Colin Randall Malcolm Dawson writes…..Shildon play Whitley Bay in the Northern League Cup this evening. Peter Sixsmith will be there hoping to …
So Salut! Sunderland was told the former SAFC and Republic of Ireland midfielder Andy Reid, speaking exclusively to 888sport, was happy to answer our questions as part of the interview. He had some interesting things to say about enjoying his time at Sunderland, playing for Ireland and observing our current plight.
In which Monsieur Salut salutes all those who have sustained Salut! Sunderland and announces a splendid little prize competition …
Take a grizzled old Sunderland supporter, a much younger Newcastle fan and the Shotton-born midfielder Tommy Miller. What do they have in common?
Ten years ago this week, Salut! Sunderland was born. And the image you see above was the very first to appear on these pages, in the earliest proper posting on January 16 2007.
Malcolm Dawson writes: the manager has had some flak recently for his reluctance to blood some of our younger, more …
Monsieur Salut writes: The more Pete Sixsmith mentioned going to Burnley for the replay, the more I felt he was forcing himself to make the trip, such is the burden he carries as a Sunderland supporter and Salut! Sunderland chronicler. On commentary courtesy of Radio Newcastle, an increasingly exasperated Gary Bennett kept insisting we had a chance to rescue the game. Familiar as he is with the Northern League, Benno hoped against hope that a floodlight failure would necessitate a replayed replay. It wasn’t to be and in his succinct seven-word summary Sixer sums up his own frustrations after another disappointing trip across the Pennines …
This is a Guess the Score and Who are You? combined for the FA Cup 3rd round replay at Burnley.
Salut! Sunderland is not on a go-slow or work-to-rule or in any greater sulk than usual. It just seemed unnecessary to run yet another interview with a supporter of a team we will by tomorrow night have played three times since New Year’s Eve. There’ll be a reminder later in this piece of the refreshing thoughts of our previous Burnley interviewee, Andy Robinson, about the importance of the cup to him.
Monsieur Salut writes: each matchday, ESPN FC expects me – or Pete Sixsmith when I am away – to send a report with a brief summary of the game followed by out-of-10 ratings for manager and team.
Monsieur Salut writes: people left their Stadium of Light seats in droves, Pete Sixsmith sent demoralised text messages and I ended up giving three-out-of-10s galore in my ESPN FC ratings. So what did David Moyes make of it? Well, he has either lost track of time or, when claiming SAFC matched Stoke for all but the first 20 minutes, meant to say the 19 minutes they took, starting in the 15th, to put the game out of sight …
Monsieur Salut writes: Is there no end to the pain to which Sunderland supporters are subjected by those rewarded handsomely to manage and play for the club? By the time Sunderland got started, 38 minutes into this miserable game, they were three down; it might have been four or five so easily had a well-organised but hardly exceptional Stoke City ripped though our slow, panic-stricken defence. Jermain Defoe scored with a clinical finish to pull one back but apart from one absymal miss from six yards by Jack Rodwell, even a marginally improved second-half performance offered few signs of hope.
David Moyes added his own contribution to a catalogue of individual failings by refusing to make a single change and, quite obviously, saying nothing at half-time to inspire a meaningful comeback. Pete Sixmsith’s seven-word verdict did undergo changes as the game wore on. I shall offer them all below …
Monsieur Salut writes: I got into trouble with a Salut! Sunderland reader, ‘Maw’ over at Twitter when I tweeted Jermain Defoe and said that while I might understand him wanting to leave at the end of the season, would he please stay for now? ‘Grow up,’ was the gist of my critic’s response and, while there was a germ of a serious point in what I had said, I ended up conceding defeat. The serious point holds good, especially if it is true, as speculated, that Defoe’s body language on Saturday suggested restlessness; whatever restructuring is needed – and by whom – come the summer, Defoe is our main, perhaps only hope of salvation between now and then. Alex McMahon agrees …
Jermain Defoe is one of the best strikers in the Premier League. The Sunderland man may be 34, but he certainly has not lost his mojo. The former England man has scored 12 goals and created as many chances in 21 Premier League appearances so far this season. That’s 57 per cent of the goals Sunderland have scored.