A Newcastle fan has tricked Sunderland players Jozy Altidore and El-Hadji Ba into holding up SMB signs and posing for photos.
Unaware as to what obscure reference the signs made, former France Under-18 international Ba and summer signing Altidore happily stood in front of the mischievous Newcastle supporter’s camera.
Amongst the Sunderland faithful SMB stands for, the rather rude, Sad Mackem B*stards.
Matthews spotted both players on the street before Sunderland’s game against Liverpool on Sunday and convinced them to hold up the signs before posting them on Twitter. When the players asked what the SMB stood for, Matthews told them that it was a Sunderland supporters’ group.
Prankster Kyle Matthews posted the images on Twitter:
@NUFCTheMag Think Altidore likes my sign? #smb #nufc #safc pic.twitter.com/ooM1qaw4Rb
— kyle matthews (@kylematthews12) September 29, 2013
@NUFCTheMag and another thick #smb #nufc pic.twitter.com/dzc95ZILPa
— kyle matthews (@kylematthews12) September 29, 2013
Matthews came in for a bit of stick regarding the incident, naturally, but sought to defend himself against his critics:
@NUFCstreams I'm not acting hard at all, I'm far from it, it's a laugh and thats all, lighten up
— kyle matthews (@kylematthews12) September 30, 2013
@JHallSAFC @JozyAltidore out of my way, was hardly an inconvenience writing on a bit paper that was in my glovebox, they bumped into me!
— kyle matthews (@kylematthews12) September 30, 2013