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Mal in The Sun

Mal in The Sun
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Welcome to Matchday Banter - ad hoc football musings from the football tortured mind of writer Malcolm Robinson, giving an insight to his feelings and no holds barred opinions on an array of diverse subjects, straying never too far away from his beloved Sunderland AFC.

Feel free to pass comment and join in the Matchday Banter.

Monday 3 May 2010

An end of season sojourn...

Row 26 Seat 273 of the North Stand Upper Tier, the Stadium of Light, should come with it's own health warning. Here I am sat crippled the next day from clambering up dozens of flights of stairs, with a finale of the interior climb to my seat, unbeknown to me one row from the back, quite literally the second highest vantage point in the stadium. The view though incredible, without moving the spectator too far away from the action, allowing the fan to feel a part of the crowd, unlike other stadia I could choose to mention.

The aching back I am suffering the next day can be blamed on leaving the purchase of tickets to the last week of sales and so it is my own fault really, I should by now know better. It was all a far cry from the other week, sat in the front row at Upton Park, which was actually below pitch level and situated half a mile down the road from the corner flag - how on earth clubs can still charge 35 notes for the view of the back of a steward is beyond me.

And yet perhaps the real health and safety warning about the game between Sunderland and Manchester United should have been directed towards the players on the pitch, as both sides huffed and puffed, without carving out too much in way of chances, the home side in particular causing mass frustration with the inability to take advantage of United's off colour performance.

It was an unusual end of season affair, Sunderland followers more accustomed to biting nails and pulling hair, in anxious relegation battles or promotion deciders, always going down to the wire. This time around Steve Bruce's charges find themselves in mid table obscurity - something I would have adhered to at the start of the season and so everyone at the club can consider the 2009/10 season job done. However, we as football fans reserve the right to be fickle and greedy and now the standard is set and the expectations are raised to the loftier heights of Europe, surely this must be the next target now for Sunderland and us deprived ilk?

Sunderland 0 Manchester Utd 1
Nani

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