To be honest, the football itself will not be something I remember much past Monday, but the crowd, the noise of Wise Men Say and those cat’s eyes are things that will live long in the memory.
There are moments where it just feels like we might be heading in the right direction as a club and it’s always the fans who show us the way.
As far as the football is concerned, well, ‘coulda woulda shoulda’ was my gut feeling after the final whistle. What if Pritchard’s shot had been 6 inches lower, what if Stewart had taken the chance near the end. Equally, what if Wednesday had taken one of their chances towards the end… The truth is, it’s irrelevant. We’re leading at half time and stopped Wednesday scoring. That’s about all we could have hoped for at this point and so we walk away happy.
Stewart and Pritchard obviously get rave reviews after strong performances but, I’d like to mention five other players. The incredible work of Luke O’Nien to keep Bannon quiet for 90 minutes received relatively little credit. The strength of Batth and Wright at the back, much the same. And the attacking play of the two full backs was the best we’ve seen for quite some time.
But what about Monday? Well, in my opinion, we need to go to win. Our last play-off semi-final success came after a long game at Fratton Park where we held on and held on at 0-0. But Portsmouth didn’t score that many goals, Wednesday have scored 24 goals in their last 8 home games. And most of that success has come from teams turning up and trying to leave with a point.
Darren Moore said that the first job was for the players to watch the game again and see what they could learn about the way Sunderland played. Which sounds sensible, but I don’t see us playing that way on Monday. For a start, I think the four man defence will be three with wing backs. If Broadhead is fit, it changes the game plan completely.
And maybe, just maybe, when the game develops, Wednesday feel like they’ve worked us out and start to feel a bit more optimistic, I still feel Aidan McGeady has some part to play this season. What an incredible headache to be able to give them with maybe 15 minutes to go.
Good luck to the lads who end up being involved and those fans fortunate enough to be screaming them on.
I would say ‘what will be will be’ but that reminds me of a song I daren’t sing quite yet…
