitude has been bolstered by the plight of Darlo – there’s not a single senior pro in the Premiership who could not have solved their plight out of his back pocket – and it’s nice to see that we’ve loaned them kiddie keeper Jordan Pickford to help them get a team out today. Speaking of the kiddies, a good few of them stepped up to reserve level at Bishop on Wednesday after half of our usual reserves went out on loan. 700+ in the crowd, about three times a standard attendance at Bish, including Meyler and Bally – the latter there to see several of his academy graduates fit seamlessly into tour second string. Bally with glasses on – doesn’t seem right somehow, but we all get older, I suppose. A hat-trick for Adam Mitchell, looking like a Waghorn/Noble for the future, and Jaden Hall moving faster than just about anything I’ve seen in a Sunderland shirt, were the icing on the cake of a really good display. Several Lads stood out, such as Deacon, Hall, Mitchell, Lynch, and Elliott, and praise is due to Bally and Bertschin to bringing through a group of young footballers who play the game the right way. Six nil, in casse you didn’t know, and every goal a good’un, with the pick probably being Deacon’s drag-back to switch feet before thumping it in from the edge of the box.

And a quick word on Sir Tom Cowie, who left us this week. I might not have agreed with his politics, but he put his heart into the club, and did a lot for the North East in general with his business skills. A long life lived to the full, RIP.

Understandably, there was no need to make wholesale changes to the side.

Ming
Bards Brown O’Shea Rico (all Man Utd back line)
Seb Catts Vaughan McLean
Sess Bendtner

Well, we disposed of the Swans. That’s probably a quick way of summing it up – MON had a game plan, which was to let them have the ball as much as they wanted outside our box, and then to hit them on the break. We made them work their socks off to get the ball to halfway, and closed their fullbacks down in a way that arsenal didn’t. Brown got in a couple of vital challenges when they did break, but in the first half, his distribution didn’t match his interceptions. When we did get forward, Seb hit a powerful shot off the keeper’s chest, but Mr Foy gave a goal kick – not his last puzzling decision of the afternoon.

While Swansea were full of passing, they weren’t afraid to get stuck in, and a late one on Bards was followed by a hefty boot into Bendtner’s face. After lengthy treatment, the Dane was replaced by Wickham with barely ten minutes on the clock.

We allowed them a couple of breaks, from the second of which they missed the target badly, then we flew down the other end, played in Sess on the left, and he placed the ball across Worm and into the far side for a beaut of a goal on 15 minutes. The ref then pulled another stunner by allowing two visiting players to stay on the field after receiving treatment. Baffling, to say the least, then his linesman compounded things by giving several decision so far the wrong way that the ref was forced to over-rule him. When Seb slung in a trademark free-kick it was only partly cleared, but Vaughan put it into the Wear. Almost. There was always the feeling that their keeper would try and play a bit too much football, always passing to his fullbacks, and get caught out, but it didn’t happen.

While our chase and harry game kept them back, it was a hard tempo to maintain, and they managed another break, thankfully ending with a header over the top. They won the first corner of the game in added time, followed it with another, and we were grateful when the whistle went to break up their little spell of pressure.

No changes for the second half, and we were expecting a bit more from McLean, who hadn’t been able to get a decent run down the line. Catts who’d been at the heart of the harrying in the first half, nicked the ball and ran through the right, and when the ball went into the box from Seb, McLean clattered into Wickham and hurt himself. Strangely, the ref made him go off after receiving treatment.

Swansea won a couple of debatable free-kicks within 25 yards, but the first hit the wall and the second was a comfy save for Ming. The game died a bit in the middle of the half as the wind played havoc with any high balls, and the clock seemed to have stopped. Wickham’s shot from distance was easy for their keeper, then McLean clicked and started to beat his man and get the ball across. He played a delicious one-two with Wickham and fired a cross to the near post onto Sess’s head – we all thought “GOAL” but the header flashed the wrong side of the post.

With thirteen to go, a tiring Vaughan was replaced by Gards, and he slotted into the centre seamlessly. There was a mad few seconds when we seemed to have a dozen shots blocked in teh box, as we at last got hold of the game. The backheel of the century from Sess was just a foot ahead of Wickham, and Worm managed to hack it clear before another McLean cross caused confusion and Wickham’s shot was again just wide of the mark. The second goal looked like it would never arrive, but with five remaining, McLean played it to Sess, who ducked inside and played it across to Gards, luring with intent 25 yards out. The touch and volley were sweetness itself, with the shot dipping under the keeper. Another SAFC entry into goal of the month, methinks.

Seb gave way to Elmo, who did his now usual job of keeping our width in the dying stages, Swansea’s heads went down a bit, and in the end 2-0 was about right. For some reason, the Swans didn’t once lob the ball into the box to give Graham the chance to get at our centre halves and therefore – which was nice, and something they’ll probably learn from, as they only forced three or so comfy saves out of Ming.

Man of the Match? Well, O’Shea was solid at the back, Catts was his now usual self, and Vaughan and Seb worked like crazy while they were on the field. McLean took an hour or so fire up, but was real threat once he did. Wickham looks decent without having a blinder, but little Sess was involved in almost everything we did up front. Maybe inspired by Cec Irwin at half time, the little feller is my choice.

Nice one Martin – or was it my lucky socks again?

Keep the faith

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