Estádio da Luz
Av. Eusébio da Silva Ferreira, 1500-313
Lisbon, Portugal

What do you mean it's not this one? - I've booked me flights and hotel

Oh, well, try this one then 


Ave. de Roberto da Stokeo
Monkwearmoutheo,
Sunderland SR5 1SU
EIEIO-EO

Kick-off 19:45 UK Time
Tuesday 18/04/23

Hot on the heels of Town's first defeat and Blunderland's first home win, both in 6, we head up the A1/A19 again to Wearside to face The Mackems at The Stadium of Light. With only 4 games to play, a reversal of the score-line at The McGalphsmith's (they won 0-2, in case you weren't paying attention) would help us no end with Town not having a game at the weekend. A win for the Wearsiders/Black Cats/Mackems would however put them in the top 6 temporarily, as their nearest rivals all play on Wednesday.

Mackems I hear you ask?

Well, one story goes along the line of folk from Sunderland wouldn't buy anything if they could mack'em (make them), another comes from the former ship building industry. Mackem and Tackem.

If you've a quiet month or two during the Summer afore the footy starts again .... here's it arl explained ... Everything You Wanted to Know Aboot the Nooerth Eayust but Wa' Too Afraid ta Ask, man, like, anarl.

Could also come in useful if we draw Durham in the Cup next season.

Whatever you do, don't call 'em Geordies. Well, you wouldn't call a Baggies fan a Brummie now would you?

On the tellybox

Not showing anywhere at the moment other than iFollow or Sky Red Button in the UK

The River Wear - a potted geography lesson.

Rising in the east Pennines, its head waters consist of several streams draining from the hills between Killhope Law and Burnhope Seat. The source of the river is traditionally held to be at Wearhead, County Durham at the confluence of Burnhope Burn and Killhope Burn. The Wear is a spate river and has been heavily influenced by previous government funded drainage schemes (gripping) with a view to improving marginal agricultural land. The river rises very quickly and has experienced much heavy flooding resulting in enhanced river bank erosion.

The river flows eastwards through Weardale, one of the larger valleys of west County Durham, subsequently turning south-east, and then north-east, meandering its way through the Wear Valley still in County Durham to the North Sea where it outfalls at Wearmouth in the main locality of Monkwearmouth on Wearside in the City of Sunderland. The main settlements it provides water for are Bishop Auckland, Willington, Durham, Chester-le-Street, Washington and Sunderland. The Pennine Hills where many of the tributaries that meet at Wearhead were mined back as far as Roman times for lead. The spoil heaps and remaining seams can result in high lead content in the river water when we don't get much rain. (That might explain ..... ah, maybe not). Prior to the creation of Tyne and Wear, the Wear had been the longest river in England with a course entirely within one county. The Weardale Way, a long-distance public footpath, roughly follows the entire route, including the length of Killhope Burn.

The Tees and the (South) Tyne also rise on the same stretch of North Pennine fells north of Appleby.

Get your hiking boots on this Summer, it's a great place for walks.



Pies, Pees and Pints

These lads do a better job than me. My one and only visit to Blunderland for footy was to Roker Park in the early 90's, and Town weren't playing. I was waiting for a flight to somewhere sunny in October from Newcastle (fat chance, I know). It was either the last plane to Ibiza or Tenerife. It rained (nearly) all day and my recollection of local boozers is a bit thin on the ground, as is my recollection of who they played and what the score was. Two weeks in Ibiza or Tenerife can do that to you. Noisy buggas, tho' but on that open end they wa'.

Sunderland for away fans

Don't blame me if the prices are out of date - inflation an' all that man, ya naw.

Latest news

Town's transfer embargo has been lifted, so the "books" as supplied to the EFL must be in reasonable order. Rumours in The Yorkshire Post have Barnsley's Michael Duff as the current rabbit in the headlights to take over from Colin next season, that assumes they don't get promoted/we don't get relegated and he doesn't/does want to stay there.

Personally I'd rather we went for Barrow (and former Halifax) manager Pete Wild if we're determined to go cheap again (am I getting annoying with this)? Barrow are unlikely to be in the promotion mix when after a promising start to the first half season, the front wheel fell off just before Christmas (I'm here all week  ). They've been stuck in 8th for the last few weeks and it's unlikely they'll now catch Sadfud in 6th. So he'll be cheaper for not having gained promotion this time round.

Town's former Head of Operations, Ross Wilson has turned up as Chief Football Officer at Forest after they had a clear out of the backroom staff responsible for bringing in 30-odd players and still being in the bottom three of the Prima Donna League. Gollum is still there though.


Forest Manager Steve Cooper

He also has a part time job as a body-double for a certain Russian dictator.

Some guy called Lewis O'Brien scored the only goal in a 0-1 win for DC United at Montreal on Sunday.

Out Injured/Suspended/Isolating

Not much came out of the presser but there's a couple that didn't do the full session on Monday.

Back training but not oven ready/Back in the frame

It was Harratt that threw the secret sickie last week, we'll wait to see if he's back or still on the Extra Strength Lemsips.

Last time out

Town lost 1-0 at Swansea to a goal that deflected in off Hogg's chest. If Vaclik says it was going well wide until that point, I'm not going to argue with him, but someone needs to tell the controversial goals mob that it was an own goal. Then again, maybe Hoggy told them in no uncertain terms he didn't want it.



