With or without Defoe: Tottenham Hotspur vs SAFC Guess the Score rollover

So, I awoke to an interesting e-mail from my friend Lesley Ciarula Taylor, from the Toronto Star newspaper, which was reporting that Sunderland had signed Jermain Defoe from the Canadian club.

The story had been in that well-known fountain or truth and wisdom, The Sun, and tweeted just before I’d turned in; it was an exciting proposition but no one else seemed to be reporting it and at least one SAFC fan on Twitter was pouring scorn on the source (‘I wouldn’t wipe my a*** with that rag’).

The upshot is that it probably is true, if the early responses from North-eastern media are correct.

And just ahead of the visit to Defoe’s old stamping ground (“ouch,” said Craig Gordon at the memory, though it wasn’t actually a stamp), it is the sort of fillip we needed. Provided,of course, that he can still do the business. The Toronto Star talked of his “rollercoaster” year in the MLS.

And whether or not he is likely to be available on Saturday, it leads us neatly to Guess the Score.

No one around here thought we’d go down to a single goal against Liverpool.

Joan Dawson thought it might be worse, reluctantly going for 0-2 because she wanted a prize mug. A couple of draw predictions aside, the rest clearly could not bring themselves to forecast a defeat.

That means Spurs vs Sunderland is a rollover. Two mugs, not one, await the winner.

Spurs fans can enter, not that posh north Londoners really need a couple of mugs, fine as they are.

A Sunderland supporter winning the prize could expect one of those pictured, with his or her own name as No 12, though our sponsors, Personalised Football Gifts, have been known to select a different design for second mugs. Spurs fans may be reassured to hear a prize going to one of them would reflect their allegiance, not ours (the Personalised Football Gifts range of merchandise is very broad.

The rules don’t change. Be first with the correct scoreline, post it before the match starts and you win. If you are a newcomer to the site, or to posting at it, the system may require your entry to be held for moderation but we’ll know when it was sent and that will be its qualifying time.

A customary Ha’way the Lads is extended to the fine body of men who will represent the great club that is SAFC at White Hart Lane on Saturday afternoon. Everyone will expect Spurs to romp to victory; time for Gus Poyet’s men, with or without Defoe, to say “up with that we will not put”.

Come back later for a Tottenham “Who are You?”. David Sapsted has been here before, goes back a long way as a Spurs fan and has a mischievous sense of humour, as you’d expect from someone who once wrote gags for Spitting Image. He professes to believe, for example, that Gareth Bale is no diver and that’s quite funny.

Sample Q+A

Salut! Sunderland: Thoughts on our lot? Club, fans, city, region and, of course, your old boy Poyet

David Sapsted: As Brighton is one of my “second favourite” teams, I was saddened when Poyet left them as he’d done such a great job there. It seems to me that he badly needs money to spend this month on new players – there again, so do we. I’m a big fan of the “true grit” of Cattermole and think both Johnson and Wickham have a lot to offer, even though they show off their undoubted talents too rarely.

I’ve only ever been to Sunderland once and that was for some bloke’s significant birthday party at the Stadium of Light. From what I remember, I had a great time (I think he means mine – Monsieur Salut).

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