After all the talk on their forum and from their manager about coming to take us on, I was pretty disappointed that they didnt live upto the billing. Very happy to sit in, try and keep it tight and break every so often. Last 15 they ventured a little further forward but you can see why they draw a lot, organised but pretty poor football wise. Cant imagine they’ll keep up over the coming months.
They came not to lose which is a slight in coming for a draw imo . They played to contain us but try and hit us on the break . Burton played for a draw and their was a world of difference imo .
They looked a danger all night even though they didn't make waves. A good organised team with a game plan well executed. Had we played like we did last night against Burton we'd have beaten Burton.
Burton wouldn’t let us play like that . They closed space down quickly in final third and had very little interest in going forward specifically second half . They employed spoiling tactics and stopped play unabling us to get into any rhythm and frustrated us into making mistakes . Sunderland did non of this imo yes they contained us but when they got possession they were looking to come onto us
Having read their forum for the last few weeks the general consensus was that if we tried to match them football wise we’d get a tonking because theyre the best side in the league but we’d most likely sit back and contain them. Funnily enough, I think their manager realised they couldnt match us even without 3 important first teamers and came not to lose.
To be honest we played the exact same formation as we have done in pretty much every game, no change whatsoever with the exception of our missing players. You saw exactly how we play last night regardless if it was you anyone else. At the minute we have more players out than yourselves, Maguire, Honeyman, James and Flanagan all would have started last night with Watmore also close to being a starter.
I looked at their line up before kick off mcgeady,max power,will grigg 3 front players who any team in this league would love to have. But apart from the grigg chance and was it mcgeady who cut inside and brought a class save from Davies they offered little. We should of killed the game off while we were on top 1st half but a draw was better for us than them.
Big blow for Sunderland on the run in. It's been announced, that Duncan Watmore has been ruled out for the remainder of the Season, after being injured against Wycombe Wanderers last Saturday.
I would be very surprised if you play like that every game, I'm not that naive. I thought you wre very defensive and came not to lose, for example only breaking with 3 players gor many times in the 2nd half. A loss would have put you 7 points behind. But if you claim that's the way you play every game, then you won't win many games like that. I would fancy us to win moe games than you for the rest of the season even though you have a game in hand.
We do mate, look at our away stats and that's how we play and it's got us to where we are. It's an old expression and and I don't know where it comes from but there's more than 1 way to skin a cat. Time will tell, I think if you win your next 3 we are knackered as there will be a load of pressure on our squad to play something like 9 games in April.
You obviously don't have many proper "off" days, otherwise you'd have lost more than two games. You might yet find that all those 1 pointers end up doing the business. Let's face it, anything could happen between now and season end. It's impossible to draw any cast iron conclusions from a game played in those conditions. May the best team eventually win.
