You can all moan as much as you want about Ainsworth's tactics and no plan b etc. but the officials ruined that game once again today. It was a 50-50 challenge and if it had been the other way it would never have been given in our favour.

Yeah Colback made a poor choice, maybe he was a touch over-hyped as it was Sunderland, who knows.

Still thought we worked our socks off to stay in game and the equaliser was very unlucky and quite typical of how things go against us.

Playing with 10 men is hard, there is no perfect plan for that.

I would criticise Begovic who was very poor today, did not help our cause at all with his appalling kicking and decision making

On to mid-week.....

2

Thought they fought well but several disappeared later on. Dozell, Paal. Begovic saves were as good as his distribution was bad. I don't usually question the manager's wisdom. But today's subs?

-1

The deflected shot just before half time killed us. I thought we'd done well with 10 men and the shape worke.

But Armstrong became isolated after half time. Mowbray is a very experienced and clever manager who knew exactly how to use his bench to snuff ius out of the game in the second half. Ainsworth's subs all seemed good calls to me - we needed another attacker, Cook was injured in his last outing and Chair and Paal had been traveling with their national teams and were tiring - but they didn't work. Ainsworth would also have had an eye on having to play 3 games in 7 days.

This just confirmed what we knew - the squad is very thin and although there were decent players on the bench Dykes didn't look 100% and who knows what's happening with Chrissy Willlock. In spite of it all we did create a couple of half chances near the end.

Hard to criticise the team and although we can find fault with Ainsworth I think he is trying to work out how to get a decent team out of a pig"s ear and on the whole making progress. But can somebody get Begovic to practise kicking or let a centre back do it? BTW it was a red card, one of the few decisions the ref got right.

0

It wasn't just Colback who lost us the match

Nor was it just the ref and Colcback who lost us the match

Poor ten-man management and substitutions

Relentless long ball repeatedly giving back possession to the opposition - and often to the stands

Lost the plot after the second Mackem goal along with momentum and feelgood factor

No excuses Tuesday; need to win a home game more than once a year

-1

The ratings for Colback and Smyth are probably related. Smyth got roasted by Pritchard and Clarke, he needed much more support as he's very effective going forward but not so good at defending against good wing play, as we've now seen a couple of times. Colback was missed on such a warm day, playing 10 men against an organised Sunderland team, the result was only ever going to go one way and it could have been worse. There was some wild inconsistency in the refereeing that affected both teams. Also, I didn't think Sinclair was offside on at least one occasion, when I was right in line and watching him carefully. Similarly to Southampton game, he got very few decisions from the 50/50 challenges - Sunderland players and management calling the shots with Moany Tobray getting very exercised with 4th official throughout the game. Only small positive was that i thought Willock looked quite improved. Final thought, I imagined that the crowd would sing the dirge-like chant of ROD - NEEE at half time, but it was fairly muted. Maybe most there didn't have him as their teenage idol as I did?

0

The deflected shot just before half time killed us. I thought we'd done well with 10 men and the shape worke.

But Armstrong became isolated after half time. Mowbray is a very experienced and clever manager who knew exactly how to use his bench to snuff ius out of the game in the second half. Ainsworth's subs all seemed good calls to me - we needed another attacker, Cook was injured in his last outing and Chair and Paal had been traveling with their national teams and were tiring - but they didn't work. Ainsworth would also have had an eye on having to play 3 games in 7 days.

This just confirmed what we knew - the squad is very thin and although there were decent players on the bench Dykes didn't look 100% and who knows what's happening with Chrissy Willlock. In spite of it all we did create a couple of half chances near the end.

Hard to criticise the team and although we can find fault with Ainsworth I think he is trying to work out how to get a decent team out of a pig"s ear and on the whole making progress. But can somebody get Begovic to practise kicking or let a centre back do it? BTW it was a red card, one of the few decisions the ref got right.

0