Black Cats ? Good Luck!!!!!!

Peter Gilbert 30.9.00

Them
Anoraknaphobia

10.Things to know about Sunderland

1.Sunderland were formed in 1879 by Scottish Schoolmaster James Allan at Hendon Boarding school

2. They’ve got a lovely new ground called The Stadium of Light, so called because it is built on the site of an old coal mine where Tom Davey used to work, he’s the one who invented the Davey Lamp which miners wear on their helmets. So it’s not a rip off from somewhere else.

3. Their manager Peter Reid can only speak sentences that are punctuated with expletives, even his ears blush when he speaks.

4. They play classical music as the teams walk out onto the pitch, it’s very stirring.

5. They are my outside tip for relegation this season.

6. The outer walls of their stadium are adorned with the names of thousands of Sunderland fans, who paid to have their names engraved on the stadium bricks.

7. One of their Presidents was ‘James Herriott’ the writer of All creatures Great and Small.

8. We often play well there.

9. Their fans are much friendlier than some we’ve met recently.

10. If we win this we could go top……..again.

I’m sure we’ll all be pleased to be playing on English soil again after our UEFA debacle in mid week which was terrifying, annoying, dangerous and very sobering.

I’m not mentioning Stan but if the team can pull together on Wearside we might well end up with a great result here which would set us up nicely for our next match……..I just forget who we’re playing then.

Sunderland got off to a fantastic start last season, almost as good as ours this season but they faded badly and ended up in relative obscurity.

They have a goal machine in Kevin Philips who is a great striker(come to Leicester Kev) and he links well with the evergreen Niall Quinn. Beyond those two they are ripe for picking as we discovered at Filbert Street last season.

Us

I have every faith in our team. The defence is awesome (outside Europe) the midfield is gutsy and domineering but the forward line is not up to what is required at this level and we often find ourselves in the position of having the opposition on the ropes only to let them off the hook, if that makes any sense at all, even if it doesn’t you know what I mean.

We can soak up pressure we can mangle in midfield, we can get forward on the break, then it all goes rather pear shape. That is our weakness and could well be our undoing in just such a match as this.

However I’d be disappointed (PT’s favourite word have you noticed?) if we lost this one.

Leicester’s Last Match .. Player Analysis

Flowers: Very good indeed, should have been selected for England squad.

Rowett: Got lost in Vienna, he’s played exceptionally well in the league however.

Elliott: He was brilliant against Red Star, he is now the complete and finished international article.

Taggart : He lost his cool quiet menace against RSB, but ‘He’ll be back!!!’

Impey: Adequate without ever threatening to be outstanding.

Savage: Tremendous, but will inevitably be booked to keep the London based media happy.

Izzett: A truly gutsy and quality performance against RSB.

Lennon: He’s still not exactly what you might call ‘Back’

Akinbiyi: Disappointing .

Eadie: I was ‘disappointed when he missed two absolute bleeding sitters against RSB.

Guppy: A couple of good crosses was his only contribution, he kept giving the ball away timidly.

Subs:

Cresswell: Sorry, but he won’t make it.

Gunnlaugsson: Played as if he was on another planet, sadly his game doesn’t appear to involve the ball.

Davidson: I’d like to see more of him as a left back, he looks good.

The Team I’d Pick to Start The Next Game.

Flowers

Rowett Elliott Taggart Davidson

Izzett Savage Lennon Guppy

Eadie Akinbiyi

Subs

Royce. Impey. Sinclair. Cresswell. Benjamin (we need to see him).

This team won’t disappoint !!!!!!