Sunderland carry too much firepower

THE Sunderland bandwagon rolled into town on Wednesday night for the third and final leg of their pre-season tour of Ireland, and as a result Terryland was full to capacity for the first time in seven years since the FAI Cup semi-final loss to Shelbourne in March 2000.An official attendance of 5,001 was clocked going through the turnstiles, both new and old, on Wednesday night, and few can have complaints over value for money with Sunderland giving all their big guns some game time, while there were four goals to be savoured, and 10 minutes of real bite leading up to half time.Niall Quinn the Sunderland chairman stopped to sign autographs for anyone who asked – and there were plenty – before fielding a plethora of calls on his mobile. When he had a window where the mobile wasn’t glued to his ear, he took time to speak to the Galway City Tribune and said that, given the success of the Irish tour, the club was likely to use the model for a similar trip to Scandinavia next year.“It has been absolutely fantastic, we have got a great reception from everyone, were made feel really welcome – to be honest, it is all a bit overwhelming and is something that will stick with you for the rest of your life.Given his very public love of horse racing, the obligatory enquiry as to how he fared at Ballybrit was made, and received a well-known Galway response: “Not a bit of luck, two days racing and not even one placed horse – a typical Galway experience I suppose,” he joked before the phone went off again.The loudest cheer of the night went up as The Presenters (Sinead Kennedy and Simon Deasy), fresh from their eviction from RTE’s Charity You’re A Star took their seats, but a quick glance towards the clubhouse confirmed that the accolades were for the appearance of the Mayfield marvel himself, and not the children’s TV hosts.Roy Keane strode across the pitch, marshalled at a discreet distance by Tommy Shields and Sean Buckley, intermittingly breaking into restrained applause in recognition of the welcome he was receiving.Requests for autographs by the ever growing crowd behind the visitors’ dugout were politely declined — there was the business of a game to be played after all, but not before a minute’s silence was observed in memory of the three people who had lost their lives on Galway’s roads in the past week, and in particular for David Soloman, a Sunderland native living in Galway who was knocked down and killed in Oughterard at the weekend.As for the match, it was great to see Alan Keane back in action at left back for United, and he linked up well with Derek O’Brien, who was United’s busiest performer on the night.But the United bubble……