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Mackem Logic

Here we go for a bit of a controversial one, with some thoughts on Mackem Logic.

Now, you have to appreciate that, for my sins, I was born in Sunderland.  However, I know that there's not very much Mackem Logic has got through to me, especially with being Black & White through and through. Thanks to the girls doing various SAFC Foundation Family Learning courses at school this year, I've had the pleasure of free tickets to the Stadium of Light three times so far this season.  On all three trips I've noticed some really strange things, but today's trip was a priceless classic, but some of the behaviour has been repeated on all three visits.  This is a good feat for them as we've sat in three different areas of the ground on all of the visits - we've been in the East Stand, North Stand and today, in the North West Corner which was nice as it was very close to the away fans, so we got a little bit of atmosphere.

So, today, the crew from Lumley where pretty much sat together towards the back of the North West Corner but we had a group of five blokes sat in front of us.  Typically, they turned up just after ten past three and then eventually decided who was going to sit where and then started on tearing their team apart.  It was amusing really as they thought that most of the team wasn't good enough and that Marty shouldn't have picked them - N'Diaye couldn't pass and had no pace (eh ?), Colback is too negative (probably reasonably fair), There's no movement up front (a bit hard on Fletcher when they only ever play one up front), O' Shea is too slow (a former Man Utd player) and Titus was just shite (probably fair enough !).  The general moaning continued during the first half and the group were wishing that they would "do something useful and the fans would get behind them" - eh, surely you back your team whatever's going on, especially when there's no goals in the game.  With a good ten minutes to go until half time they we're off, presumably the call of the beer or the pies was just too good for them.

Arsenal score - wahey !

The second half starts and Sunderland are a bit more positive than they were in the first half, but the "gang of five" didn't see it as they strolled back to their seats after about ten minutes of the second half.  Presumably they had had some drink as they were a bit more lively than they were in the first half and started balling and shouting at their team.  They then started having a pop at the away fans who we're fairly close by.  One of them then jumped up and started shouting "Worst support we've ever seen" - eh - you've missed about 20 minutes of the first half and ten minutes so far of the second half, plus the Arsenal fans have been behind their team all through the game.

Then Arsenal go down to ten men and it's a bit of a backs to the wall thing for the away team who were defending the end we were sat in.  It was quite exciting stuff as Sunderland did have a few chances and it was all to play for.  However, with a good ten minutes to go, with their team 1-0 down and attacking to get a equaliser, they're off - clearly the call of the beer or avoiding the traffic was just too much for them.  They weren't alone though as lot's of them disappeared before it even got to 90 minutes, let alone four minutes of injury time.  We were enjoying the game and despite being as Black & White as they come and having free tickets, we stayed until the end and applauded both teams off as it had been an entertaining game.

So, back to Mackem Logic as it seems that missing large parts of the game and moaning about your team when you are there is pretty much the standard it seems from my three trips to the Stadium of Light.  The good bit is that there's another trip to be had at some stage towards the end of the season and let's see if it continues.

The good news was the result today though as Arsenal won 1-0, but the Mackem's have won the last twice we've been (and 3-0 both times), so it was nice for usual service to resume today !

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