Just when we thought we had turned the corner with that fine display at Ashington on Tuesday night I'm afraid it was a case of ' after the lord mayors show' as we reverted to the type of performance that has seen us winless for seven games. We failed to give any service to our wide men which meant that Do was left isolated up front playing against a back four that must have been recruited from the Land of the Giants. Mind you this same back four conceded four goals last week in a home defeat by the previously winless Norton. We would have known that so I expected us to 'have a go' at them straight from the off just like at Ashington but unfortunately that wasn't the case as our midfield failed to keep posession and consequently Danny and Charlo hardly got a touch. We did well to keep them down to just one goal in that first 45 minutes and even managed an injury time equaliser when Do scored with an instinctive strike after being set up by Gilly. Half Time 1 - 1. I hoped and expected us to come out with some confidence in the second half after managing to level the score but within a minute of the restart we were 2 - 1 down after some hesitancy at the back. The second half continued in the same vein as the first although we did get the ball to Danny a couple of times and he skipped past his marker but each time there was not enough of our players in the box to take advantage of his work. Do was still left isolated up front and it wasn't until we were 3 - 1 down ( the third goal was very strange as our players seemed to stand still appealing for a non existent foul and watched as their player calmly lobbed the ball into the net with no-one attempting to stop him ) (that's how it looked to me anyway). Eventually, with maybe ten minutes to go we switched to 4 - 4 -2 by bringing Thommo on to play up front with probably our best midfielder Gilly coming off. The game petered out as they kept the ball and settled for the win that they deserved. Where do we go from here I wonder because in all honesty we never really looked like scoring and with only one up front that will probably continue to be the case. Next up is a must win game against Billy Town who are still without a league win this season and if ever a game can be called a six pointer (whatever that means) then this is it. In my opinion we have to find a way of keeping posession better and we have to play with more than one man up front. Gilly (who has done really well in midfield) was brought to the club as a striker and scored 15 goals in his first 27 games and no doubt Thommo and Bruno are desperate to get back on the scoresheet too but until we get the creative side of the game right then the chances created seem to be few and far between ( Morpeth in the cup being the exception ). I hope this doesn't come across as being too negative as I always try to put an honest assesment of the games I watch and remember this is only my opinion.

Jimmy I watched Billy Town at Darlington yesterday and they played well despite going down 3-2. They really knock the ball around well and the lad up front for them (Owens) is a real handful! They will be no pushovers next week but I think it's early days to talk about six pointers.

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'If God wanted us to play football in the air he'd have put f***ing goals in the sky!'

Cheers for that Mark but you know me and I tell it how it is. We have hardly created any chances in the league games so far this season apart from Ashington away which puts added pressure on the lone striker we seem to be playing with at the moment. We know that there are no easy games in this league and Billy Town beat us twice last year although we should probably have won them both. I know its early days but we need some more points on the board as we've got some real tough fixtures coming up after wednesday night.

I was really hopeful after the first 10 minutes. There was pace and movement from both teams and I thought we were in for a good match up. We didn't really look like scoring though for large periods and their keeper didn't have a whole lot to do. DO took his goal well so fair play to him.

It wasn't easy watching in the 2nd half but Sunderland are a quality team, and their 10 and 11 gave us lots of problems. I was disappointed by the amount of stray passes but that might be from trying to force the game to get back into it. Our central midfield did seem to open up on occasions too leaving Sunderland plenty of room. But we have 2 home games against sides that, realistically, we can beat and fingers crossed by 5pm on Saturday we'll be up to 10 points!

Early days and I think we have a really good and balanced squad of players. With everyone fit and a balanced team the consistency will come I'm sure.

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"I'm not finished when I'm tired, I'm finished when I'm done"