Hard as nails. That’s Salut! Sunderland’s star writer Pete Sixsmith. Viewed from afar, the North East looked as if cut off from the rest of the world by snow drifts. That must have been a picture of Tow Law. But it was cold enough as Pete saw Sunderland Reserves take on Wigan. Hadn’t we seen as much of Wigan as we’d want for a while? …

Tuesday night and outside it’s cold and the wind is blowing. Inside, the heating is on, the gas fire warms the room, there’s a welcoming bottle of Macallan open and a good book on the coffee table. So, what do you do but dig out the thermals and woolly socks, put on a warm coat and head for a reserve game at Hetton?

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And the answer is “not very much”.

Last night a team of unknowns wearing the colours of Manchester United (OK – see comments – I stand corrected: a team including relative unknowns) beat Tottenham Hotspur in the Carling Cup quarter-finals.

On TalkSport this morning, the atmosphere at Old Trafford was described in anxious tones as having been like that of a practice match. Which, we suppose, is an improvement on the morgue it sometimes resembles in the home ends.
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