Liddle watch....

The Sunday Times columnist Rod Liddle was back this morning with his weekly dose of acerbic opinion that is capable of destroying most reason and fact.

His first target was Titus Bramble…..given the serious allegations under review one could argue that he was indeed, fair game….but truthfully I would rather the authorities determined his future than leaving it to the blind judgement of Liddle.

Rod’s analysis of Titus included, ''I said talented but in truth I cannot remember watching Titus Bramble play a game of football and not wondering if I’d tuned in by mistake to the Paralympics. I have never seen a top division defender make so many wrong decisions so often……….''

Rod I guess your digital scanning error referred to Beijing 2008 where Ukraine beat Russia in the men’s 7-a-side tournament and Brazil overcame China to win the gold medal in the men’s 5-a-side competition.

And I’m surprised your researchers didn’t advise you that the 7-a-side event was for athletes with a C5 through to C8 classification….difficulties when running and walking. A shift in the central equilibrium of these athletes invariably leads to…..a wrong decision…oops, I’ve passed the ball to the Ukraine by mistake…….or a loss of balance?

But then perhaps you were referring to the 5-a-side competition which was classified as a B1 event….for blind athletes…..

Now my experience of visually impaired athletes is that their decision making is always spot on……Rod, try walking to your ‘local’ blindfolded. And please let me know how you get on.

And I couldn’t let you go without pointing out that it isn’t quite true to say that ''in the past 40 years they (Sunderland) have become one of those agreeable yo-yo clubs, migrating between the top two tiers with cheerful abandon.''

Of course it would have been true to say, ‘for most of the past 40 years…..’.

How could you forget the one season in 120 years when they were forced to play with the trapdoor to the basement just 46 games away. And what a great fixture list they had that year..... Mansfield, York, Walsall, Grimsby and not forgetting their first visit to the Recreation Ground, Aldershot.

Sunderland were far too good for Division 3 (L1) in 1987/8, winning the title at a canter. In fact they only lost five times ‘on the road’……….

Aldershot 3v2 Sunderland, 27th February 1988.