AFTER a spirited performance against Manchester United on Saturday, the mood around Sunderland has lifted slightly.

A WEEK ago today I woke up to three text messages and I immediately assumed all three were April Fool’s jokes.

PAT McEnaney credits his development as arguably the GAA’s top Gaelic Football referee to the lessons learned from what he admits was his poor handling of the 1998 Munster final in Pairc Ui Chaoimh between Cork and Kerry.

LAST YEAR there was an awful inevitability about our games against the top four sides.

WITH talk of Ronaldinho going to Manchester City last week, it’s Sunderland’s turn to look for an audacious summer coup now, with one Ryan Giggs apparently topping Keano’s summer shopping list.

AS far as Christmases go, things could have been a lot merrier at the Stadium of Light.

OUR brilliant travelling supporters go to Anfield this weekend with one hope for Sunderland — that we don’t embarrass ourselves by scoring fewer goals than Havant And Waterlooville managed in their heroic efforts in the Cup.

WE have had England play rugby in Croke Park, Shelbourne once played Gaelic football at Ibrox and now a GAA club in Manchester is set to try its hand at a game of soccer at the home of the English Premiership champions.

I’VE never been a big fan of clichés in football. Just the thought of listening to a lazy commentator trot them out during a match ensures I never opt for following Sunderland on the box, even when it costs €60 to watch us get pulverised at Stamford Bridge.

I SPENT last week living the rock and roll dream. A pal of mine is in a band who were supporting Primal Scream in Belfast, Dublin and Cork. So I booked myself a £1 budget airline ticket, travelled Ireland in a luxury tour bus and hung about as official photographer.

OUR resounding defeat at Wigan looked like being the turning point of our season. Keano reassured us that lessons had been learnt and we’d move on. Great news for Sunderland fans indeed.

Limerick’s hurlers and Kerry’s footballers are exceptional in more ways than one — they throw open their post-match dressing rooms to the media, and it hasn’t impeded their progress so far, says Michael Moynihan .

GARETH SOUTHGATE’S lesson in management continued at the Riverside against Sunderland on Saturday — you don’t ease up in the final few minutes against a Roy Keane side.

IT seems like ages since our last game so Sunday’s trip to West Ham is most welcome. International football isn’t, as a rule, something that really captures the imagination around Wearside.

IT was thought the humiliation at Wigan would kick-start our season, but it appears that hope after Old Trafford has reinstalled belief that we can remain in this division.

SITTING in my padded seat in the away end at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, I allowed myself a daydream with the clock reaching 80 minutes.

WE got an email criticising a story we ran on our website (www.a-love-supreme.com) on Friday suggesting Roy Keane shouldn’t play Kieran Richardson against Liverpool the following day because we’d probably lose anyway.

IT’S been a long time since cup fever hit Wearside, but where the first team is failing, it looks like the kids are alright.

TWO things I never thought I would live to see happening on one day — City fans behaving like old school gents, and the Blues winning at Old Trafford.

WIGAN is a strange little place. I see it as a town that, apart from the Wigan Casino, has never produced anything cool, or interesting.