Paying the penalty for squandered chances

3:52pm Thursday 3rd January 2008

OUR whole season was summed up in the second half display against Blackburn on Wednesday.

Failure to take our chances, stupid fouls and a debatable referee decision. All three evils combined to deprive Sunderland of the points.

The question is, how many times will this happen?

I've never known us give away so many sloppy goals as we have this season. I've not known so many decisions go against us.

While our impotence up front has been a recurring nightmare in the Premier League in seasons past, the chances this term have been frequent and our profligacy has been punished.

I'm scratching my head right now because I don't know what we need - or who we need - to get us out of this mess.

They say Premier League experience is a must. But Dwight Yorke has plenty of it and he suffered a rush of blood to the head to get a second yellow card for a challenge he was never going to come out on top of.

And, thanks to Titus Bramble scoring for Wigan at Liverpool, we're now in the relegation zone due to our inferior goal difference. Wonder what the odds were on that scoreline, and that scorer?

I have a feeling the 7-1 and the 4-0 defeats against Everton and Manchester United respectively may cost us dear come the end of the season. I desperately hope that won't be the case.

But you know your luck's out when Titus Bramble puts you into the drop zone.

I remain to be optimistic, but when we continue to beat ourselves, there's not much you can do.

Patience is running thin at the Stadium of Light.

All this is in contrast to Saturday's 3-1 win against Bolton.

In the first half, we had confidence and dominated. It was like watching a proper football team. Great stuff.

The second half was not too hot, but at least we got the job done.

I said last week that Kieran Richardson would be key to our survival push, and he marked his return with a really strong performance, complete with a goal and assist.

He has said that his time out of the game has made him take football less for granted, and long may that continue.

I initially harboured concerns that Richardson would be a poor signing for us, that he'd be more interested in taking the paycheque than playing football. But he says he is revitalised. And that's all right by me.

It's the FA Cup weekend, and as usual, the TV cameras will trek to tiny grounds to feature tiny teams playing the biggest game of their careers, the usual 'postmen and plumbers having their crack at the big time'. Oh, the romance of the cup, and so on.

In truth, much of non-league football is made up of the fall-out from Football League clubs' academy system, 17 and 18-year-olds who are deemed not good enough and thrown out on to the scrapheap. So the quality and potential is there in abundance.

Non-league teams are filled with young plucky lads, with the odd smattering of ex-pros who have one eye on their pipes and slippers but just can't let go of their football.

But nothing like that at the Stadium of Light. No, we have Wigan in an all-Premier League clash. It has all the romance of a wet weekend in Sunderland...

But let's hope this time we progress further than the first date.

Eating Out