You occasionally get weekends which are full of things to do, things that you are looking forward to, things that you really, really want to enjoy.

I knew that two out of the three things I had planned this weekend would be fine. The one I was worried about was the Fulham game. My worries were not unfounded.

Let’s deal briefly with the two successes. Après le match, Martin Simpson was his usual excellent self at the Davy Lamp Folk Club in Washington, while Sunday evening was enlivened by the wonderful Lumière Festival in Durham City.

But I suspect that those who are able to read this couldn’t give the proverbial monkey’s about either. The sole thing that interests them is the loss of two more points to a club who are in a similar position to us – viz. beginning to contemplate a serious relegation battle.

From the Sunderland point of view, this was a wasted opportunity to get the season started – in November, just as the Christmas lights are going up and those of a certain disposition come over all wobbly at the sight of the John Lewis Christmas ad.

We have played 12 games, which is 31.57% of our season. We have won twice, once against a side who have been sidetracked by Europa League fixtures and once against a side who had lost every home game played this season. Should we carry on at this rate, we will end up with 35 points – and we all know what 35 points means; we should, we have been there enough.

We played a side who, to use a hoary old cliché, “don’t travel well”. They are a predictable side. You know exactly what you are going to get with Fulham; neat passing, strong but immobile central defenders, diving from the wretched Andy Johnson, and Bobby Zamora claiming that he has never once committed a foul in his entire professional career.

Good sides will beat them as will most half decent sides. We drew.

So, why was this? Forget the rubbish about the Cottagers being Bruce’s jinx team, as there is no such thing. Instead, look at the team he picked and the way that he set it. He was frightened of losing so he made sure that we played a similar game to Fulham in passing the ball around aimlessly in midfield and then hoping that Sessegnon might just magic something up for us.

We went into a home game with Cattermole and Colback in the centre of midfield. Both played well, but they are limited. They scrap away, win the ball and lay it off tidily. Both can tackle but neither can open up a defence or get behind the forwards to score.

Where was the midfielder who could play that telling ball? Where was the midfielder who could get behind the forwards and bear down on goal? Sitting on the bench for the whole ninety minutes, that’s where they were, while our Egyptian winger ran around a lot and achieved nothing and our first choice left back started well but faded away around the hour mark.

Vaughan and Gardner are spotted as rarely as a funny quip by Ant and Dec or a telling comment by Alan Shearer. Both came with decent reputations. Vaughan was Blackpool’s Player of the Year last year, above Charlie Adam – the same Charlie Adam who starts regularly for Liverpool, that is.

Craig Gardener would, we were told as we stumped up our season ticket money, solve the chronic lack of goals from midfield, leading to the release of Malbranque and Riveros.

Both have had minimal impact, principally because they have not been playing. Vaughan has had a few bumps and bruises (he played 35 times for Blackpool last year!) while Gardner has rarely been played in the forward position that he clearly favours.

There is a feeling that we paid massively over the odds for him and that the manager is not impressed with him. £6m wasted perhaps as he becomes the new Shaun Cunnington – plays well against us, is rubbish for us. But let’s give him a game and play him behind Bendtner.

On the way to the game on Saturday I offered my team selection. Richardson to stay at left back, with Cattermole, Vaughan and Colback strung across the middle, Gardner in front of the 3 but behind Bendtner and Sessegnon looking to pick up whatever came back from the two forwards.

Instead we got a typical Steve Bruce midfield – unimaginative, uninspiring and unable to score. This cautious approach to a game that needed to be won will be the death of us.

The substitutions were even less impressive. Ji Dong-Won sent on after a long trip back from Korea and a less than ringing endorsement from his national coach, replaced Colback, allowing Sessegnon to drop back. That left us with a non-tackling midfield as Cattermole was one slip away from a second yellow and the other three couldn’t tackle Twiggy.

Why not Noble? He would have put himself on the shoulder of the last defender and might just have got into the box and had a pop at goal. Instead we had Ji who plays a long way away from goal and became an auxiliary midfielder.

Like 37,000 others, Vaughan and Gardner had to sit and watch this ill selected team try to put together a move that would give us a winning goal. They were probably as frustrated as we were, but at least they were being handsomely rewarded for shaking their heads at a struggling manager. We had to pay for that dubious privilege.

