SAFC blog: where do we go from here?

By Martyn McFadden

Another game, another defeat, and the door to the abyss that is the Championship creaks open even wider, with Sunderland knocking on it as hard as we can. It’s been so miserable a period for Sunderland fans that to describe it as festive is nonsense. More defeats, more injuries, and any signs of a revival of fortunes have remained firmly beyond the horizon. They say that you make your own luck, and nowhere is that more true than at a football club that isn’t doing very well.

Against Liverpool, we were much better than we’d been against Man City, but the opposition, without being anywhere as good as City in terms of quality of players, still had enough in almost every position to get the better of us. Had we been cruising along in the balmy luxury of mid-table, we’d probably have won, as when you’re comfortable and therefore happy, nice things tend to happen. You make your own luck, basically.

Where do we go from here? Villa on Saturday. I doubt if a game could be so important yet insignificant, with both teams drifting out of sight of the rest of the league. Who will Sam pick? Who will Sam be able to pick? With the warnings of the Spurs fans about Kaboul being unable to stay fit for more than a month at a time ringing in our ears, O’Shea, the one defensive organise we have, succumbing to injury, and Coates limping out of the Liverpool game, we’re pretty much stuck in defence. Sam has hinted that he doesn’t want to play Rodwell as a centre half, but, given that Jack also left the Liverpool game injured, he doesn’t have that decision to make.

Given the dire straits we find ourselves in, we need to pray for some miracle recoveries, or give young Beadling a chance to show what he’s about.

Things can only get better? They have to – mainly because they could hardly get any worse.