David Kelly

His double shuffle was the stuff of legends in the 80's.

One of the best best five or six defenders I've ever seen up here. Miles better than what we've had for a long time. Seemed like a really good bloke too (which is backed up by what the likes of Gazza and Pearson have said about him). Probably should never have taken the permanent managers job after he really did well by virtue of not being Souness, but still left with his head held hight. RIP

To be fair, I think they were saying we have a chance if we get really really lucky. Even then it's next to no chance.

Shambolic batting from us on a shambolic test match pitch. Of course it's up to India if they want to produce a pitch that benefits their strengths, but when Root is taking 5 for 8 you know the picth is not test match quality. Christ knows what it's going to be like for the last test.

Terrible performance so far. Our confidence is completely shot against these spinners.

I'm surprised that someone like Humphrey's gets away with being as balanced as he does. The way the rest of them just stick to the same line it's as if Sky/BT/BBC are all enforcing some sort of part line. Or maybe it's just that all the ex pro's are thick as fuck whereas you have a chance of getting some sense from someone who doesn't arogantly think that because he played professional football he knows so much more than the supporters.

That needs to be 6 points + or we're probably fucked. If Wilson is back by Villa I'll be overjoyed and amazed.

To be fair, just having Wilson missing is a crippling injury list to us.

I watched an episode of somebody feed Phil, and I have to agree with whoever said he's annoying. The show is canny enough, I'm a sucker for food and travel shows, but he's a proper doylem. I'm actually quite surprised anyone has given him the opportunity to present anything. Admittedly this is just going off one episode, Rio, and I'd probably give a few more a chance, but surely there's better qualified presenters out there?

Rohit, Rahane, Kholi, Pant, Ashwin and Foakes have all showed its not impossible to bat on that surface. Of course it's not easy but better application with the bat and better bowling by India has been the massive difference in this match. Winning the toss and playing to the best of our ability (and Root having a blinder) is going to be key for the rest of the series. A few batsmen getting a decent score tomorrow would be great for confidence too.

I've just had a quick look at their Wiki page and it looks like that since they were relegated at the end of the 50's they've spent more than half of the seasons outside the top flight (4 in the 3rd tier). The premier league has always been their temporary stop.

It's got to be Gayle for me, even though I don't think he's good enough he's much more likely to score than Joelinton or Carroll. It's a fucking good job we beat Everton and Southampton or I would be extremely worried now.

Assuming this takeover by Elaine from Seinfelds cousin does go through, and assuming he's willing to spunk a load of money on them like Short did, they still have the problem that they aren't an attractive option for players who are looking for anything but a payday. Most of us are aware that it's not always the easiest to attract players to come here. It's colder than the rest of the country, further away from London than anywhere else, we can't promise the biggest wages and we can't offer challenging for trophies or European football. Even when we could offer those last three we found it harder than teams in London and Manchester. They have the same problems as us but also have a town that offers nothing, fans that have made their players feel intimidated at home, no European history whatsoever and being stuck in league 1. I don't see any immediate prospect of them moving very far upwards at all.

Yeah but they think the Netfilx thing made them look good!

The daft thing is, they fell into that league when Ellis Short owned them. Now you would be hard pushed to call Short a good owner of Sunderland because he put his trust in too many wrong people and made too many knee jerk decisions. But he certainly didn't criminally mismanage them like Ridsdale did with Leeds. Short put his hand in his own pocket time and time again and when he left he did it in a way that tried to help them as much as he could, writing off what they owed him. They just constantly wasted the money he gave them. They are now in their third season in league one and are currently showing very little in the way of signs that stay is coming to an end (with the caveat that they are still not a million miles away from being in the promotion picture points wise). As Fish says, the story was their relegation. Their continuing inability get themselves out of the mess they put themselves in is no more of a story than it was for Leeds while they were down there too. And Leeds had a much greater fall from Champions League semis, League Champions just before the start of the premier league era and being a major force English football in the 60's & 70's. Sunderland have had one cup win in the 70's which was their only success since the 30's. About half the rest of the time they spend out of the top flight and have had, I think, 6 top ten finishes since the 40's. They like to write off our credentials with us only having the Fairs cup since the 50's but we've had 7 top ten finishes this century and 8 seasons in some form of European competition (yes I'm including the Intertoto because hey, it's better the Anglo Italian) so we are known around the world. They simply are no more relevant that Shrewsbury who beat them last night.

The league is delaying it to keep them from getting promoted apparently.

Aye the bairn said it was nice and we tried to go but they were rammed.

I don't think anyone does visit it and that's part of the their problem. You hear opposition fans a lot of times saying that they like playing Sunderland away because it's a great night out in Newcastle. Hardly anyone stays there and goes out and it just makes them all the more parochial to the point when anyone who they don't recognise as one of their own is either made to feel uncomfortable or chased out of town. If they opened themselves up to the rest of the world a bit more they might find that it benefits them.

Aye unfortunately my ex missus is from over there so I went out with the bairn for a walk along the coast at Roker and they've put a bit of money into that area and it really is quite decent most of the way along to South Shields. And actually there is some areas just outside the town centre on south side that quite nice too (before you get up to pennywell or pallion obviously), but the town centre itself is a fucking cesspit.

Don't forget the second hand shops too! It's amazing that non of this is a joke. I've had the misfortune of working there quite a bit and their so called city centre really is a shit hole from start to finish. I'm sure they'd try and point their webbed fingers at parts of Newcastle that are also run down but the main shopping street they have resembles Shields Road in the 80's.

Absolutely fantastic by Jimmy this morning proving he is still the best in any conditions. Well done to Leach as well coming back from a spanking off Pant in the first innings. Great result which should give us the confidence to be competitive in the rest of the series.

I don't think it was ever about it being good for us going down, more just that it was that bad supporting us that it just made no difference what division we were in. Existing in the premier league just for the sake of it and watching us camp out on the edge of our own 18 yard box not trying to attack or even pass to our team was becoming unbearable. Fortunately the last few games we've at least seemed to remember the point of us being in the league is try and win some games.

It made no sense to me to carry on batting those last few overs. What if Anderson, Leach, Archer or Bess had took a knock to the hand and they couldn't bowl. The ten runs or so we got from the last few overs will make no difference but we would have been fucked if we lost one of those bowlers, not to mention the additional few overs bowling could be crucial. I don't get it at all. With all that said, there was 15 wickets today 9 more on a day five pitch should be well within our capabilities.

Always thought it was baffling that we signed him after he was average on loan in the championship.

It's amazing how he got 400+ runs in Sri Lanka sweeping virtually everything and barely swept anything this morning. Hopefully he can keep this form going for the rest of the year!