Wigan up next week and if we lose that one, then the time for the curtain to fall on Bruce’s Sunderland career will come before we are sick of Christmas lights and adverts.. As it is, he surely cannot expect a new contract in June. His pride should dictate that he keeps us up this year – but it’s a tall ask at the moment.

This is the full list of seven-word verdicts on each Sunderland game by Pete Sixsmith, Salut! Sunderland‘s peerless chronicler and sage. They appear as soon after each final whistle as we can manage (which sometimes may not be as soon as we’d like), and should be seen here and at a posting updated after the match. If an asterisk precedes the comment, the words that follow are the work of someone else …

Dec 4 2011 Wolverhampton Wanderers (0) 2 SAFC (0) 1 More points sacrificed through weak, sloppy defending

Nov 26 2011 SAFC (1) 1 Wigan Athletic (1) 2 *Bruce’s reign surely over after this debacle. That was M Salut’s verdict, followed by these from Mr Sixsmith: “Shambolic defending spells end for Bruce now”, “He must go after another clueless performance”, “Got what we deserved after brainless display”, “Pressed the self destruct button yet again”, “Second half shocker means Bruce’s time’s up” and finally “Print them all”.

Nov 19 2011 SAFC (0) 0 Fulham (0) 0 Truly appalling game lacking pace, creativity, threat

Nov 5 2011 Manchester United (1) 1 SAFC (0) 0 Decent performance but slipshod defending cost us

Oct 29 2011 SAFC 2 (1) Aston Villa 2 (1) … Determination and effort produced a fair result

Oct 22 2011 Bolton Wanderers (0) 0 SAFC (0) 2 … Team selection vindicated in impressive second half

Oct 16 2011 Arsenal (1) 2 SAFC (1) 1 Defended bravely but attacking options barely existed

Oct 1 2011 SAFC (2) 2 West Bromwich Albion (2) 2 Deserved point after a truly horrendous start

Sept 26 2011 Norwich City (1) 2 SAFC (0) 1 Absolutely no positives to take from this

Sept 18 2011 SAFC 4 (3) Stoke City (0) 0 What a difference the right selection makes

Sept 10 2011 SAFC (0) 1 Chelsea (1) 2 Comical defending hands Chelsea their regulation win

Aug 27 2011 Swansea City (0) 0 SAFC (0) 0 Uninspiring game. Both teams look like strugglers

Aug 23 2011 Carling Cup 2nd Round: Brighton & Hove Albion (0) 1 SAFC (0) 0 Abysmal team selection got what it deserved

Aug 20 2011 SAFC (0) 0 Newcastle United (0) 1 Totally outfought in dismal second half display

Aug 13 2011 Liverpool (1) 1 SAFC (0) 1 Came back well, better side second half

2010-2011 Season

May 22 2011 West Ham (0) 0 SAFC (1) 3 take your pick … Unbeaten in London and above the Mags OR Easy win and well done West Brom

May 14 2011 SAFC (1) 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers (1) 3 … We ran out of steam; Wolves didn’t

May 7 2011 Bolton Wanderers (0) 1 SAFC (1) 2 Great result, strong performance and safety assured

May 6, 2007: – Salut! Sunderland – Luton 0 Sunderland 5 HOW TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP IN STYLE!

April 27, 2007: SAFC 3 Burnley 2 Carlos fantastic as our frayed nerves hold

April 27, 2007: SAFC 3 Burnley 2 YES! Sixer awaited, but a golden moment

April 21, 2007: Colchester 3 SAFC 1 Really worrying. Shocking defending and little created

April 14, 2007: SAFC 2 QPR 1 Easy win made hard, but nearly there*

April 9, 2007: Southampton 1 SAFC 2 Hardest game for ages but class tells

April 7, 2007: SAFC 2 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 Deserved win, other results great, perfect day

March 31, 2007: Cardiff 0 SAFC 1 Great win against tenacious but limited opposition

March 17, 2007: SAFC 2 Hull City 0 Thanks Evans for Jonny; three priceless points

March 13, 2007: SAFC 2 v Stoke City 2 Good point against tough, disciplined opponents

March 10, 2007: Barnsley 0 v SAFC 2 Comfortable win that shows strength in depth

March 3, 2007: West Bromwich Albion 1 SAFC 2 No bounce in the Baggies after this

Feb 24, 2007: SAFC 2 Derby County 1 Pulsating game, great result. Promotion now on

Feb 20, 2007: Birmingham City 1 SAFC 1 Many positives; disappointing to drop two points

