Day eight brought no real transfer news from Sunderland, unless you count the stuff about players from north of the border who their clubs claim aren’t for sale, but who, in reality, they’re trying desperately to hawk off to any Sassenach club daft enough to believe what they read in the papers. For that reason I’ve not even bothered to read any of the reports of “double £1 million swoop for Sunderland” or “Wearsiders’ target subject to interest from Millwall”. The football kicked off at 2pm with Sweden and Slovakia meeting up in the city formerly known as Petrograd and Leningrad, but the football certainly hadn’t begun by half time. With the Slovaks knowing that a point would probably be enough to see them progress, and Sweden content to pass sideways only if there was no option to pass back, the highpoint of the first 45 was Olsen’s persistent niggly fouling and subsequent yellow card. Even Seb’s deadly free-kicks couldn’t drag his forwards out of their stupor, and the game had 0-0 written all over it. There was more football in the half-time chat about the evening’s main event at Wembley. The Swedes committed more men forward after the break, made some judicious substitutions, and both keepers produced outstanding saves, but on 75 Slovak keeper Dubrovka brought down sub Quaison....proving the age-old adage “never trust a mag”. Liam Lawrence lookalike Forsberg smashed the ball home, and the Swedes had the lead – which they held onto despite conceding a flurry of injury-time corners. Another 96 minutes for Seb, who’s 36 – just saying.
...and then the Czechs drew 1-1 with Croatia, about which I know precisely nowt, as I didn’t watch because I was building up to the Big Yin while watching social media footage of naked and very, very pale ginger haired folks cavorting in London’s open spaces and public transport. I’m all for folks having a good time, but how can they allow tens of thousands (if reports are not exaggerated, which they probably are) of Scottish fans to travel to London while denying Sunderland fans access to the friendly at Spennymoor? Amid a lively crowd in the Bay Horse, the beer and toastie offer was taken up with gusto while the landlord (Irish) wore the only Scotland shirt in the house in deference to the landlady’s home nation – she simply wore a Bay Horse shirt. Not much can be said about the game that you’ve not read already but suffice to say Villa Dave wasn’t the only one shouting for the introduction of Grealish, nor the only one bemused when Foden came off or when Rashford, rather than Calvert-Lewin came on. Let’s just say that England didn’t lose and are still in a good position to qualify, Sterling is rapidly turning into Wright-Phillips, and that Pickford once again showed why he’s the right man for the goalkeeping job. It’s not as if we lost, is it? Scotland did what they came to the tournament to do – not lose to England – and will be celebrating that fact for the remainder of their participation. Eeh, fancy defending a team’s inability to break down stubborn opposition – it’s almost as if I’d been doing it for years.
Day nine saw Hungary take the lead against the much-fancied French, only to be pegged back for a draw, before the Germans shook off the lethargy of their opening performance to come from behind (Ron, who else?) to lead at half-time thanks to a brace from OG. Two more Sunderland moments! They scored a couple of their own before they pulled one back and the 4-2 scoreline rightly indicated one the tournament’s more entertaining games. Over in Group E, Morata, who somehow still keeps getting a game for Spain, managed to score a goal against Poland, only for Lewandowksi to level after the break. Morata then reverted to form to somehow scuff the loose ball wide after Moreno’s penalty was saved and it was another 1-1 draw.
Day ten had many folks in our part of the world with eyes on Ashton Gate, where our gaffer’s dad took his Torquay side to face Hartlepool in the playoffs, with a place in the football league up for grabs. All appeared to be going to place for Pools, as they held on to Armstrong’s 35th minute goal, Torquay had a couple disallowed, and Torquay brought on Kimpioka to try and break the deadlock. Pools were counting the clock down as the game entered the 5th minute of added time. In true Poom-esque fashion, Torquay’s giant keeper Covolan went up for a corner which was cleared but he was there to head home when the ball was returned to the box.
Extra time came and went with no more goals, and former Lad Luke Molyneux came on in the dying seconds, presumably because he takes a decent penalty – although the last one I saw him take was saved, at Molyneux in the Checkatrade Cup. No matter, it was down to the dreaded shoot-out, and Pools’ first effort was saved, but Evans of Torquay kicked the ball off his other foot and the shot flew wide – cue laughter in the Bay Horse. Covolan saved Pools’ second effort before Wright hit Torquay’s second against the bar. This was shaping up to be another Sunderland moment, then the next four penalties were converted successfully before Molyneux had his only kick of the game – putting Pools 3-2 ahead, only for Torquay to score theirs and take it to sudden death. Pools took the first and scored, and the next to kicks also went in before Buse of Torquay saw his effort tipped up and onto the bar by James. That was 5-4 after seven penalties each, and Pools were back in the league. Big congratulations to them, and the Wales Italy game was just about to kick off when we turned the telly over. Although the Welsh lost 1-0 to Pessina’s first-half goal following a free-kick, it wasn’t a bad game at all, with both sides having a real go. For some reason, we couldn’t find the right channel for the Switzerland Russia encounter the outcome of which might have had some bearing on Wales’s progress. We had to make to with the little update pictures in the corner of the screen as Shaqiri scored twice in the Cheesemen’s 3-1 win over the aptly named Turkey, who finished pointless and bottom of their group. All of which meant, according to my clever Eurospreadsheet, that the Welsh finished second and move into the round of sixteen. Well done to them, but immediately the whistle had gone the talk turned to who should play for England on Tuesday. It got a bit heated, in a nice sort of way, with us eventually deciding that it didn’t matter what we thought, as Southgate couldn’t hear us.
Which was just as well.
In the Bay Hoss mini Euro league, none of us had had particularly productive weekends, as my charge to the top and stuttered to a halt and allowed others to catch up
Sobs 26
Mal 25
Simon 23
Villa Dave 10. He’s still not trying, is he?
