A rocky horrow show but no final twist this time

I’VE never been a big fan of horror movies. They don’t scare me, haven’t done since I was a child, but they just don’t interest me.

My wife, however, can often be seen watching just such a film through her fingers.

That’s how supporting Sunderland feels at the minute for me.

It’s like car-crash TV, a really cringeworthy moment, or in the wife’s case one of those horror movies.

You want to turn away, you want to leave the room, but you can’t. Instead you are transfixed as it plays out in all its gory detail.

I’d thought a few weeks ago, when I hadn’t come home from a game feeling angry – I’m a very bad loser – or in a huff, that enduring Sunderland this season had stopped hurting.

Where once I would have been shouting to all willing to listen (and even some not willing) about how bad things were, there was just a dull thud of disappointment, an acceptance of our lot as Sunderland fans.

I don’t know if it’s a good thing, but the anger is back.

And I’m angry at David Moyes.

I’ve tried to back the Sunderland boss, argued that he needed to be given time and that it’s not all his fault.

I still stand by the second part.

There are plenty of people to blame for the sorry state the Black Cats find themselves in, and there’s plenty of blame to go around.

Bad signings by the bucket load, manager after manager, mistakes in trying to reinvent themselves and find that new football must-have - an “identity”. I could go on for some time.

You’d think after all I’ve just said I’d be happy that Sunderland have decided to take the Dolly Parton approach and stand by their man this time around. Not really. Stability and the pursuit of stability are too be applauded, but don’t just stick with what you’ve got because that was Plan A.

In my time of watching, supporting and covering Sunderland as a journalist, the Wearsiders rarely seem to have had a Plan B.

Instead they will sit, watch and even anxiously look on as things go from bad to worse before, very late in the day, committing themselves to a last throw of the dice.

In the past few years, those last-minute dice throws have come out in our favour.

But rather than make the most of our luck and get it right next time, we have continued to let situations escalate before reaching once more for those lucky dice.

Well the luck appears to have run out. Put “Slapgate” aside (it would take a column all of its own to even get into those murky waters), Moyes has in my opinioncomeup short. His statement so short into his tenure about Sunderland being relegation candidates has been proved true. And while, he was dealt a poor hand in my opinion, he hasn’t helped himself.

Statements about leaving players out for Britishness or stature are just nonsense.

Whether Moyes still has the players is open to debate, but by and large, I think it’s fair to say he’s lost the fans.

The Championship beckons, but will it be a brave new dawn or just more rubbish, different division?