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The Lads were dumped out of the FA Cup after another error strewn defensive performance against Portsmouth. Debt-ridden Portsmouth overturned a Darren Bent strike as John Utaka finished twice to take the bottom of the league team to a victory.
Portsmouth are propping up the Premiership at the moment and are in serious financial disarray but still found it in themselves to dump the Lads out of the FA Cup in the 4th round. The away defeat is Sunderland's fourth consecutive in the cup and comes amidst a difficult time for the club who have forgotten the winning feeling. Darren Bent remains the joint second top scorer in the league and is on course for over 20 goals this season if he can maintain his current form; it's rare a team is relegated with such a prolific striker but defensive woes have seen the team begin to display form very reminiscent of those relegation battles our fans are way too familiar with.
I'm still hopeful that the team will turn it around, steady the ship and finish in a safe midtable but those murmurs of European football next season look to be well and truly ceased; and just as well in my opinion. Our team is barely deep enough to cope with just the Premier League, add in two domestic cups and some European competition and it's highly likely our team would be completely decimated under the pressure of so many competitions.
With the chance to concentrate on just the one competition now, and a win surely just around the corner I'm keeping as positive as possible, but it's beginning to wear thin.
On an unrelated note, safc-fans.com would like to extend best wishes to one-time target to Salvador Cabanas. Cabanas was heavily linked to us all through January and many fans expected and hoped to see him don the red and white stripes soon. Unfortunately Cabanas was the victim of a bar-room shooting in which he sustained a bullet wound to his head, he is in a critical condition in hospital and all staff and members at safc-fans.com would like to wish him the speediest recovery possible.
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