Behind Enemy Lines – Part 6

IT’S SNOW JOKE
Saturday’s match at home to Bolton was postponed early on Friday afternoon by Council officials citing safety issues. The pitch was playable, the roads around the SoL weren’t too bad and the snow around the stadium was pretty much cleared. I doubt Bolton’s players or fans would have had too much trouble travelling up north for the match either. I saw footage of Upton Park & Anfield after their games were postponed and around the ground, especially at West Ham, was virtually snow-free. As usual, in Britain, as soon as we get a period of bad weather, the country seems grinds to a halt. It’s worth noting that in the United States, no American football match has ever been postponed due to snowfall. That tell’s it’s own story. At the end of the day though, Saturday’s call-off benefited SAFC due to the mounting injury list so I’ll not complain too much!

PRESSURE CONTINUES
The building pressure on Steve Bruce and SAFC continues this weekend as we take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, in the first of three consecutive away games, two of them in the league. If our abysmal away form continues and we come away with no points from these two, it could be a really tough slog as we head towards the end of the campaign. On the positive side, this may be a really good time to play Chelsea with players missing due to the African Nations Cup, whereas hopefully, we may be seeing a return from injury of some of our key players. A weeks training in Portugal will hopefully put the players in good spirits for the trip to London, but unfortunately I can’t see us getting much joy there.

Prediction: Chelsea 2 SAFC 0

WINDOW HOTTING UP
After a quiet opening week, the transfer window seems to be finally warming up a bit, after Steve Bruce was linked with a string of players in the press. The hottest topic seems to surround Kenwyne Jones. Although Bruce has denied Jones will leave us this month, press reports seem to have the opinion that he is desperate to sell him. As I said last week, I don’t believe we will be able to replace him with someone of similar quality and I think it would be too much of a gamble to bring in an unproven forward at this stage of the season. The worrying thing is that we aren’t being linked with too many defenders- an area in which Bruce MUST strengthen and soon if we are to have ambitions of pushing up the league. I believe Nosworthy, McCartney & possibly Bardsley all need to be replaced with higher quality.

MEMORABLE MATCH
In preview to Saturday, remember this? A superb display from Don Hutchison demolished Chelsea on their own patch.

CHELSEA 2 SAFC 4 (March 2001)
Desailly, Gudjohnsen. HUTCHISON 2, MCCANN, PHILLIPS
Team: Sorenson, Carteron, Gray, Hutchison, McCann, Phillips, Kilbane, Craddock, Schwarz, Arca, Thome. Sub: Williams for Arca.

BET OF THE WEEKEND
Finally a new weekly tip for those who like a flutter on the football. This week, I fancy Manchester City to continue their good form with a win at Everton, put that with wins for Ipswich & Liverpool in a tidy treble.

That’s all for now,
PW

Follow us on twitter:

VitalSunderland