We were a disgrace — but so is the Cup

ROY Keane admitted after Saturday’s FA Cup loss to Wigan that a supporter told him he should be ashamed of the performance his team offered up.

If that’s all that was said, he wasn’t the most disappointed fan in the ground by a long stretch.

Whilst arguments rumble on about the importance of the FA Cup, the worrying fact is that we played an almost full strength side against a relegation rival. I never thought I’d agreed with a bling Premier League player like Rio Ferdinand, but even he has come out and said he can’t understand how a team could not want to win, saying “It is just a natural winning mentality to want to go out and win every game you play.”

He’s right. Quite simply, for 90 minutes on Saturday we switched off. Playing in front of a half empty stadium can’t have helped, but it’s a chicken and egg scenario; unless clubs prove they give a toss about the competition, then fans won’t turn out to watch them. We’re not asking to be entertained, we just want to see 11 players looking like they care. Roy Keane described the atmosphere as “strange” and “flat”.

The same accusation could be levelled at our players.

Even Steve Bruce had a dig at our stadium being half empty, although with nearly 21,000 in the Stadium of Light, that’s still comfortably more than Wigan’s average Premier League crowd (18,000) this season, and only a few thousand off their highest attendance this term. In all fairness to the fat ugly Geordie, it did feel more like a meaningless league cup fixture, rather than the self-proclaimed most famous competition in football. Even the Latics supporters couldn’t give a toss, with only around a hundred making the journey despite free travel for their fans.

It’s a damming indictment of just how unattractive a fixture this was that the FA used it to promote their ‘kids for a quid’ day. Was the ground overrun with youngsters, naively chanting about us being the best club in the land in their high pitched voices? Was it hell. It was a rare occasion where the children had more sense than the grownups and spent their money elsewhere. Even the chance to watch two Premier League teams for a pound was scoffed at by the youth of both Lancashire and Wearside.

The club also failed to reward the hardcore of fans who did turn out, by closing half the catering kiosks around the ground. Financially it made sense, but when I was still queuing for a Bovril and a crap pie five minutes into the second half, I wasn’t thinking about how much Drumaville will have saved. The whole day had the feel that nobody — players, club or fans — could really care less about it.

To be honest I’m not that bothered how the issue of restoring pride to the FA Cup is resolved. It’s a competition that we seem to have underestimated in recent years, having gone out to teams like Preston, Brentford, Millwall and Watford since 2003. Maybe the TV companies could look at their coverage for a start. The only match that had genuine giant-killing potential was Chasetown versus Cardiff, which wasn’t shown live anywhere. In comparison, Aston Villa vs Manchester United was boring and Newcastle’s defensive frailties were the only thing that made their tie against Stoke entertaining.

Johnny Evans’ return to the line-up at the Stadium of Light was nice to see. He looked class in his loan spell here last season and apart from a dodgy half hour in the second half where he gifted Reading a goal via Paul McShane, his performance suggested he could be an asset again. However, he needs to be followed up with three or four more newbies for us to be optimistic about the visit of Portsmouth this weekend.

Keane said it best when he summed the whole afternoon up: “The fans have been fantastic to me, they’re intelligent and for them to say this was a disgrace, well they’re spot on.” This wasn’t good enough and never will be. If we can’t match teams for ability, we should never be lacking in effort.

Unfortunately for us, we now have to concentrate on the league. Don’t let us down, Roy.