Quick Kicks: FINALLY, RELEGATION! Pienaar is a waste of time; Anichebe & Defoe's non-partnership

Relegated... finally

I wish that I could say that Saturday's result annoyed me but it honestly didn't.

I've been waiting now since August for relegation to become confirmed and now that it has, I can breathe a much anticipated sigh of relief. As angry as our capitulation this season has made me at times, I'm now at the stage where I want to be able to look forward to the summer. Change is needed and it's coming whether we like it or not, and regardless of how inept our manager clearly is, his current crop of players are no better.

We all knew deep down that relegation was coming to us this weekend and the least that I expected of the Sunderland players was that they had a go at Bournemouth, and to be fair I think that they did for the most part. Regardless, a mix of poor morale and even poorer confidence meant that we just didn't take the chances that we created in the game and it's no surprise to anyone that we managed to balls it up near the end. Bournemouth were very poor and a decent team would have decimated them at a canter - in truth, all the result did was highlight just how bad we have become.

And I fear that it won't get much better next weekend when we take on a Hull side that are very much still within a chance of staying up this season. Their home record since Marco Silva arrived on Humberside is exemplary and their players will be relishing the chance to slaughter us in their quest towards survival.

I don't know about you, but for me the final whistle of the Chelsea game at the end of the season cannot come quick enough.

Pienaar is a waste of time and money

The 45 minutes of football that we saw played by Steven Pienaar this past Saturday is up there with the worst that we have ever seen from a Sunderland player.

I've never seen anyone so far off the pace in my life. He couldn't even run. He repeatedly lost the ball in bad areas and anticipated nothing from his team mates, constantly putting us on the back foot unnecessarily.

He was withdrawn not long after half time in place of George Honeyman, and it was then that we actually started playing some of our best stuff. Honeyman isn't the answer to all of our problems but he at least goes looking for the ball and tries to make things happen - Pienaar just looked like he wished he was anywhere but on the pitch at that moment.

Anichebe and Defoe's 'partnership'

Whilst Victor Anichebe and Jermain Defoe are both very good footballers in their own right, you would think that neither of them had ever played together if you had been a stranger watching Saturday's game.

They were completely out of sync throughout the ninety minutes and struggled to play together. It's something that I picked up on weeks ago - just watch whenever one of the two tries to get a shot away when they're also in a position to pass. They throw their arms up, sulk and moan at one another. It's unhealthy.

I suppose it's just a symptom of our plight - nobody is playing with confidence right now and its always the strikers that feel the strain more than most. Neither man has scored for what seems like an age and it's beginning to show in their body language and mannerisms.