No sour grapes. We – or those of us with too much time on our hands – might well have done the same to them.
Anyone looking in recent days at John McCormick’s detailed and scrupulously fair articles, accompanied by a poll inviting readers’ views on who will win promotion next season, will have seen how well Coventry City suddenly seemed be doing.
Just before I suspended the poll, the results showed 11,000+ votes with 26 per cent of them cast in favour of the mighty and, recalling their underhand ways in 1977 (see two items in this series about Sunderland relegations), very resourceful Coventry City.
Our error? Failing to untick a box allowing multiple voting. Result? Swarms of Coventry fans voted in multiple fashion, not only for their club but, for added fun, as many other clubs as they could see in the list.
They also looked at earlier Salut! Sunderland polls – for example the one asking what people thought of the new SAFC kit – and, spotting the same mistake on our part, voted en masse there, too. So with a heavy mia culpa, we must ask readers to disregard any poll results they encounter while navigating the archives of this site. And apologise for our sins of commission.
As for the Coventry fans who have taken such delight in our self-inflicted misfortune, whether or not they have added mischievous banter or snarling insults when boasting of how often they voted for their team, for others and against our new kit, fair play to you.
Petty? Childish? Maybe, but the sort of pettiness and childlike behaviour plenty of us would stoop to as well. It also brightened dull lives … and yes, I confess to a Coventry fan going by the name of itsabuzzard, skullduggery as practised by your club in 1977 and mentioned by me in a comment at Sky Blues Talk, needed that second “l”.
I’m ok with ccfc’s fans’ action. I just want six clubs to follow. I presume they’ll be turning up here in their thousands during the season to see how they compare to the other give, as well as at the rugby ground they rent. I had to allow multiple votes after a problem in making results visible but any set of fans could have taken advantage.
“Other five”
Predictive text!
It was Morcambe but hey ho nothing new about a Sunderland fan getting the facts mixed up.
Ouch stung by Mr Nettles! But thanks for pointing that out. Sort of adds weight to my comment.
Coventry City skullduggery! Never. I mean 1977 was a one off wasn’t it? Them turning up late at White Hart Lane in 1997 because of the London traffic was understandable, and we were lucky we were able to get to Selhurst Park in time on the same day.
Their final match of last season against Fleetwood Town was a real humdinger of a goalless draw by all accounts. Fortunately that result meant they were assured of a playoff place and Fleetwood got the point they needed to avoid relegation.