View From The North Stand
One man's views on Sunderland AFC - County Durham's premier football club.
| TALKING POINT | | | EATING OUT |  | | | EATING IN | | | | PAST TIMES | | |
|
|
|
O 'Me' of Little Faith - View From The North Stand
 |
| Kenwyne Jones after his goal at Upton Park last year - more of the same please |
O ye of little faith.
I hung my head in shame on Saturday after announcing that we will not take anything from Villa Park.
It's not in my character to be pessimistic, but after seeing us fail to win at Derby, Wigan, and Reading so far this season, I thought the chances of us picking something up from a team challenging for a European place were slim.
But, thanks to Michael Chopra's cool sidefooted finish, combined with a shaky display from England's future number one Scott Carson, we left Villa Park with all three points and our relegation battle looking a lot healthier.
I said we needed nine points to achieve safety. We're a third of the way there, and come tomorrow it should be two-thirds.
Once more, we face a team in claret and blue, this time in the shape of West Ham. They've had a typical Alan Curbishley season so far. Started well, impressed a few, then tailed off after Christmas and have plummeted since.
They come to Sunderland with little to play for, but we can't fall into the trap of thinking that they won't be up for the match.
There are smatterings of quality throughout the Hammers side, but we looked good against them at Upton Park last year and we should have no problem beating them tomorrow.
Of course, we lost in London, but we put on a display that impressed people and gave us some hope. A freak goal put us behind, then while we were on the attack, Craig Bellamy, oh he of large back, fired his side into an unassailable lead.
It's refreshing to hear that Carlos Edwards and Kenwyne Jones, if fit, will be available for selection tomorrow.
Trinidad and Tobago had royally spat their dummy out and were tossing toys out of their pram, aimed for Roy Keane, Niall Quinn and anybody who would listen to them.
The furore was over the declaration by Sunderland that Edwards and Jones were both unavailable for the Soca Warriors' game against Jamaica, Edwards with a groin strain and Jones with the flu.
Our case was somewhat weakened by the fact that Edwards, who picked up the injury in training on Friday, played over an hour down in Birmingham on Saturday, while T&T were willing to accept our explanation over Jones' absence.
T&T's argument stemmed from the club's refusal to get Edwards independently assessed, and they were on the brink of imposing the five-day-rule - that is, they could block Edwards and Jones playing for Sunderland for five days after their scheduled friendly in midweek.
But thankfully, Dwight Yorke and Keane made a couple of calls, and the storm blew over.
It was a big relief, not just for Sunderland Football Club, but for you, the readers. Because, if they had been blocked, I had a massive rant all ready to go here.
But I can save that for another time.
I guess you are wondering why I have sought to explain the whole affair. It's because that there has been little interest in this story from the media.
Maybe the national press are too concerned in Javier Mascherano, that little oik who was shocked to find himself sent off despite making his mouth go at Steve Bennett for the duration of his time on the pitch.
Or maybe it's more to do with the fact that this little incident had little to do with the top four, and therefore it is of no interest to the average reader.
It's not often that I take time out to talk about Newcastle United. Some fans are obsessed with them, whereas I'd rather concentrate on our own affairs - as hilarious as it is to see Newcastle failing.
But I wanted to pay tribute to a Newcastle legend who is looked on just as fondly from the southern points of the region.
Sir Bobby Robson has dedicated the short time he has left to raising £500,000 for a cancer centre in Newcastle.
There's no doubt that he'll raise it. There's a lot of support in the north-east and beyond to Sir Bobby, what he's achieved, the battles he has won, and how he is dealing with his most recent battle - cancer.
When he was diagnosed with a malignant melenoma, he simply shrugged and said: "I thought he played right-half for Benfica."
A true legend, and I wish him all the best.
11:36am Friday 28th March 2008
Print 
Email this 
Comment
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
