And the beat goes on…

Nice one. Not only did I get the match score right but I also got the scorers wrong, which means Kevin Gallen didn’t score, which is nice..

As was the result. And the performance. In fact, a thouroughly decent evening all round for Sunderland fans, who climb several places in the league despite remaining 6 points from the play offs. But with West Brom, Cardiff and Preston all dropping points again this league remains wide open, as it has been all season.

All it takes is one side to take the initiative and go on a run of games unbeaten to quickly climb the table, and once up there, stay there. We did it perfectly in 2005, and we’re now four games unbeaten with two home games coming up against beatable sides. A perfect chance to really get this season going.

But tonight was not just about the points or the win. It was about the performance. Despite tinkerman Keane again changing the side, he continued with the 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation and for the first time at times tonight, it really clicked.

Murphy was the main target man up the middle, and took his goal well. Wallace and Elliot were the wide men supporting him on either wing, and got in some cracking balls whilst also offering an attacking threat. And with the dependable Miller and Kavanagh covering him, Leadbitter roamed forward with confidence and panache, and took his goal well.

Ok, so it wasn’t quite Drogba/Robben/Cole/Lampard/Essien/Makalele, but it wasn’t bad, and the signs are promising. Now Keane has settled on a formation, he needs to settle on a side, and we really could start things good and proper.

At least until January when everything goes mental again.

But back to tonight. We started brightly and Murphy and Leadbitter should already have put us ahead before the big Irishman nodded in from 5 yards to make it 1-0. It looked offside, QPR thought it was offside, Murphy thought it was offside, and the fans certainly thought it was offside, as they demonstrated later by belting a couple of water bottles off the linesman later.

But it wasn’t. 1-0

Leadbitter doubled the lead in the 4th minute of injury time with a lovely taken goal by rounding the ‘keeper and slotting home. If only a few of the other lads had the same composure in front of goal the game would have been out of reach before QPR grabbed one back in the 73rd minute.

And that’s QPR, not ‘Rangers’. Since when have they been referred to as Rangers? That’s the team from Glasgow who play in blue in the Mickey Mouse league, not QPR. Yet for some reason every radio station, website and newspaper has started referring to them as ‘Rangers’. Why? It just confuses me. For a while this week I thought we were playing in some sort of Anglo-Scottish cup.

Having said that, I’ve just remembered Gary Rowell referred to them as ‘Rangers’ tonight on the radio, so it must be ok, now that it has the Lord’s seal of approval.

So anyway, Sunderland allowed Rangers a goal back through Ray Jones, abiding by the rule that Sunderland fans are not allowed to relax in the last ten minutes. It’s a well known fact that Sunderland fans do have the squeekiest arses.

Jones tapped in a Marcus Bignot (pronounced ‘Big Nut’ by Crabtree, much to my embarrassing amusement while listening to the match on the bus) cross after sloppy defending, but Sunderland could still have won the game by a couple if Ross Wallace hadn’t gone and done a Christiano Ronaldo when faced with a glorious chance from a Connolly cross. Connolly himself hit the post with another late chance.

A QPR free kick in the dying seconds of the match once again had the magnificient travelling support producing a cacofony of arse whistles, but Dazza Ward was on hand to save as The Uriah Rennie Show blew the final whistle.