Jake’s AlesWhat a difference a day makes
On Saturday, with Monsieur Salut grappling with the aftermath of a house flooded – twice – by an overflowing water tank and the wait for Martin Bates’s post-Toronto report growing ever longer, nothing new was posted to Salut Sunderland.
Saturdays in close season are often slow but this one came to a virtual standstill, just 202 visits to the site all day.
Then came Sunday. M Salut was still unavailable and our deputy editor, Malcolm Dawson, half thought of digging through the archives for another suitable contender for the Summer Madness series (our equivalent of TV repeats).
He did not have to. Pete Sixsmith popped up from Kirkudbright and, just when we’d become resigned to seeing no further words and pictures from Toronto, in came plenty more not only from our old mate Bill Taylor, who grew up close to the Bishop Toronto but is long embedded in its slightly grander Canadian cousin, but also Martin, complete in his case with abject apologies for the delay.
And the result was a whopping 4,200 “hits” – exceptional for Salut! Sunderland on any day of the week, any time of the year – and a league table of most-read SAFC-related articles, as compiled by newsnow.co.uk, that started like that at 8am on Monday morning:
1 Taylor Made on Sunderland in Toronto: a worrying postscript with Leicester looming … Salut! Sunderland
2 Swansea target Fletcher, Spurs swoop for Newcastle-linked striker and clubs eye Liverpool… Shields Gazette
3 Sunderland AFC pre-season: Five positions yet to be cemented with two friendlies… Chronicle Live
4 Sunderland Magic Moments: Van Aanholt makes his mark for Black Cats … Chronicle Live
5 Swansea Showing Interest in Tottenham & Sunderland Strikers? … SwansFC
6 Transfer talk – Swansea interested in £4m move for Sunderland frontman …Sunderland Echo
7 Sunderland making moves to bring in new striker … Sunderland Echo
8 Sixer’s travels: cross border incursion – Mackems in Kirkudbright … Salut! Sunderland
9 Premier League 2015/16 preview: Sunderland have bought well but home form crucial to survival … The National
10 Sunderland’s title target The FA — Official Site
11 Sunderland out West: the sweetest hangover I just can’t get over … Salut! Sunderland
So mighty thanks to all three contributors and to the readers.
It was not, of course, the only table-topping display of the weekend. Sunderland’s superb Ladies team climbed to No 1 with an outstanding 4-1 win at Bristol Academy, a position maintained when Chelsea lost at home to Man City in a match watched by M Salut’s football-playing daughter Nathalie.
The WSL table looks good this morning …
Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Sunderland AFC Ladies 9 6 0 3 20 13 7 18
2 Arsenal Ladies FC 9 5 3 1 13 7 6 18
3 Chelsea Ladies FC 9 5 2 2 14 9 5 17
4 Notts County Ladies FC 9 4 2 3 16 12 4 14
It apparently means the Lasses are already safe from relegation in their first season right at the top.
Read more about it at http://www.safc.com/news/ladies/2015/july/safc-ladies-v-bristol-academy. Congratulations to Beth Mead – two more goals – the other scorers, Stephanie Bannon and Emma Kelly, and Carlton Fairweather’s entire squad.
Is there a market for these logos to be made into T shirts? I’ll certainly buy them.
Or maybe as iron-ons so you could do your own.
Agreed, they’re class!
Typical Sunderland I thought when I read the report on the win at Bristol on the official club website when prominence was given to the fact the Lasses couldn’t be relegated and not that they were table toppers. (Though to be fair – not in the headline.)
“Sunderland Ladies secured their FAWSL 1 status and sent themselves top of the league after thrashing Bristol Academy 4-1 at Stoke Gifford.”