We need a couple of wiser heads

AT last we’ve perhaps seen the chink in Roy Keane’s armour, the one and only thing that made the difference in Saturday’s defeat against Blackburn. A lack of experienced players.

Dwight Yorke was our only player over 30 to start the game at the Stadium of Light, and we finished the match with only one person on the pitch over 30, sub David Connolly. It might seem harsh to put this result down to a lack of know-how, but older, wiser sides tend to not concede two goals within the space of as many minutes.

That manic minute or so apart, we more than matched Blackburn. In fact, remove that freak, brief period and we were good for a win. It’s frustrating, but something that we can perhaps work on going into the next transfer window. Looking at most of our recent signings it’s clear we’ve gone for youth rather than experience. Roy Keane was part of the infamous United side that “won nothing with kids,” so will know how to bring the best out of our young side.

The gaffer seems able to get the most out of players who struggled the last time they were in the top light with us.

Danny Collins looks good at left back, with Nyron Nosworthy continuing to excel in the centre of defence, but Roy’s being deprived of some pretty essential tools at present. Our only fit left winger is Ross Wallace, and our only right winger, Carlos Edwards, is injured. It’s making our shape look poor, but we’ll have to persevere.

So, with two centre halves playing full back, a central midfielder on the right wing and club captain (and arguably most influential player) Dean Whitehead out injured for the foreseeable future, where do we go from here?

Fortunately the answer is to carry on as we are. I’m a believer in luck evening itself out over the course of the season; we deserved at least a point from the Blackburn game that we didn’t get, but a week ago at the Riverside we came away with an undeserved draw. I didn’t see a great deal on Saturday that alarmed me too much.

It does look like the season may see us flirting with the relegation zone rather than cruising to mid-table obscurity, but if we can attract one or two old heads in January to come in and fortify us we may achieve more. The main aim has to be keeping our heads above the water between now and January so we’re still a reasonable attraction come the window.

The transfer windows are something we’ve started to enjoy at Sunderland. Under the Drumaville consortium we’ve started to bring in players in large numbers, with big fees being paid.

I’ve no doubt that if we’re struggling, we’ll go for it and try to bring in the quality needed to ensure our survival.

One plus point is that we already appear to be working our way around the transfer restrictions. Our buying policy has generally been based around signing British or British-based players, but with Kiki Musampa on trial this week and trying to thrash out a deal, as well as former Newcastle player Laurent Robert having been spotted around the Stadium of Light, things appear to be changing. Niall and Roy’s emphasis on signing the right characters is all well and good, but sometimes you need a mercurial genius to pull you out of a mess and both of the aforementioned players are eligible to join now because they’re out of contract.

Paolo Di Canio is a prime example of someone who might not have been the most focussed player in terms of team ethics, but did more than enough to keep West Ham up on several occasions under Harry Redknapp.

The biggest plus point to take from the weekend was Grant Leadbitter’s late goal. Despite being two goals down we never gave up, fighting to the very last minute. Our habit of battling until the death is paying off in terms of goals, and if it wins us half a dozen points between now and the end of the season then it will be prove priceless. At least we can look on the bright side, it’s an easy trip to the Emirates on Sunday.