Sunderland won a home match for the first time since February. Their head coach and supporters have been moaning about injuries all season but they've been in the top half for nearly all of it.
Dun't know they're born some fans.



Last weekend didn't see much change, most at the top picked up points, unless you're called Norwich, and most at the bottom didn't get more than 1, unless you're called Blackpool, who beat Wigan.



Blackburn hung onto 6th place by the skin of their teeth with a no score bore draw at home to Hull (well, they sent me to sleep).

Musical Interlude

So I'm looking for something somewhere between Lindisfarne and Chris Wear Rea then ....

Well let's start with the easy one - Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame - and no it's not (but it narly was) - Here Comes the Rain Again



Leatherface doing a punk version of Talkin' 'bout a Revolution



Emeli Sandé - just to slow things down a bit in midfield

https://youtu.be/afoAdM_i7nM
(had to pull one as I got both pressers on YouTube for a change)

Legendary Heavy Rockers  - The Toy Dolls 



(I'm sure AmChaff might have picked that for the home thread too, but what the hell).

The Sack Race

Darrell Clarke left Port Vale on the morning of Monday 17th (League 1, 18th, 6 points above the trap door, 2 wins in 18 games).
Sadly, his teenaged daughter took her own life after a battle with mental illness just over a year ago and though Vale, to their credit, gave him loads of support, they eventually decided, even at this late stage of the season, the results just aren't there and pressed the panic button.

Tables & Form

Town are up to the giddy heights of 19th place, but that's only 1 point above the trap door. Sunderland are 10 places and 18 points above us and unbeaten in their last 5 games (D3, W2).
That puts them 2 points below Blackburn in a division where the only teams showing consistent form (nearly) all season are the top 3 and two of those are debateable. All the others have had fits and starts of form so they could still sneak into the play-offs.



The win at home to Brum followed on from a win at Cardiff (thanks lads)





All the same points recently but in a completely different order



They can be got at at home, but Sunderland have picked up more of their points against bottom 8 clubs than the top 16 with W10, D3, L2 for 32 of their 61 points to date.



Blunderland are another team that whole heartedly embraces the inconsistency of this division.
They have flirted with the top 6 on several occasions this season, only to go on a run that would quickly drop them back out of it. After a start of DWD, they went on a 6 game run of lose one win one.
In their next 10 games they only won twice (including 0-2 at ours in the 9th game of that run) with D4 and L4. Not like Town to give a team on a bad run a hand is it?
In their next 13 games, they only lost twice. W7, D4. Then they lost 4 of the next 5 (W1) before the current 5 game unbeaten run.

Innies and Outies

Their main expense was on a centre back from Arsenal, though in total they spent £6m last Summer on 5 new players. Young Mr. Ballard broke his foot 3 games into the season, returned to the squad in mid-December against Hull but hasn't been in the squad at all for the last 4 games.



If they spent any money in January, it's bloody well hidden.

Who's banging 'em in?

For them - the lad on loan from Man U. and Ross Stewart in the main, but they've spread the 60 they have scored around a bit. Stewart got those 10 in 13 games. He got a hammy after 7 games and missed the next 15, then played another 6 before getting an achilles tendon injury, requiring surgery, which seems to have finished his season.

They've let in 51 so expect all out counter attacking football from Town on the back of around 25% possession again.



Town's leading scorer didn't get many chances on Saturday and Rhodes didn't even get on the pitch (again).



They can't all win

Mid-week fixtures - there's a full set of fixtures this week.

Blackpool are at home to WBA, who fooled me (and probably not only me) by winning away at Stoke at the weekend, a week after I'd forecast them to finally win an away match (grrr), Rotherham home to Burnley, Wigan go to Stoke, QPR are home to Norwich, Cardiff go to Watford and Reading are home to Luton.



Weekend fixtures - as there's no match or thread this weekend ...

Town's scheduled game v The Blunts will now be played May 4th.

Blackpool go to Brum, who should now be safe, Rotherham to Brizzle, QPR to Burnley, Cardiff are home to Stoke, Reading go to Coventry, Wigan are home to Millwall. At the other end, Both Ends are home to Blackburn to see who can grab 6th (maybe, depending on results on Tuesday/Wednesday) and Luton are home to Boro in the current battle for 3rd.



So Burnley and Stoke (won't hold my breath) can do us a couple of favours each this week, but really we need to be doing ourselves a favour.

We've played 'em before

We've not played each other very often for a good number of years, as we've spent time at opposite ends of the Leagues, that said we are way behind on this one. This is our first league visit to theirs in this century, though we won in the League Cup on our only visit so far and (I think) only our 3rd League game at this stadium?



We won two seasons running at Sunderland in the early 90's, when they played at Roker Park, but we've lost the last 3 visits. Sunderland moved to The Stadium of Light in 1997.

Next up?

Cardiff away Sunday 30th.

Pressers

Colin's Conundrum



Pearson pontificates on Radio Local

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0fh6h2p

The views from Roker Beach

Mowbray's mumbles

The Run-In

Stoke (A), Sat 15/04 - 15:00
Blackpool (A), Tue 18/04 - 19:45
Sunderland (H), Sun 23/04 - 12:00
Sheff Utd (A), Wed 26/04 - 20:00
Norwich (H), Sat 29/04 - 17:30
Swansea (A), Mon 08/05 - 15:00