downendcity

The one thing on which everyone can agree - although we haven't heard from core321 yet!

Corrected for blind optimism

Well said EMB. I know that you are, and have been, a critic of LJs, but credit for finding positives in today's performance. It makes pleasant change from some of LJs critics, who see everything about the club, coach and team through jaundiced eyes and can only find negatives and criticism, no matter what or how we perform. Close though!

Spending bucket loads on players well beyond our financial reach didn't make any difference to Wolves' season last year then? Not an excuse - a reason.

Terry Butcher left his job as Indonesia manager before they had even played a game. That's the sort of effort that would go down well on OTIB - rubbish and gone before playing a single game! Relative to that, condemning the team after 90 minutes is letting them off lightly.

...about £50m on new players?

Half time also gives the opposition manager the chance to re-group and give tactics to his players. Having said that, all too often half time comes at the wrong time for us, and too often we make a habit of being too slow to get back on it after the break.

Moot question I know, but have we scored too soon?

Can we cash out now?

Bet the Sheffield United fans are in raptures at that scoreline.

Can't be right, because he's not a goalscorer.

Has that been confirmed on the OS?

Ah, the acid test of a new wife. Can she do it on a wet Tuesday night in Stoke?

Havana's match day thread - now the season is properly under way and alls well with the world.

For years I've never been able to fathom why, when we have a corner or attacking free kick in and around the box, within a second or two the opposition are breaking on the edge of our penalty area, yet we never seem able to do the same when defending.

Oooooh Maaatron!

Correction for accuracy Major.

Now we know who ate all the pies and all the chocolate and all the Easter Eggs and leftovers. Is it Tomlin's babysitter?

Let's hope Barnsley are for the chop - like lambs to the slaughter. Fancy it will be much tougher than that though, as we seem to find it difficult against struggling teams.

I think it is no coincidence that these results happened while we were without Baker.

Doh!!!!!!!!!

Good thing that 2-0 is no longer our dangerous score !

With hindsight we did get back to the form from before Christmas - well before Christmas, to exactly a year ago when we lost 3-0 half time lead at Derby. Also 3-0 is a very dangerous score! I don't think we have been the same since conceding the last minute goal to Wolves. In the run up to Christmas we were running on empty die to the number of games and our injury list, but as at Hull, the team spirit was getting us through. I think the last minute Wolves goal knocked the mental stuffing out of the players, and although they raised their game against Man City, we have not really been the same team in league games. As other posts have said, the second half today was about game management, but we ( coach and players) perhaps our naivety and a lack of professionalism, which goes against the grain when set against the professionalism the club has shown in achieving the improvement we have seen over the last 12 months. How many of the other top 6 teams would have thrown away a 3-0 half time lead today? Unfortunately I cannot see that any of them would have let Sunderland anywhere close and that perhaps could be the reason why we might just fall short this season. We cannot yet written of from the promotion race, but since the turn of the year we have lost most all of the momentum we carried until Christmas, while pretty well all our rivals seem to be gaining momentum. One positive is that despite a poor six weeks, we are still there about . The other is that LJ was able to pick the team up from a worse run about this time last season and he has some key players about to, or close to return.

Will find out now then.

With a good leads would be good to see what Diony could do against the Sunderland defence.