Feb 17, 2007: SAFC 4 Southend 0 Silky Sunderland swamp second-best Shrimpers

Feb 10, 2007: Plymouth 0 SAFC 2 Massive result with great Irish one two

Feb 3, 2007: SAFC 2 Coventry City 0 Yorke outstanding in deserved, hard fought win

Jan 30, 2007: SAFC 0 Crystal Palace 0 Stifled by strong defence but lacked imagination

Jan 20, 2007: Sheff Wed 2 SAFC 4 Easy win; looked hard for 10 mins

Jan 13 2007: SAFC 1 Ipswich 0 Spoiled by wind. New boys all impressed

* Sometimes there is a delay at Pete’s end and an emergency substitute is pressed into service. Sometimes there are technical difficulties. Sometimes Salut! Sunderland is caught napping. Preview seven-worders are also usually mine, not Pete’s. Between us, we do our best………

T S Eliot (not a renowned football fan) wrote that “April is the cruellest month”. For Sunderland fans, replace April with February and you have a truism if ever there was one.

February sorts out the teams who will and the teams who won’t. Go into March top of the League, be it FA Premier or Northern, and the chances are that you will finish the season there. Ditto at the bottom.

Hit a slump in February and you can wave goodbye to a top six finish – it happened in 2000 with 2 points out of 9 and again in 2001 with a similar return and with an FA Cup exit thrown in.

This year we have played three games in February and have lost all three. We have scored some good goals, played some neat and tidy football – and have defended like Stockport County on a bad day.

The Spurs game was a great example of all that is promising and all that is disappointing. We played some lively one touch football and had a good Spurs side on the back foot early on. Gyan scored an excellent goal; good ball by Malbranque to Richardson (who had made a superb run), neat pass to Gyan, who turned the defender and shot across Gomes. For the third game in a row we were a goal ahead early on. You know what happens next.

We continued to move the ball around well, with Muntari playing the Dwight Yorke role. Pick the ball up, lay it off, put pressure on a shaky Spurs defence. Henderson ran around to left and right to collect it and give it to Muntari while Sessegnon, Malbranque and Richardson probed and looked for gaps that Gyan could exploit.

But the killer ball was not played and the second goal did not come. Instead, we gave away two avoidable goals.

I am sure that Gordon will be castigated by some because the ball went through his legs, but let’s ask about the marking of Dawson from the corner. Non-existent. He is the tallest player on the field and not one of our defenders went to him. His downward header was a strong one and it came at Gordon through a crowded goalmouth. It looked like Gallas had positioned himself in front of the keeper, blocking his vision.

The second one was a hat trick of defensive blunders. Sandro was allowed to gallop down the right hand side and when Mensah headed his cross away, it went straight to the unmarked Krancjar. His volley was a low and hard and left Gordon with no chance. But, two unmarked players and a poor header and you are 2-1 down and chasing the game.

We weren’t up to it. The midfield ran out of steam, just like it did at Stoke. Muntari was allowed less room than he had had at the Kick and Rush Stadium and was forced further and further back. Consequently, Henderson had to play deeper and that made it difficult for the ball to be played forward. Sessegnon tired as did Malbranque and Richardson got involved in a squabble with Corluka. End of game for us.

It wasn’t a bad game though. Both sides are a cut above the hoi-polloi in the middle of the league and I was impressed with the Spurs’ work ethic. Krancjar was excellent. He ran hard, passed well and took his goal brilliantly. Modric and Bale must be good if they can keep him out. I would love to see him in a red and white shirt next season.

Defensively, they looked sound once Gallas had sorted his footwear out. He and Dawson did well and looked a very solid partnership. Dawson is similar to Michael Turner – big, strong and willing and you only realise how important he is when he isn’t there. All credit to their fans as well. This was an excellent turn out for a late kick off. I hope they do well against AC Milan next week.

We now go into another difficult group of four and these will decide whether we are battling it out with the Bar Codes for the vitally important Cock Of The North Championship. The new players have a little bit of time to bed in and there is the possibility that one of Campbell or Turner may be available for our trip back to the 60s at Goodison Park.

Hopefully, we can work on these defensive frailties in that time. Mistakes and errors have cost us dearly in the last few games and have shown us that we are still well short of challenging for a European place. If people are to sacrifice Greek TV and several pints of John Smiths Smooth, the players on the field and the coaching staff need to convince them that The Stadium of Light is a better bet than The Willow Pond or the Mountain Daisy.

