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started by Patto, had the pundits purring. Pure Barcelona, they said. A goal Man City would have been proud of, they said... but the best thing is that we’ve repeated it several times since. Out of defence, down the right, into the middle, goal for Diallo, Pritchard, Bennette... lovely to watch.
Having said that, there have still been signs that we are a young side which is learning
and developing, in the form of occasional
iffy performances. The missile-enforced stoppage against Burnley, when we’d raced into a 2-0 lead, broke our stride just before
the break and we never recovered, resulting
in a calamitous second half. Injuries above and beyond those to Stewart and Simms, which emphasised a gap in our otherwise impressive recruitment, have affected our game, Ballard looked extremely promising, and Alese had grown into his role before both were subject to bad challenges that went unpunished and robbed us of their skills. That gave Luke O’Nien, perhaps a player whose ability to perform at this level for the first time we questioned slightly, the chance to prove us wrong. At fullback he was fine, but at centre half alongside Danny Batth, arguably our most consistent performer this season, he’s been a revelation. We’ve also had the return of almost forgotten man Huggins after a year-long absence, and he played as if he’d never been away, a fine addition to our impressive array of young fullbacks alongside Cirkin and Hume.
A big word of appreciation must go to the Sunderland Former Players Association, chaired by Micky Horswill, who are providing Christmas dinner for Sunderland’s homeless
people on December 15th. This is far from the only charitable work the former Lads do, and they’ve recently been a big part of the drive
to raise money so that John MacPhail’s home can be adapted to allow John to return to it, following his devastating accident a year ago. The initial target of £5,000 was surpassed some time ago, and now stands at over £20,000. See the John MacPhail crowdfunding page for details.
In terms of where we’ll finish this season, mid- table obscurity would suit me fine, but if you aim for the safety of the pavement, you might end up in the gutter. Aim for the stars, and
you might just hit the moon, or the pavement. Wherever we end up, the fans will have continued to play a massive part in the return of the feel-good factor to matchdays. After the last few years, actually looking forward to attending the matches without at least a hint of fear and trepidation is a nice feeling. The head coach and the players have deserved our backing and have responded with some pretty and effective football, grabbing five wins on the road to date. Keep backing them, and we’ll be fine, so let’s do just that, home and away.
Editorial Team: Martyn McFadden & Paul (Sobs) Dobson
Assistant Editor: Daniel McCallum Design: Adam Batey, Lewys Carr Merchandise: Merch Bitch
First Team Squad: Michael Lough, Giles Mooney, Aidan Crowe, Michael Conroy, Alex Miller, Ian Mole, Francis Todd Malone, Lorenzo Corsi, Orlando Corsi, Oliver Button, Peter Showler, David Preece, Lewis Baxter, Elliot Daroczy, Tom Lynn, Jack Dodds, Colin Benson
Inception: Jez Robinson Proof Reader: Sheila Seacroft Photography: Paul Swinney
UK Fanzine of the Year: Winners 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2008, 2009 and 2021 Finalists 1991, 1993, 1996, 2000, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018
North East Press Awards: Magazine of the Year Winners 2004 and 2005
Shoot! Fanzine Awards:
First Division Winners 1991 Website of the Year:
Winners 2002 and 2009
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