John Smith's PNE Fans' Panel verdict: Unnecessary time wasting cost us dearly
Although we had not lost to play-off candidates Sunderland in our two previous games against them this season at Deepdale, I was expecting a tough game at the Stadium of Light – and hoping that it wouldn’t turn out to be a stadium of fright for the loyal band of travelling fans who had made the midweek journey up to Wearside.
Our three league away wins on the road during this campaign had all come under the lights in midweek, so I was looking towards that omen to try and drum up some pre-match optimism in my mind.
To offset this, though, all these wins had come while playing in our white strip so when I found out that we would be playing in our pale blue kit, it nullified these thoughts as we had failed to record a win in the five league games we had played in it.
While discussing this on the concourse just before kick-off, a friend pointed out to me that there was a first time for everything and for much of this game it looked like he might be right.
After taking the lead around the hour mark with a howitzer of a strike by Emil Riis, we were only pegged back four minutes from time by the home side.
Their equalising goal came shortly after what I thought was some unnecessary time wasting on our part, which seemed to fire up the home fans and their team.
To be honest it was more like watching a pantomime, with all it what was missing was the James song ‘Sit Down’ playing in the background
It was also a part-slapstick comedy moment as three players sat on the floor during various points in the long stoppage, while the Sunderland players tried to pull them up as the home fans hissed and booed.
Until this point it had been far from a case of “Ha’way the lads” for both the home side’s players and fans who, up to then, had put on a lacklustre showing.
I felt that we had no need to waste time or make all the defensive substitutions, as we had not been under any serious pressure in what had been a very competent display which could have resulted in us taking all three points back to Lancashire.
It was disappointing, as I thought we were in control of the game up until the last 10 minutes.
Our very vocal travelling fans deserve a great deal of credit as, even though they were small in numbers, they managed to give their team some great support.
Although I thought that their enthusiastic chant about winning the cup was maybe a little over optimistic, strange things can happen in football – as the statue outside the stadium of Sunderland’s 1973 FA Cup-winning manager Bob Stokoe, which I walked past after the game ended, stands testament to.