My first visit to Bloomfield Road was in September 1964 in a proper First Division game. I was 13, Colin was 15 and he played a major part in persuading my reluctant father that I be allowed to go to the game on Billy Reilly’s bus. Colin convinced him that we would be ok and that no drinking would take place on the Central Coaches flyer and that after the game we would go to Woolworths for a meal before taking a tram (probably in the shape of a Mississippi river boat) see the illuminations.

Well, the first part was wrong with a capital W. The bus was full of Shildon’s finest drinkers, including Michael Jones and his somewhat overweight brother who rejoiced in the nickname of Jasper. He was a drinking legend in the town and he took up two seats on the coach because of his mighty girth.

We were picked up at The King William and the bus meandered down to Close House, where the adults got off and shot into the Royal Hotel for a couple of pints while Billy Reilly and Kenny Snowdon loaded the bus up with crate upon crate of Newcastle Brown Ale.

Off we set again, through Barnard Castle and over the A66, which was not the super sleek highway it is now. We crawled along to Kirby Stephen and then through to Sedbergh and Kirkby Lonsdale before hitting the newly opened M6.

By this time the beer had gone and the famous funnel had been used copious times by the assembled drinkers; no toilets on coaches in those days!! We rattled into Blackpool in time for the Working Mens Clubs near the ground to be descended on by the red and white hordes. We went for a walk along the sea front.

The game was played out in front of a crowd of 37,000, which must have included at least 10,000 Sunderland fans. We had no manager at the time; Alan Brown had left in the summer and the Directors hadn’t quite got round to choosing a new one. So, they picked the team and signed players. Sandy McClaughlin, Harry Hood and John Parke had arrived by this time and McClaughlin played in goal that day.

Blackpool had a decent side. Jimmy Armfield and Ray Charnley had played for England, while a young Alan Ball would play for England and they had players who had been regular First Divison players for many years. If memory serves me correctly, Charnley scored twice and King Charlie headed a goal for us in front of a packed Kop.

After the game, I have distinct memories of vomit in the streets and loads of very drunk Sunderland fans full of mysterious beers like Threlfalls, Matthew Brown and Magees Ales lurching around. We may even have tried to get into the club near the ground that may well have been owned by Johnny Kidd of Johnny Kidd and The Pirates fame. If we did try, we didn’t get in!!

Fast forward to February 1975 to what was probably our best known visit to the land of the Tower and lions that devoured little boys with sticks with horses heads handles on.

It was a Second Division game in a league that featured big boys Manchester United, wannabee big boys in Aston Villa and small fry like York City. We were going well and looked bang on for promotion until we started a February wobble at Bloomfield Road.

The game is best known for the stupendous goal scored by Micky Walsh which won Goal of the Season on Match of the Day. The game had been selected by the Beeb as most other games were off and the salt in the air kept the frost out of the ground at Blackpool.

We travelled to that one on Corny O’Donnells special train, which he ran to a number of away games in the 70’s. It was by no means a dry train and the consumption of beer was actively encouraged. Cans of Double Maxim were my favoured tipple and I quaffed a few on the slow drag through York, Bradford, Accrington and Poulton-le-Fylde.

On reaching the Lancashire Riviera, we sought out a joke shop in order to purchase the mythical “Shitting pig”. This creature had been described by Bob Miller (Teacher, not leader of the Millermen) on many occasions. It was a tiny replica porker that, if you inserted a pellet up its anus, would then proceed to crap all over the table.

The story had been told around campfires and gas fires and this latter day band of Argonauts, led by yours truly, were determined to find it. We asked at several joke shops, were nearly arrested in one and eventually found ourselves in a seedy back street emporium, run by an elderly man who confirmed that the legendary squeaker had indeed existed but that he had not seen one for many years because “people want something a bit classier”. At that he pointed to the Saucy Sal cruet set, where a voluptuous pottery female had removable breasts in the shape of a salt and pepper set.

We gave up and went in search of some Boddingtons Bitter before lurching into our seats in the wooden main stand and watching Blackpool take a 2 goal lead before Vic Halom and Billy Hughes leveled. We then got a penalty which Hughesy missed due to some wizened old Lancastrian git in a white coat waving his arms around and distracting him. Cue Walsh for spectacular winner, and we departed sans points, sans pig, sans everything.

