A good first half performance from us - we pressed them really hard, scored one, and could have had a few more. Delivery into the box was good for a change, but too often there was nobody on the end, or nobody following up when the ball bobbled back out.

On the plus side, Rowlands looked really fired up, which partially made up for the fact that Santos was playing in midfield and being inept as always. Why does Santos get picked every week?

Unfortunately, Rowlands got injured and had to be replaced, and the tide turned. Sturridge came on to replace him, with Gallen dropping back into midfield, which isn’t his best position.

The second half saw a further reorganisation of our formation, with Bircham playing on the right and Gallen in the middle. We looked a bit muddled, Birch lost his man who went on to score, and within a minute of the restart we were back to 1-1. Sturridge then got injured and had to limp out of his home debut, to be replaced by Cureton. Our organisation hadn’t really recovered from the first substitution, and after the second it was just a bit of a mess.

Mick McCarthy also made a couple of good tactical changes, putting on some very large players to test us physically.

Maybe it was that, maybe it was our own tactical muddle after the injuries, or maybe it was simply that we’d been pressing so hard in the first half that we ran out of steam; whatever the reason, Sunderland went on to score again, and we lost all momentum.

In the end, I think that 3-1 flattered them. They scored from pretty much every chance they had. If we’d converted half of ours, we would have beaten them 5-3!

Still, they are top of the table for a reason, and I can’t really complain.

In recent news, an elderly man who has been ill for some time has apparently passed away. Our sympathies go to his friends and family.

Now will everyone please stop talking about it…

I just love The Register.

Nice to be able to be positive for a change.

For the first 70 minutes it was a really good performance. After that a few weird substitutions caused a wobble or two, but it’s hard to knock the team on a day when they could easily have won by six or seven.

Gallen missed a penalty, but made up for it with a couple of good goals.

Rowlands looked positive in central midfield, and I was glad to see Ainsworth given the start he deserved on the right. Lee Cook looked up for it against his old team, and Birch had a bit more steel back again.

Furlong was tireless, and got a deserved goal. When he went off, the crowd sang “36? You’re having a laugh…” which sums it up. He’s neck and neck with Marcus Bignot for my player of the season.

All in all, we looked like we cared, which is something that has been missing for a few matches.

A pretty poor game this, with few chances from either side.

We looked a bit shaky at the back, particularly in the first half, with Edgehill again looking nervous, and Rose making a number of errors - luckily Reading failed to capitalise. I’m glad to hear that we’ve signed a left back this week, as I don’t really understand why we’ve got Edgehill playing there (what’s wrong with Gino?).

I am beginning to sound like a stuck record, but again there was a big hole in midfield. Cook was ok on the left, but Rowlands was anonymous again on the right - I don’t understand why Ainsworth didn’t start as he looked much brighter than Rowlands when he finally came on.

Bircham was better but still not his old self. Santos was like a pinball machine, with the ball pinging off him in random directions. We completely failed to keep possession, and our distribution was poor, which left the front pair pretty damn isolated. We are badly in need of a play maker, and could also do with a backup ‘terrier’ until the real Birch returns.

Ollie obviously read my last post, because shock-horror he made a change reasonably early in the second half. Thorpe, Ainsworth and Cureton arrived in fairly quick succession, and for five minutes or so the sheer energy of these three looked like it might have turned the tide. Unfortunately it soon became apparent that nobody now knew where they were playing - with Santos dropping back into defense, Cureton on the left (I think), Ainsworth on the right, Gallen now in midfield presumably, and Thorpe up front with Furlong.

I wish that Ollie wasn’t so keen to play people out of position - it always seems like a waste to me - making average players look bad, and wasting the talents of good players. It can’t be great for the confidence of someone like Cureton that almost all of the starts he has made for the club haven’t been in his favoured position.

Oh well, I think that the season is probably over in terms of making the playoffs, but it could have been worse on the day, and I’ll take a mid-table finish quite happily since I thought we were going to struggle to stay up.

The summer is going to be very interesting… lots of players out of contract, and one wonders where the hell we’re going to find the money to replace them with equal quality, let alone improve.