Colin Randall

Salut! Sunderland was edited by Colin Randall up until December 2019 - read more

Wrinkly Pete’s Crystal Ball SAFC slip further behind prior to Leicester game

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Peter Lynn, aka Wrinkly Pete


Monsieur Salut writes: much earlier in the season, when hope was young and alive (for some), Peter Lynn, alias Wrinkly Pete, decided to look ahead to all remaining games and calculate how – it was ‘how’ not ‘if’ then – Sunderland would reach his estimate of 37 points and safety. You must read on the see how far behind we are in his reckoning.

As I wrote at ESPN before the Watford game, tonight is the anniversary of the date two years ago when Leicester City began their incredible bottom-to-top surge with the first of seven wins from the remaining nine games to ensure not just survival but 12th place respectability. I speculated that David Moyes had originally counted on two-to-four points from Watford and Leicester away if we were to emulate City’s escape, but was left needing six by the failure to beat Burnley. Three tonight would be a consolation and might, just might, inspire a proper revival. I’d be lying if I said I expect us to be anything other than just a step closer the drop once the final whistle goes, three more points handed to opponents. Prove me wrong, Lads. And now over to Pete …

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Leicester Who are You? defending Sri, acclaiming Defoe, missing Kante a little

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Brian Archie sports his Leicester top in a school photo from 1991

 

Monsieur Salut writes: it goes from bad to worse to boorish. Not content with his share of the blame for leading Sunderland’s downward charge to the Championship, our boss is caught – thinking he is off-air – snapping at a BBC reporter, Vicki Sparks, and threatening to give her ‘a slap even though you’re a woman’. Her crime? Asking an entirely legitimate question after the Burnley goalless draw about any extra pressure Moyes may have felt with the owner Ellis Short present for the game. Reports suggest there was no obvious humour in the remark’s delivery. The manager should add to his apology, already given and accepted, a substantial personal donation to a charity of the reporter’s choosing.

Now on to Leicester. Our ‘Who are You?’ interviewee Brian Archie’s* hope for the game, a 2-1 home win, is unlikely to improve Moyes’s mood. The Watford defeat means we can survive only if we do on Tuesday what Leicester did exactly two years ago and begin a sequence of something like seven wins from nine remaining games …

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The Chapman Report: Watford and gap take on new meaning for Sunderland

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Robert Chapman: ”

We went into the weekend with only the faintest of hopes. Surely the Lads couldn’t fire yet another blank. They’d be really up for it, for the two wins in four days that might, just might spark revival. Robert Chapman, standing in once again for Pete Sixsmith, saw the reality. Another lame defeat and the Gap grew wider at Watford. Robert looks back on a match that seemed, despite the premature mathematical interpretation, to dump Sunderland into the Championship …

So it was April Fool’s Day; a day for surprises and stunts. Could Sunderland possibly call all the pundits wrong, get three points and embark on the next great escape?

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Sixer’s Sevens: Watford 1-0 Sunderland. Au revoir to the Premier League?

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Another meek surrender

Monsieur Salut writes: Nothing is actually settled. Losing 1-0 to Watford, deservedly as well, does not relegate Sunderland. But we know the game is up. We just aren’t good enough to do what Hull did in routine home game today, what Palace under Big Sam managed at Chelsea. A decent Borini shot late on and a pathetic strike by Januzaj (from am excellent position; Gary Bennett said it looked more like a backpass) was all we mustered. Pickford stopped it being worse, Pete Sixsmith stayed away; the seven-word verdict is Bob Chapman’s and see his stand-in Soapbox report here …

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‘All my fault’: the man behind a golden milestone for Sunderland supporters

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From Feb 6 1967: Ian’s letter to fellow SAFC fans announcing plans to establish a formal branch of the Supporters’ Association

Monsieur Salut writes: the London and SE branch of the SAFC Supporters’ Association has just reached 50 years of age. In common with many who leave Sunderland-supporting parts of the North East to ply their trades in and around the Smoke, I eventually got round to joining the branch after seeing numerous mentions in the matchday programmes of various London clubs where I had attended away games. I’d put my membership at around 30 years, but I could and should have joined sooner, since I moved south a few months before the 1973 FA Cup Final. Plenty have done much longer stretches. Step forward Ian Todd, who was largely instrumental in creating the branch 50 years ago and has been a tireless mainstay of its activities.

Special events are planned, with a get-together and buffet at the Stadium of Light on the evening we play West Ham on April 15 – open to members, past members and their guests – and, on the eve of the final game at Chelsea, at the Knights Templar near Chancery Lane, London (all-comers welcome; many will recall the splendid pre-League Cup final gathering there in 2014). Check out details at weardownsouth.com and now read what Ian had to say in a piece headlined ‘It’s all my fault’ in the new edition of the excellent branch newsletter, Wear Down South …

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Watford Who are You?: fondly remembering SuperKev, Rostron and Colin West’s hairdo

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Del Day: ‘hey love, was thinking we could name our daughters Blissett’

Colin Randall writes: not everyone will share this thought but I needed cheering up on Wednesday. Getting back to sunshine in Marseille helped (as did the cost of the trip, return flight from Stansted at four euros each, the outward journey having been only 14). Then I saw our Watford interviewee Del Day‘s Facebook update: ‘Revolution anyone?’ Sixer would approve of that one. Del, when not feeling political and cross, runs an independent music publicity company, Ark PR, a small booking agency, Big City Lights, and the Maiden Voyage record company. He adored Graham Taylor to the extent that both his daughters have Taylor as middle names, his wife having baulked at calling them Blissett. Over to Del*, with some terrific thoughts on old player links between our clubs and a gloomy prognosis on our current condition …

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Watford Guess the Score: the road to Chelsea (and SAFC salvation) starts here

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Ah but there is a great prize and it aids the Bradley Lowery campaign. Read on …

This, then, is the fantasy for Vicarage Road.

Jermain Defoe returns from his Wembley triumph, hits more goals for Sunderland and launches David Moyes’ ultimately successful act of escapology.

Watford (a) becomes the first of several wins that somehow secure survival on or before that doddle of a closing fixture at little Stamford Bridge on May 21 when our best hope, as somoene else has already pointed out, may be that Chelsea are hung over and incapable after title celebrations.

Let us see how closely your predictions – and the realities to come – follow that narrative. It’s time once more to Guess the Score – and once again to aid the Bradley Lowery fighting fund in the process.
 

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