Stories that Darren Bent had put in a transfer request in the summer but was persuaded to stay would explain the contrast in his performances this season compared to last.  Pete Sixsmith speculates on some other reasons, and like Jeremy Robson (below) takes the long view.

Well, that has been an interesting 24/36 hours hasn’t it? Almost defeat to the Mags, imbeciles running on the pitch and then a transfer request from Darren Bent. As the Chinese say, “May you live in interesting times”.

 Except I would rather not, or at least not if they are as negative as these “interesting times” are. I don’t want to dwell on yesterday’s game- enough said about it and I am getting a bit worried about myself, when Newcastle fans compliment me on my fairness. I must be getting old. What next? A pat on the back for Nick Clegg? An acceptance that Bernard Manning was “quite funny”?

The idiot who ran on the pitch, one Ross Miller, clearly has the brain cells discarded by a semi educated aardvark. Whatever the reasons for celebrating, it does not extend to pushing over an opposition player. The youth should be thoroughly ashamed of himself and turning up to apologise to Harper and then appearing on 5Live should not prevent him from being barred from the Stadium and the possibilities of a custodial sentence.

 This is the second time we have done this in Derby games and there were unsavoury scenes at that awful England v Turkey game a few years ago. It is likely that the FA, in between fining players for Tweeting, will take a very dim view of this. Not good.

 Then we have the Darren Bent story. Initial reactions were shock and surprise, but the more I think about it and the more I hear of the background the less surprised I am.

The story is that his head was turned in August by a foreign club, (Germany? Spain?) which may well explain his relatively lethargic performances this season. His body language has not looked comfortable and his reaction to Danny Welbeck’s goal against Blackburn now looks a real give away. He set the goal up and then failed to involve himself in the team celebrations.

Apparently the transfer request went in on Friday. I suspect that had Welbeck or Campbell (or even Billy Whitehurst) been available, he would not have played.

So,why? Kevin Phillips on 5Live put it down to money and the opportunity for Bent to make even more money. That seems reasonable but is there more to it?

Is it because he feels uncomfortable in a basically mono-cultural environment? Birmingham has a much more culturally diverse population and he may feel more at home there.

Is it because he has yet to find his perfect striking partner? He never looked settled with Kenwyne, so off he went to Stoke. He has not gelled with Gyan, so maybe he got the vibes that the Ghanaian was the number one boy up front. Who knows?

His timing is disappointing with a transfer request handed in before the most important game of the season and then made public the day after a bitterly disappointing day for all Sunderland fans. He has definitely gone from hero to zero in the eyes of many.

 Will we miss him? To be brutal, on this years form, not a great deal. He’s a footballer and the vast majority of them come to a club, stay for a couple of years and then move on. A few stay to become legends  – Hurley, Ball, Bennett, Quinn – but it is an ephemeral job and you take from them what you can. We took a bagful of goals and then make a decent profit when he moves on.

 The story on 5Live was that Robbie Keane will be in as soon as Bent goes. He’s a player who has been linked with Sunderland a few times (and with most other Premier League clubs as well) and he could prove a better link up with Gyan than Bent has. Who knows?

 This is a very difficult time for Sunderland fans. The fear is that we will undergo a slide like last year and all the good work done in the first half of the season will be undone. Management, players and fans need to stick together for the next few weeks. A positive response at Blackpool from all is required now.

With M Salut still out of the country, Jeremy Robson is the first to comment on the surprising – and, for many of us, the very disappointing - news of Darren Bent’s transfer request. 

He’s scored thirty odd goals in a season and a half. He has consistently presented himself as a good professional, and has this morning surprised us by asking the club for a transfer. The modern day footballer lies somewhere between a 17th century Pierrot player and a 70s rock star. Despite his goals (for which we are grateful), and the league position which improved considerably, largely due to his strike rate, Darren Bent has never really captured the hearts of the Sunderland faithful in the same way that Messrs Quinn and Phillips did in their pomp, or quite in the same way that Marco Gabbiadini did several years earlier. The Dazzler never really made himself ours. We loved his goals, but the question really remains about whether we really loved him as a player. It’s difficult to love something that isn’t really yours. You might become fond of your next door neighbour’s dog, but he isn’t yours so you will never feel the bond or mutual respect that comes with ownership, and which results from trust, loyalty and a long term relationship. Bent has worn the shirt. He has played well and conducted himself properly and professionally. Sadly you could say the same for your bank manager or accountant or junior school headmaster, provided that you were lucky enough to have a good one.

