Sunday, September 25, 2005
Boro 0 Sunderland 2
If the defeat against Charlton was embarrasing then this was just tragic! At least Charlton are a decent team... OK, they got a perfect start and spoiled any pre-match plans we might have had, but there was almost a full 90 minutes to sort it out and it just didn't happen.Ugo was injured and despite a far superior shot rate Sunderland got a second to cap a dismal afternoon. Going forward we looked disorganised and less than passionate - 50/50 balls were going in the visitors favour all afternoon and we looked like we expected to win instead of actually putting the work in to acheive that goal. Bernie Slaven was right again on Century FM stating that if a team is on the back of a bad losing run then we are the team most likely to give them 3 points. It's almost as if we play better against tougher teams when we have to concentrate or are sure of defeat (anyone remember Arsenal!). What can be done? Already we have dropped 7 points that should have been in the bag, according to pre-season expectation! Not good enough and a terrifying, though slightly realistic thought that it may become the norm... A dark day.
My MOTM: Chris Riggott (yeah, he played in the reserves, exactly)
