Sunderland were very poor today, but we were worse I'm afraid. Definitely the worst performance I have seen this season - Hayes, Richards McIndoe, Devaney and Williams all struggled badly. If it hadn't been for a couple of great saves from Colgan we'd have been thumped by a very poor team. if we'd just had a bit more belief in ourselves we could have taken the game away from them - the same fans chanting Keane's name at the end booed their own side in the first half. Andy Ritchie - whilst I have faith in you as our manager you gave the initiative to Sunderland today - Healy is still miles off the pace and in removing Howard you took away our best attacking threat. Devaney and Hayes needed hauling off within 5 mins of 2nd half starting IMHO. We NEED new players in defence, midfield AND attack, and if we don't get them the players we DO have are gonna lose every bit of self belief they have left. I expected a struggle this season but I expected it to be as a result of BETTER teams with MORE quality beating us. The only teams that have been better than us this season are Cardiff and Plymouth, and we showed more fight in 5 mins of those games than we did today. Very disappointing...
Excellent post, spot on. Still can't get over Healy replacing Howard and not daring to make a tackle.
RE: Excellent post, spot on. unfortunately it is a disease that is spreading through our team. as the self belief goes, so does A) composure on the ball and B) ability to put pressure on opponents. if we'd managed that today we'd have won 4-0
