Talking Points: Sunderland Seal Six Points Against Our Over-Entitled ‘Auld Enemies’!

Luke O’Nien rides the rollercoaster once again It doesn’t need to be said that O’Nien made a significant mistake in the first ten minutes and that his error led to a really soft chance being offered to Tyneside’s ‘Princess Diana’ — and to be fair to her former Royal Highness, she took the chance very well. O’Nien tried to beat the press with a firm clearance upfield and in trying to put his foot through it, he messed up. The lad knew it straight away and tried his best for the rest of the game to make up for it — and for me he did so, with some very important interventions to keep us in the mix.

He’s been with us during our darkest years, and cocked up yet took it on the chin in post-match interviews. Fair play — and the most important thing is that we learn during this first season back at the top level, and we certainly did so when we got back out for the second stanza. He and Omar Alderete were imperious in the second half, and whilst a 0-2 win would’ve been lovely without that unforced error, to come back from a soft goal made the whole day even sweeter.

An immense second half display from the Lads We did well to get into the changing rooms only one down, with the hosts hitting the post with the goalkeeper beaten later in the first half, but it has to be recognised that the step change in performance between the two halves was like night and day. It was easily seen welcome for all Mackems both in the ground and watching from home that we weren’t having a similar forty five minutes. It was almost symbolic of the battle between good and evil — which in many ways this was a representation of.

A so-called elite team, sponsored by a very wealthy but very questionable ownership had one over on the supposed ‘small club’ from down the road after the first half — yet this supposedly inferior outfit wasn’t willing to sit back and take it any more. Instead, they came out for the second period more hardworking, more determined, more energetic and not willing to give anything less than 100%, which was all the fans expected. We scrapped and battled and showed that we were equal to the so called ‘richest club in the world’, and less than an hour into the tie, Chemsdine Talbi tapped in from close range after a wonder save stopped him from finding the top corner before the half hour mark.