Comments made to various websites suggest that Darren Bent’s decision to leave is a result of being upstaged in recent times by Danny Welbeck and Asamoah Gyan. How much credibility to give to this view is unclear as Welbeck is now injured and Gyan’s performances have attracted some criticism.  Bent’s performances have been below par for several weeks. It’s difficult to know whether to attribute this dip to a loss of confidence or to the his “head going” to use common managerial parlance. He has fluffed countless chances which he would have buried without thinking just a season ago.

Renowned for his Twittering on everything from Daniel Levy’s intransigence in allowing him to move to Sunderland through to the appalling racist treatment of his mother by a “Sunderland supporter,” Darren appears to be less forthcoming on the reasons for his decision.

Something is clearly amiss. You would think that there would be tears being shed for a player who has scored so reliably and consistently, at least until recently. Perhaps surprisingly, and perhaps not, this doesn’t seem to be the case. Nobody expected Bent to be with us forever, but few probably expected him to want away in this transfer window.  Most of our supporters have already switched their attention to who Steve Bruce will look to as a replacement. That is how modern football is. It’s difficult to imagine the majority of the current breed to be talked about as legends by the fans of any club after they have moved on or retired. The fans quite justifiably have just as tenuous a loyalty to players as the players do to the club badge and shirt. In most cases that’s not very long these days. The badge has always belonged to us. They just borrowed it.

At 13:48, with the clock running down, I sent my Seven winging across the seas to M. Salut in Penang. “Once again found lacking when it mattered” were my words as we huffed and puffed against a side who were threatening to score a second, and take a deserved three points home with them.

For the umpteenth time we pushed forward with effort rather than skill. The ball dropped to Bardsley who whipped in a shot, Harper parried it and Asamoah Gyan poked it over the line to level the scores.

Wild celebrations from those around me; much jumping about and a feeling that we had not only got out of jail, but that we had kidnapped all the Prison Officers, burnt the place down and reformed the entire criminal justice system. The Fat Lady (or middle aged Man in this case) was singing his head off at this one. Games last for 90 minutes!!!

Quite frankly, we were awful. Whatever weaknesses we had seen against Blackpool and Notts. County were magnified 100x in this scrappy, bitty and, for us, ultimately disappointing derby.

Take Gordon, Bardsley and Malbranque out of the equation and not one of our players can sit at home tonight and feel that they had good games. I suppose Onuoha did ok and Ferdinand wasn’t bad, but what about the rest of them? Poor is a flattering description of them.

We had no leadership on the pitch. Nobody took hold of the game for us, nobody did anything that would inspire his team mates to lift themselves and nobody led by example. Look at the goal. Ferdinand had been injured and had just come back on. But who helped him out? Who organised the defence? Who picked up Ameobi and Nolan. Nobody!!!!!! Could you imagine Ball or Hurley allowing that to happen?

Contrast that with Barton and Nolan who chivvied and chipped away and clearly knew what this game was all about. Look at Williamson and Coloccini who took responsibility at the back and snuffed out our £23m strikeforce. Look at Ameobi and Best who caused all kinds of problems for our two central defenders.

Why? Yes, we had injuries. Cattermole and Welbeck were missed. The power of Cattermole and the skill of Welbeck may have given us that little bit extra. But we knew they would be out and in team selection and performance we did nothing to make up for their absence.

The central midfield was terrible. Neither Henderson nor Richardson got into the game. Richardson seemed to spend the game giving the ball away, mistiming tackles or being caught in possession. Henderson looked a player who has had great expectations heaped on his shoulders and is struggling to live up to them. Do we allow them to play their way back into form, or do we make changes?

Titus Bramble showed why some Sunderland fans were concerned about his recruitment in July. He was shaky throughout and rarely looked comfortable against the impressive Ameobi, who won most headers against him in the first half. His distribution seemed to consist of a hoof up field in the general direction of the disappointing Bent and Gyan. The ball was then promptly returned by the opposition so Bramble and Ferdinand could launch it again.

So, where do we go from here? Hopefully Cattermole and Welbeck will be back next week to give us a little more balance in the team. Bruce has some big decisions to make. On the basis of this bitterly disappointing performance, he could leave Henderson, Richardson and Bent out of the team. All three are England internationals and all three had games that they would not wish to linger over for very long.

