EFL Trophy
Tuesday 12th November 2019
If Sunderland's players end up having to do laps of the training ground as a punishment for this defeat, they deserve it and they only have themselves to blame.
Sometimes, it's easy to go over the top or get carried away, but this was an absolutely abysmal performance from start to finish!
New boss Phil Parkinson, no doubt keen to impress the same supporters who 'hounded out' his predecessor at the Stadium of Light, named close to a full-strength team for this EFL Trophy tie - knowing a win would see his side into the knockout stages.
Sometimes in this competition it's about who really wants it most and on the evidence presented, the Black Cats' players didn't want it whatsoever so they deserve to be read the riot act.
It was horrendous from their perspective; turgid, desperate, dire - and some of their 'big names' who've played in the Premier League, etc, just didn't fancy it on this freezing cold night at a relatively nondescript venue with a poor attendance.
Scunthorpe, who also fielded a strong side, had more spells of possession, created more and ultimately deserved the win. It's impossible for anyone to argue with that. Their players rolled their sleeves up a bit, grafted a bit and were prepared to work - that's why they won and it was everything which Sunderland (as favourites) should have done, but didn't do!
Initially, my plan for tonight was to head to Valley Parade to watch Bradford City versus Rochdale, but excessive 'peak time' rail fares with Northern; the UK's worst rail company where inefficiency, pure greed and crap customer service is prevalent, put paid to that idea.
Therefore, the back up plan of Scunthorpe versus Sunderland was put into action.
There were times during the first 45 minutes where I seriously considered why I'd bothered going to this game, or whether I'd even watch a football game again - it was depressingly bad, awful, bloody cold, there was no atmosphere, nothing to get excited about and utterly miserable.
On the pitch, Scunny pressed and lurked, created a few openings though they didn't have the cutting-edge or ability to turn that into goals, whilst Sunderland had one or two chances but offered little else and didn't stamp an authority on things.
The Iron also began the second half on the front foot and, now attacking towards their own fans, those on the terracing behind the goal responded with some chants and decent effort in trying to create an atmosphere to liven things up.
They were rewarded with more pressure from their idols, though there was no real 'rip the defence open' moves until Abo Eisa got in-behind on 66 minutes and was subsequently brought down by 'last man' Luke O'Nien, just inside the box, which resulted in a red card.
Lee Novak smashed the resulting spot-kick past the Sunderland 'keeper (who'd had a go at a cheeky ball boy for kicking the ball away earlier on) and Scunny had a deserved lead with a quarter of the game left to play.
It didn't get any better in terms of quality and it wasn't long before I made my own early exit - along with quite a few others who weren't best pleased with what they'd witnessed.
After my departure, Eisa and Novak added second and third goals, respectively, in the dying minutes to give Scunthorpe a 3-0 victory - a result which looks emphatic on paper and means the indignity, disgrace and bewilderment will be felt even more by those in Sunderland.
It might also prove to be a blessing in disguise for Parkinson. It's still quite early in his reign and he won't get any idiots wanting him to be sacked because they've been knocked out of this competition. The one lesson he can learn from this game was that the players he put out performed like a bunch of characterless tw*ts - seemingly not prepared to roll their sleeves up and do any work!
Some folk might say 'the red card changed the game' but it's a feeble, weak and rubbish excuse - not acceptable or reasonable. In the 65 minutes prior to the penalty/red card incident, the same group of Sunderland players didn't do anything to warrant earning a win.
Unless something changes quite quickly, I doubt Sunderland will bother the automatic promotion race in League One this season. They've got the stereotypical big stadium, support, expectation and fanfare rubbish which comes with being a 'big club' but they've got some gutless, heartless players who won't graft in tough environments.
If they play anything like this in their FA Cup replay at Gillingham next week, they'll be doing some more laps of the training ground in the aftermath.
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