John McCormick writes: on Saturday Ed posted on his facebook page that it had been 378 days since he’d seen us win and then headed off to the SOL. Now you know who to blame.
But you can’t fault his loyalty. Stony broke, he and a mate once hitched down to Bramall Lane for an evening game. I’m not sure exactly when it was, or what the competition was but I think the weather was freezing and they were some of the very few who made the journey.
Pete Sixsmith had already been there, of course, and by an easier route:
Year: 2017
Salut! Sunderland’s Christmas stocking fillers: three strikers and three competitions
As Salut! Sunderland wishes everyone – or nearly everyone – a merry Christmas and a happy, healthy new year, it seems right to mark the festive occasion with not one, nor even two but three competitions.
Which one shall we mention first first: Guess the Score, a guide to the popularity of our own Sixer – aka Pete Sixsmith, Santa and Sunderland support par excellence – among all he has befriended or taught, or a tale of three strikers? Sixer wins the toss of this three-sided coin.
Sheffield United vs SAFC Who are You?: ‘we’ll win 4-2 despite bad patch’
Monsieur Salut writes: in a 46-match season plus cup ties, it is a distinct possibility that there will be gaps …
Sheffield United vs Sunderland Guess the Score: blunt the Blades
It’s a frantic time for Salut! Sunderland over Christmas, with games on Saturday and again on Boxing Day followed by the visit to Forest next Saturday.
Everything that should appear on these pages will appear, so please keep coming back and checking for updates.
Christmas greetings to all Salut! Sunderland readers, contributors and editors. You’ll see the seasonal compliments more fully when you pop into the site on Christmas morning.
Sixer’s Sub’s Soapbox: A Christmas gift for Birmingham City
With Sixer still on duty it fell to Malcolm Dawson to make the trek to the Stadium of Light on our behalf, and then to report on the last home game of a very trying year. Did he see any harbingers of a better 2018?
It would appear that he did:
Sixer’s Sevens: Sunderland 1-1 Birmingham City. Not the result SAFC needed
Malcolm Dawson was back in the East stand seat of Pete Sixsmith, absent again on Santa duties, to see Sunderland drop back into the bottom three after a disappointing draw against the bottom club, with Bolton and Burton both winning. The instant verdict is therefore his, as will be the substitute Sixer’s Soapbox in due course. Gary Bennett, analysing with Nick Barnes, thought it a poor game where poor defending again cost us a goal. He questioned the decision-making by, in particular, Lewis Grabban in chances before and after his (Grabban’s) equaliser and cited a glaring creativity gap that perhaps Aiden McGeady might have filled …
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Team: Birmingham City
John McCormick writes: I’ve just had my card declined when trying to make a donation to the Whitechapel Centre, which helps homeless/rough sleepers in Liverpool. There were no problems when giving to MIND, where I donated in order to support my niece, Ski, who’s running for them every day in January. (Just letting you know, should last week have left you in a generous mood). Fifty years ago such things wouldn’t have concerned me. In contrast, the lineup for this match might have. Now I can’t remember anything about the game.
Luckily, Pete Sixsmith can:
SAFC vs Birmingham Who are You?: supporting the Blues through thin and thin
Colin Randall writes: Just as our Kevin Ball deserves a free season ticket for life at the Stadium of Light, their – Birmingham City’s – Kevin Ball* has earned one to Salut! Sunderland after all his visit to this illustrious series. But think about it: who would you turn to, if looking for candidates, other than someone bearing that name? So Kev’s back for the much-copied Who are You? (I always imagine our confreres at other sites making a painstaking note of all our interviewees before flattering us by imitation). Enough of that: from deepest Devon, the Bluenose version of Kev answers out questions once again …
Why Chris Coleman can keep Sunderland up
No sooner had we said the bookies may have to think again about Sunderland as relegation fodder than we begin to see signs that the odds might soon start lengthening. One win is not enough to get pulses racing too fast but there’s no denying the massive fillip that would result if we could add a win against Birmingham City to Chris Coleman’s highly encouraging start as manager. Daniel Webb, who knows about such matters, analyses the prospects …
After claims that the club was “rotten to the core”, Sunderland were all of the best bookmakers’ favourites for a second relegation in a row – up until recently.
However, a lot of us got our hopes up when Chris Coleman was appointed manager. After all, who better to take charge of a struggling team than the man who led Wales – WALES! – to the semi-finals of Euro 2016? If anyone can help us, it’s Coleman, right?
Yet while our results have improved, we’re not out of the woods yet. So can the Welshman actually pull us out of trouble, or are we just fooling ourselves?
Abigail writes: ‘at last I’ve seen Sunderland win at home’
Abigail Emmerson is a special girl. How many other nine-year-olds – OK, only a few days to go before she hits 10 – willingly turn up to watch SAFC home and often enough away, make videos about it and write for Salut! Sunderland? You met her here after the Burton away win, she was mentioned again in Monsieur Salut’s account of his winning trip to the SoL and now she offers her own thoughts on that breakthrough …
I can’t believe I have eventually seen my first home win. I thought it would never happen. But then again I picked the worst time to start watching them last season. We had been doing OK before I turned up, but then to go a year without a win? Wow.