Pete Sixsmith made the short trip across the Pennines, writes John McCormick, with cuddly Joey Barton urging his Fleetwood men to send us home in tears.
For the miracle to happen, Sunderland needed a hatful of goals, let alone what had to befall our promotion rivals. Lee Cattermole scored to give us a halftime lead and Barnes and Benno were in no doubt we should have been much further ahead.
Sixer judged it to be a competent first 45; afterwards, B&B felt we allowed Fleetwood to claw a way back into the game. ‘Losing our grip,’ said Benno on 70 and four minutes later, Madden equalised for Fleetwood and that alone would have consigned us to the playoffs. The inability to hold or build on a lead had reared its head yet again and draw number 20 loomed. It didn’t come. A flurry of Sunderland activity brought late excitement but when the winner arrived, it went to Fleetwood …
Take your pick from Sixer’s seven-word verdicts below. His fuller analysis would have been brutal. Should we expect a more measured assessment given that our deputy editor Malcolm Dawson – also present – is writing it? We’ll see …
Monsieur Salut writes: he calls himself Matty at Twitter but I will not embed the tweet, purporting to show a full name, because a) it may not be his for all I know and b) I have no wish to spread his word, other than to challenge it …
John McCormick writes: Pete Sixsmith reaches the penultimate stage of his journey round League One with a warning that this will be another tough game. Personally, I expect us to win it, but with a weakened team: McGeady and Oviedo won’t play, being injured, nor will Catts, Wyke or Grigg to keep them safe. But Chris Maguire will, to give him game time, and also Gooch. Bali Mumba will be there and so will Benji Kimpioka, who will score. He won’t be the only one to do so and the result will be 3-1 in our favour, which will earn me my second mug of the season.
Will that be my only consolation after a long hard season? I think not. But then again, we are Sunderland.
Monsieur Salut writes: John McKenna*, our interviewee for the penultimate league game of the season (and if only it could be our season’s penultimate game of any kind), comes to us via Pete Sixsmith and the interest they share in groundhopping.
John proves to be a master of restraint and balance when asked about a certain Joey Barton – he says elsewhere he is acquainted with the laws of libel and nothing in his reply would be of interest to Messrs Sue, Grabbitt and Runne – and provides an informative guide to the recent history of his club, pointing out that it plays in a town with a smaller population than the crowd that turned up at the Stadium of Light for the first game between us …
It’s over bar the playoffs. Another failure to win ends any real prospect of an automatic promotion place.
Drawing at home to Portsmouth didn’t cause this huge disappointment. We had already shot ourselves in one foot, losing that crazy 5-4 game at home to Coventry, and then in the other one after going ahead late at Peterborough, says Monsieur Salut. Not to mention what someone called a billion other draws.
Each time we stumbled, others just got on with doing their jobs.
A glance at the other results has tended to confirm our fears: no one else has been slipping up as often at this crucial stage of the season.
For a short while it was looking good. We were winnng and Barnsley were losing. Then it all turned round and, despite Luton’s loss, we didn’t do enough. Theoretically, we could still finish top but we know it won’t happen. More likely, we’ll be up against Charlton in the playoffs.
I think it’s Pete Sixsmith‘s turn to do tomorrow’s match report but I could be wrong. It’s definitely his text, though, and if you count the words you’ll see a little bit of symbology. Just like Sunderland, he’s come up a little bit short:
Let Pete Sixsmith add his appreciation of our superb midfielder after what has been for him, come what may, an outstanding season …and he is picking up awards, starting with one from the SAFCSA branch liaison council (Luke O’Nien was the young player of the season)
John McCormick writes: Me and Mr Sixsmith are pretty much of an age yet when it comes to the archives he leaves me standing. I can’t remember Andy Kerr, don’t believe I ever saw Harry Hooper and I definitely never saw Brian Clough. Roker was too difficult for me to get to on my own and there was no one to take me. I could have got to Newcastle easily but didn’t, and I had to wait another season before I could follow the club I had chosen over them.
But, ladies and gentlemen, I did get to see Charlie Hurley, Jimmy Montgomery and Nick Sharkey, among others. I can count myself blessed.
But I digress, unlike Pete, who would never divert from SAFC to discuss TV programmes or topical music.
Peter Allen: ‘These days, Saturdays for me mean dodging Gilets Jaunes missiles on the boulevards of Paris’
Monsieur Salut writes: Peter Allen is my very good pal and partner-in-crime (if that’s the right way to describe our shared trade of journalism) in Paris. He happens to support Portsmouth and, having made it to Wembley, hoped to visit Sunderland for this Saturday’s game. Instead, he will be stuck in France, scouring the internet for an audio or visual link.
His real Who are You? was the one he did back in December but which became a casualty when this site crashed on the day we played them at Fratton Park. I refreshed it earlier this week and it remains, despite being out of date in terms of the League One promotion race, a great read. See it at this link.
And now, at much shorter length, is how he sees things as the season nears a climax …
Even as I wrote last week that we would remain masters of our destiny and go up automatically provided we matched our rivals’ results, I was riddled with doubt, says Monsieur Salut.
A quick look at the fixtures at the top end of League One table showed there was no room for the least slip. Even when I saw that Coventry were ahead at Portsmouth, it seemed too much to hope that this would remain the case (if the spirit of Jimmy Hill has any influence, his old club’s two games involving us and Pompey could not have gone better).
As for Barnsley and Luton, did anyone seriously expect other than comfortable wins at Plymouth and Accrington Stanley.
Pete Sixsmith in exalted company. Tune in to BBC Newcastle to hear him with Simon Pryde, John Anderson and Marco Gabbiadini. Total Sport 5.30-7.00.
Pete Sixsmith made the short trip across the Pennines, writes John McCormick, with cuddly Joey Barton urging his Fleetwood men to send us home in tears.
Colin Randall 
John McCormick writes: Pete Sixsmith reaches the penultimate stage of his journey round League One with a warning that this will be another tough game. Personally, I expect us to win it, but with a weakened team: McGeady and Oviedo won’t play, being injured, nor will Catts, Wyke or Grigg to keep them safe. But Chris Maguire will, to give him game time, and also Gooch. Bali Mumba will be there and so will Benji Kimpioka, who will score. He won’t be the only one to do so and the result will be 3-1 in our favour, which will earn me my second mug of the season.
