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Luke Edwards is Chief Sports Writer of The Journal and uses his blog to give a unique and entertaining insight into events at Newcastle United and Sunderland.

As well as football, Luke also regularly takes a wry look at the biggest sports stories from across the North-East and beyond. From cricket to rugby and basketball to boxing, some are criticised and some are praised.

Sometimes provocative, sometimes laugh-aloud funny, but always interesting Luke Who's Talking also gives you the chance to interact with Luke and have your say on all the major sporting issues.

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Don't Bite The Hand That Feeds You

Posted by Luke on September 24, 2008 12:21 PM | 

A quick reminder to those Sunderland fans who decided it was a good idea to abuse Roy Keane during Sunderland's lacklustre Carling Cup performance against Northampton - dumb idea.

In case you have forgotten Keane has been largely responsible for getting the club back into the Premier League and keeping it there last season. He has raised the club's ambitions again over the summer and he has raised its national profile immeasurably.

He also happens to have just opened talks about extending his contract at the Stadium of Light which expires at the end of the season. If you tell him he resembles penis or a village idiot, and if you tell him to go back to Ireland with a few expletives thrown in for good measure, he could do just that!

Of course, Keane is not free from blame. No manager ever is. He made eight changes to the side which beat Middlesbrough because he felt Northampton should be beaten comfortably by the fringe members of his squad. He has done this before in cup competitions and has paid the price. You would have thought it would be lesson learnt by now.

When you make so many changes and so many players come into the side who are not getting game in the League it tends to tell the players they can take things a little easy as they do not have to be at their best to beat the opposition in front of them.

It shouldn't, but it so often does. Whenever a top flight team takes on one from a lower league there an element of complacency creeps in, hence why we have a thing called upsets! Sunderland are simply not good enough to be complacent at this stage in their evolution.

Anyway, for all of the recriminations on Wearside it should also be pointed out that the Black Cats are in the fourth round of the competition and are enjoying - if that's the right word - their first cup run of note under Keane.

They have played badly at Nottingham Forest and won and they have played badly against Northampton Town and won. So what will happen when they actually play well?

It's far too early to start talking about cup finals and silverware shots - particularly as Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United's reserve teams have also strolled into the next round of the competition - but there is momentum behind Sunderland which is in stark contrast to the dismal situation down the road at Newcastle.

For all of Keane's anger on Tuesday night, even he will know things are not as bad as Sunderland's players and supporters made them look against Northampton.

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Comments (3)

ronnie lambert wrote...

Balderdash!

Posted by: ronnie lambert  | September 25, 2008 2:44 AM

M. Sebastian T. wrote...

Luke, All that happened is that a few idiots blowing off at the mouth last night. That is nothing new.

It should not be assumed that they are actually Sunderland supporters. Probably the idiots are Newcastle fans just warming up for a next visit to SJP.

Tonight's results show that actually Sunderland did no worse than a lot of premier league clubs. Undoubtedly Mark Hughes got some stick tonight!

Keano will undoubtedly realise that there are a few idiots everywhere and sign a new contract.

Posted by: M. Sebastian T.  | September 25, 2008 2:58 AM

Graham wrote...

A sloth has momentum when contrasted to Newcastle

Posted by: Graham  | September 25, 2008 10:19 AM

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