Roker Rover

OK would you swap for our 6 top flight titles and our 2 FA Cups and our 40,000+ average crowds despite being in a city smaller than Southampton? Not being funny but isn't football supposed to be about trying to win things? You have had a good season (but its just that, ONE good season, in fact its not even a full good season yet) Its no reason to get carried away and assume you've cracked it because the premier league can come back and bite you on the arse. You are not one of the bullet proof elite and your club like mine will inevitably find itself back in the Championship sooner or later. Our form since the first 8 games under the fruit loop when we collected 1 point and the players were not even talking to the coaching staff and manager, is actually every bit as good as yours. That period may well still do for us, but at least we are giving it a bloody good go and we have had some great moments along the way. A double v Newcastle for the first time since 1966, a home win v Man City, knocking Chelsea and Man Utd out of the league cup and securing our first Wembley trip for 16 years. Now we find ourselves with a real chance of making the next wait for a Wembley trip a mere 5 weeks!! Its been a brilliant season and I am loving every bit of it. And you know what? If we go down, football does not die. Some of my best moments in football have been outside the premier league which for the most part is tedious beyond belief for supporters of clubs like ours. Our last 6 seasons in the championship have seen us finish 1st, 1st, 3rd, 1st, 3rd, and 1st and they have all been cracking good entertainment. I would argue we are the most successful second tier side in English football history given that we have won the second tier title 5 times been runners up twice and also won the FA Cup from the second division. I know your lot also won the cup from the second division but we can still trump you as we made a second final from there as well. I don't think anyone else has got to two FA Cup finals from outside the top flight.

Middlesbrough are probably historically a bigger club than Southampton and have only ever won one league cup. They have 60 top flight season to your 37. My club Sunderland has 83 and that includes a 57 season unbroken run from entering the league in 1890. We have 6 top flight titles and 2 FA Cups but have not troubled the engravers since 1973 and have not even been into Europe since then. I know a lot about under performing football clubs.

I fully understand your frustration and spoke to some of your fans in the pubs before and after the game who were livid at the team selection, but I should also point out that we made 9 changes and arguably fielded an even weaker side than you did. We also made a lot of changes in the League Cup tie but everyone (including the media) seem to be concentrating on why Southampton 'gifted' us the games. Not being funny but from where I am sitting, it looks the other way round but for the second time this season, your lot refused to take the gift. As I said to one of your fans pre match 'may the best weakened team win'. I am actually still annoyed at Poyet and his pre and post match comments about the league being more important don't help. The League and Cup are two distinct separate competitions and good or bad performances and results in one actually have next to no influence on the other and the sooner people wake up to this the better. Newcastle 'rested' players in their FA Cup 3rd round tie at home to Cardiff and these 'rested' players have since gone a shocking run in the league. That went well didn't it? We have 15 games to fit in till the end of the season in just over 12 weeks. That's not fixture congestion in my book, it just a couple more games than some other teams have. Hopefully we can add two more to that list and one of those extending the season by a week.

Had the pleasure to meet up with a couple of your fans in Jamesons spoons before the match, they had been up north for the week and taken in the Hull match as well, also met up with them briefly after the game in the Lambton Worm, and they were gutted at your team selection. Proper fans who have traveled an awful long way to watch your team and I have to say, I agree with them 100%. We may have gone through, but I was gutted we risked it by playing a weakened side. We had no midweek game last week and none next week, so why would we wan't to 'rest' anybody? Why you would want to is totally beyond me. Your fans were a credit to your club (no more than I have come to expect from your lot mind, good club and proper fans). As I said to one of your fans before leaving the pub pe game, may the best weakened team win!!

I see your'e fans don't seem to like West Ham very much. I like that as don't like them either. Club that has never won the league yet think they are better than others. I don't mind a bit of arrogance from the likes of Arsenal fans or Everton fans as their clubs history probably warrants it, but when I get told by a West Ham fan that I support a 'small' club, then I get annoyed and its happened more than once to me. I used to live in London and the Hammers fans are so full of themselves its rediculous. 3 FA Cups to our 2 and no league championships to our 6. Aye reeto...

Over the last 16 games its been better than yours;). Think of it as a blip if you like but we are playing some very good football. Not out of it and we do have some tough games but two months ago we were dead and buried. We have Hull at home next up and that's a huge game for us as the few games after that are tough. If I had to put a bet on now my three for the drop would be Fulham, Palace and Cardiff, but as others have said, anyone in the bottom half could go and it could easily be us.

On a Southampton forum? Really? Oh the ironing!!

I take you point about us having a bit of luck. You are right and believe me, most of it has been bad. We had a perfectly good goal disallowed v Arsenal that was brought back for a free kick to US. We had the Bardsley sending off at Stoke that killed the game stone dead and every pundit going condemned that decision and it was overturned. Does not bring the points back though. That's just two examples. In the game v your lot both teams scored twice, you dominated throughout but you failed to score a third. That's football sometimes. Fulham at home first day of the season was the same for us. At least you got a point.

The fixtures will even themselves out at some point, usually after 38 games;). Our first 8 home matches were, Fulham, Arsenal, Liverpool, Man Utd, Newcastle, Man City, Chelsea and Spurs. We lost the Fulham game despite totally dominating and them only having one touch in our 18 yard box in the entire game. That's football. We still have 6 of the other 8 sides in the bottom 9 to play at home. Like I say its been a weird season and the fixtures have just mad it seem more so. I assume your lot will now be taking this pot seriously unlike the league cup? What do you think about fielding the side you did at our place in the league cup? I would have been livid to be honest. I think every cup game should be taken seriously. I hate it when we mess about, we are not bloody Man Utd or Chelsea and the cups are the only thing we have a chance in.

First off, can I just say what a joke it is that our game has been moved to an early kick off. Its a mild irritation to me but it must be a right pain for your travelling fans and once again the TV companies show their complete and utter distain for the people who do the most to create the atmosphere they love to bang on about. i.e. the away fans. Anyway, I registered here on Sunday to have a chat about the cup match but its taken your mods a day or two to release my account. Re the game, I can understand that you lot will be optimistic for this match and the draw has opened up for everybody after 4 of the 5 best sides got drawn against each other, but I do feel I need to point out that Sunderland are not quite as bad as the table may suggest at the moment. We started the season under that complete and utter fruit loop of a manager and got 1 point from the first 8 games (you may remember that;)). Saints had 15 points after those 8 games. Since then it is like this; Sunderland Played 15 Pts 20 Saints Played 15 Pts 17 9 of your points in those first 8 games came in home games v Palace, West Ham and Swansea. We still have all those home games to come. Poyet is slowly sorting us out and we have lost 1 in 8 in the premier league and 2 in 13 all in (one of those loses was the second leg at Old Trafford and we won anyway on pens). At the end of the day, you have not beaten us since you got back up in 5 attempts, we are on the better form and we are at home, so I think we also have cause to be optimistic. You are good to watch and in all probability should have beaten us the other week, you may have beaten us in the league cup but decided you had bigger priorities and I will be eternally grateful for that given what's happened since. You are a good club with good fans (was down for the game just before last Christmas stayed over and had a great time) and if you beat us I wish you well, but this is by no means the easy tie some of your posters seem to think it might be. We have had a weird season and you need to look at the bigger picture with us. Anyway if any of your lads are coming up then pretty much all the pubs in Sunderland are away fan friendly and I hope you enjoy your trip and may the best team win.