Recently by Mark Ridsdale

The transfer window is now officially closed. We can now all go back to doing our jobs without the added distraction of looking at skysports.com every five minutes.

We will no longer receive any text messages from mates who think they are 'in the know', saying that we are signing players like Crespo and Van Nistelrooy. In fact the next few months are going to be boring.... GET THE WINDOW OPEN AGAIN!!!!!

Ok, so it wasn't as straight foreword as I thought it would be, but it never is when Sunderland are concerned! After beating Spurs at WHL and grinding out a result agains a stubborn Forest side, we were brought back down to earth with a 3 - 0 home defeat at the hands of Man City.

I was over the moon to hear Malbranque and Richardson were in the starting eleven and thought we would have a real go at Man City. Unfortunately, we never got going.

ROY Keane's first ever cup win as a manager came at a cost with several key players leaving the City Ground with injuries on Wednesday night. Steed Malbranque's twisted ankle is not expected to recover in time for the visit of Manchester City on Sunday, while Richardson, Cisse and Healy are all doubts.

New boy Anton Ferdinand is not expected to make his debut until the after the international break because of hamstring problems sustained whilst at 'Wist Am'.

SO it was the Liverpool fans who went away happy on Saturday night singing the annoyingly catchy Fernando Torres song.

I'm not taking anything away from his cracking strike, but surely every defender knows that when you back away from a striker of Torres's class, the balls only going to end up in one place. And that's exactly what happened.

The Noz and Collins were excellent all day but were at fault for the goal. Gordon stood little chance.

At last, the footy season is upon us. It's been the longest three months of my life. A European Championship without England (thanks to Mr. McClaren, or should that be Steve van der Claren) and hardly any beer garden weather has made Summer 2008 a one to forget.

So it's that time of the year again, pre season. A chance to see your new signings in action, or for many, myself included, a chance of a weekend on the drink, and thanks to the rain and the in capabilities of the River Tolka's flood defences, that's all it was.

The weekend started off well, the flight over was relatively pain free, and the accommodation, although a hostel with bunk beds (not a good idea when drunk), was perfectly situated on the banks of the Liffey.