Newcastle lifted themselves for this game. The old, experienced heads of Nolan and Barton ran the midfield. Barton played the ball of the game for Ameobi to miss, while Nolan treated us all to his chicken dance. I don’t want to see that again. I thought Williamson was their best player – he missed nothing at the back. Apparently he had a stinker against Stevenage last week – which says very little about our forwards.

The window slams shut in two weeks time. We need to import some pace into the team, either through the middle or down the flanks. N’Zogbia is a possibility as is the French player Sessegnon, who seems keen to leave PSG. If Ellis Short says we have to sell in order to buy, so be it. Like KoKo, we could make a little list of those we feel could leave.

As for the morons who ran on at the end and pushed Steve Harper over, words fail me. What on earth do they hope to achieve by such behaviour? All it does is give fuel to those of a black and white persuasion who seek to belittle our club. Leave the pitch invasions to them. Who can ever forget the man jumping on his scarf in the centre circle at SJP after the play off game in 1990?

I know – clutching at straws!!!!

Although the club has not officially confirmed any appointment* Pete Sixsmith muses on the football affiliations of Prime Ministers and almost Prime Ministers, including the best PM we never had

*stand-in editor panics about spreading misinformation while M Salut is swanning around abroad

I am not one for reading the Daily Mail – indeed I would usually reject fish and chips if they came wrapped in it – but my attention was drawn to it this morning while I was trying to persuade the cat to take a pill by stroking its throat, a task that brings hours of entertainment as I comb the kitchen floor trying to find out where he has spat out the damn thing.

The Today programme mentioned that the Mail was running a story about Miliband Major becoming Vice Chairman of Sunderland AFC. I thought about buying a copy on the way to work, but decided against betraying my class and read the story on line.

And for once the Mail seemed to be right. It has a dreadful record – I am sure that all readers are familiar with the Zinoviev Letter of 1924 – and this story was written in the sneering terms that Associated Newspapers reserve for Socialist politicians, who are clearly expected to know their place and doff their (flat) caps to the toffs who, quite rightly in their distorted view, run this country.

They did a mock up of Miliband Major in a Sunderland shirt, but true to form, they used last season’s, a fine example of research by their political staff.  They also had him holding a banana, a reference to a less than flattering photo image from his failed campaign to be leader of the Labour Party.

Our more knowledgeable readers may remember that he lost that to his younger brother ( a man who my colleague at work always likens to Wallace of Wallace and Gromit fame), so Miliband Major  is clearly  on the lookout for extracurricular work away from the jolly old House of Commons.

Prior to this exclusive, I had never heard him utter any great love for SAFC. I suppose being member for South Shields he would represent Mags as well  (although most of them would have enormous difficulty in making something as complicated as a cross on a ballot paper) so it is better to keep your mouth shut rather than make a complete arse of yourself as Blair did when he said that he sat in the Gallowgate End watching Jackie Milburn pass to Hughie Gallacher when he was in short trousers at The Choristers School in Durham.

The Mail says that Miliband Major is an Arsenal fan, which seems reasonable seeing as he was brought up in North London (with a short hiatus in Leeds – Miliband Minor is a Leeds fan – idiot!!). He went to school at Haverstock Comp and he must have been surrounded by Gooners there, maybe even by the wonderful Monty and Rupert, whom the Emirate’s tannoy called upon, on our last visit to Ashburton Grove.

As a result of this appointment, can we now expect to see groups of left leaning North London intellectuals clustering near to the South West Corner in order to follow their guru’s example of finding a proper football club to follow? Will his influence pervade the Durham Branch away coach and lead to conversations on Marxist Theory and Cuban Politics rather than on who has the biggest boobs in the Daily Star?

David is not the first prominent politician to be involved with Sunderland AFC. Sir Anthony Eden, a Tory of the old school, Foreign Secretary under Chamberlain (Neville, not Alex) and Churchill (Winston, not that infuriating bloody dog) and Prime Minister in his own right for a few months in the mid 50’s, was a keen Sunderland fan.

Eden was born at Windlestone Hall, midway between Coundon and Chilton. His family had been coal owners in the past and he was quoted in DR Thorpe’s excellent biography, as saying that he occasionally joined the Durham miners on their pilgrimages to Roker Park in the days after the First World War.

He may well have attended the 1937 FA Cup Final and was apparently reprimanded by those in the Royal Box for singing “You’ll Never Cure That Stammer” at King George VI. In his later days, according to Thorpe, he expressed great delight at the FA Cup win over Leeds United in 1973, although what he would have made over the debacle at the weekend, goodness only knows. It would probably have upset him as much as the Suez Crisis did!!

