WHEN PLAYING the FA Cup finalists less than four weeks before their big day, there’s only two ways you can beat them. The first is to hope it’s a poor side who had a fluke cup run that’s got them there, like Portsmouth or Cardiff last year. The second is to mix it up a bit, get physical and hope and pray they don’t want to get hurt.

I’M not a big fan of the English football team. Aside from them being a set of arrogant, overrated, underachieving men who represent everything I detest in modern-day football, as a Sunderland fan there’s been little correlation between the two sides that would cause much interest.

FOOTBALL’S a strange old game. It’s only a couple of weeks ago that back-to-back wins against Fulham and Stoke at the Stadium of Light had us all convinced we were safe.

HOW strange, having seemingly gone weeks without a game on a weekend, last Saturday’s clash against Spurs was the only top flight game in England.