Mar
2011

Great stadium, great day out

Day 13 of 365! Son and I went to The Emirates to watch Arsenal v Sunderland. From a Sunderland point of view this was a great game which ended as a 0-0 draw 🙂

Taken with an iPhone 4 using ProHDR and edited using Camera+

Great stadium, great day out

Sep
2010

Is 3 better than 2?

Since the original Apple iPhone came out back in 2007 I have always been with O2.

Having signed up for a 18 Month contract with the Original iPhone I was over the moon with O2 when they allowed me to upgrade to the iPhone 3G when it was released by Apple and duly purchased the iPhone 3G and more recently the awesome iPhone 4. In the beginning every thing was fine, 3G internet access, calls, text everything worked perfectly.

However, things started to go wrong last year with O2. Their 3G network was terrible for internet access whenever I was at the football. What I could not understand was why one season it was ok and the next it wasn’t  so blamed it on a combination of the Stadium of Light and O2! After asking my followers on twitter who they were using and their experiences I discovered a bit of a pattern :

O2 – Woeful once at the Stadium
Orange – Not as bad but does fail
Vodafone – As Orange
Three – No feedback
T Mobile – No feedback

So I guess that there were simply too many people in one location for the mobile operators to cope with.

Recently on twitter a couple of people had mentioned a Three MiFi and how they use it as an alternative connection to O2 as they could get a better connection whilst on the road or wanted an internet connection for their iPad whilst out of range of a WiFi network.

As I have not been happy with O2 for sometime due to their connectivity problems I decided to purchase a PAYG MiFi from Three in order to trial the Three network and see what it’s like compared to O2. After checking the pricing I opted to buy a MiFi with 3Gb data which lasts 3 months on PAYG, and costs £69.99, so that I can “trial” the Three network and see what it is like. I also used topcashback.co.uk (referral link) to get £12.00 off the cost.

MiFi

For those which don’t know what a MiFi is it’s basically a 3G dongle with built in WiFI, this clever little device allows up to 5!! devices to share a 3G connection on the Three mobile network. You can either get the MiFi on a 12 month contract or on a PAYG basis.

As you can see from the information above the MiFi on Three is MUCH better than O2’s network on my iPhone. I suspect that the O2 network simply cannot cope with the the massive increase in smart phones, be it Apple iPhone’s, Andriod driven phones or even those strange Windows driven things 😉

So far in my testing the Three network seems far superior to O2’s and once my contract expires in June 2011 I will be migrating to Three with my next iPhone!

Aug
2009

6 out of 9

Sunderland CrestYesterdays important win over Blackburn means 6 points out of 9.

Cana, Cattermole once again impressed me immensely. Then again, we do tend to like footballers willing to “get in” there and make some hard tackles and that was that these two did. Something we have been missing for a long time.

We struggled terribly with the height of the Blackburn players though, the number of corners and long throws they had throughout the game were, for the majority of the time, troublesome to say the least.

Kenwyne’s first goal was well taken with an excellent assist by Steed and I reckon a smaller player would probably not have managed to get the ball and his second was a powerful header by a great cross by Cattermole 😀

It was quite a messy win and a fortunate one, but at the end of the day it’s all about the points on the board.

Aug
2009

It started with a win……

Sunderland’s first away game of the 2009/2010 Premier League campaign started with a 1-0 win over Bolton.

My son and I set off for the relevant straight forward journey down to Bolton. What could be easier, A1 -> M1 -> M62 -> M60 -> M61. However, driving along the M1 warning signs were flashing stating that the M61 was closed Northbound between junctions 6 – 8. We stopped at the services for a loo break, picnic and decide what we should do.

After studying the maps I elected to stay on the Motorways and see when the traffic started to mount up and make a further decision then. I always set off with plenty of time but was quite concerned if we would get there on time. To be honest it was not that bad. Traffic was tailed back to Junction 5 of the M61, so a quick tap on the Avoid Roadblock button on FatTom (My TomTom Go 910) and off we went at junction 5 in a loop around to where I had decided to park. Managed to get to the stadium just after 2pm.

Bolton Stadium

We, the boy and I have rarely seen Sunderland win away from home. We spent a fortune last season going to quite a few away games and never saw them win! 🙁 Still, I was excited by the prospect of what the new signings would bring. Cana, Cattermole and Bent were all in the starting line up so I was hopeful of a decent performance.

First half we started fantastically. Within 5 minutes, Darren Bent scored with a cracking header on his debut and within 20-30 mins we should of had the game dead and buried and on top with a 3-0 cushion. Bolton did not seem to have any ideas whatsoever. Second half however, Bolton were well back in the game and I admit was starting to worry that Sunderland would revert back to trying to hold on the slim 1-0 scoreline.

Although Bolton did not really look like scoring for the majority of the game they could of grabbed an equaliser at the end of the first half and at the end of the game. Fulop made some outstanding saves to keep a clean sheet and to record Sunderland’s first away win in a long time.

Cana, Cattermole and Bent all had great debut’s. Cattermole was outstanding in my opinion and was definitely MoM! Steve Bruce has made some fantastic signings and I really can’t wait to see how the season will pan out.