Politicians and football don’t really go together. I can’t think of many who are real fans, most being like Blair and jumping on the bandwagon. In one of my many conversations with him, I observed that he should become a Sunderland fan as “we had a better team and a better stadium” (this was 2000 when the Mags were rubbish and the full Meccano rebuild was still in progress). “You can never change your football team” said the then P.M “Aye, but you can change your principles and beliefs” came the muttered response from a grizzled veteran of the staff room.

Michael Foot was a loyal supporter of Plymouth Argyle and was even given a squad number in one of their promotion seasons. I have just finished reading Kenneth O Morgan’s superb biography of Foot and there is a great picture of a handful of Foots sitting in the stands watching a game. He even persuaded the local council in Hampstead to rename his street Pilgrims Lane. Top guy!!

Cameron pretends to be a Villa fan, while Clegg has never shown the slightest interest in the game. Coming from Beaconsfield he should be a Wycombe Wanderers fan, but I would imagine he spent his teenage years writing out lists of promises and then tearing them up at the earliest opportunity.

Rumour has it that Thatcher was a closet Grantham Town fan who would lecture fellow Gingerbread’s fans on the terraces at London Road about thrift and never spending more than you earn, until they got fed up of it and set fire to her school uniform.

So, welcome to David Miliband. Here’s hoping that he can get off to a winning start on Sunday and that his tenure as Vice Chairman of the world’s greatest football club is a little more successful than his attempts to be the next Prime Minister of the UK. Do you think he really knows what FTM means?

So, the idea of symmetry with the teaching career goes out of the bloody window at the first stage.

What an absolutely shocking performance our players turned in yesterday. I won’t use the word “team” in this, because we played nothing like one. It was a collection of individuals pretending to be a unified group in red and white stripes, nothing more.

Our opponents, a decent third level team, stuck to their task well. They were organised, efficient and well drilled. This proved to be far too much for the assembled red and white superstars, who played as if they were up against some wonder team from the upper echelons of La Liga rather than a mid table Division One team.

As I drove across an empty Wearmouth Bridge towards an empty Stadium of Light, I heard the line up and thought, “Hmm, one or two will be keen to show the manager and the assembled fans that they are good enough to play regularly. This makes me look forward to an afternoon of high tempo football and lots of goals whizzing past the Pies goalkeeper”.

How wrong could I be? Quite a lot as it happened. Our “squad” players made it clear that the only squad that applied to them was one they should be stood in front of.Riveros did well in the World Cup. To produce such an antithesis to this performance in the FA Cup took some doing. He looked bemused by the pace of the game and the determination of the Notts players not to allow him to do what he wanted. His career as a Sunderland player is surely ending before it has begun.

The same may well apply to Jack Colback, who has made it clear that he is not particularly interested in being at the club. The 55 minutes he lasted were excruciating to watch as he turned backwards at every opportunity and rarely played a ball forward. He must be hoping that Roy Keane gets fixed up as soon as possible so he can join him.

Andy Reid looked as if he has kept the restaurateurs of Sheffield in business during his loan spell there. He had an absolute shocker, being regularly caught in possession and firing in shots from 35 yards into the sparsely populated North Stand; another one who will not be seen in a SAFC shirt again.

Marcos Angeleri gave a wonderfully comic performance at right back, falling over, hoofing the ball in the air like a third rate rugby union fly half; another short Sunderland career for this mega flop.

Any positives to take from this? No.

As for County, they did well but their players must have been talking all the way back down the motorway about how utterly useless, spineless and brainless their Premier League opponents had been.

The mood of doom and gloom at Sixsmith Towers, already exacerbated by news of Shildon’s 2-0 defeat to Coalville Town in the FA Vase, was lifted a little by news from Stevenage and by reports of Neil Warnock likening EL Hadj-Diouf to a sewer rat. Unfair, as sewer rats act the way they do from instinct, while Diouf makes a choice to act as a complete and utter t***.

So, FA Cup out of the way for another season and a derby to look forward to on Sunday, followed by a tough set of fixtures. Meyler, Cattermole, Welbeck, Onuoha, Turner, Mensah and Campbell out and some players from yesterday clearly not good enough to play. It could be an interesting team selection for Messrs Bruce and Black.