Colin Randall

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

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Ground: Barnsley’s Oakwell

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Sixer now …

Pete Sixsmith was adamant. There simply wasn’t time for a new First Time Ever I Saw Your Ground on Barnsley, not least because we were also in the same division last season and he wrote a perfectly good instalment of the series then.

At the time John McCormick introduced Sixer’s piece with a historical note, saying the town probably originated in Anglo-Saxon times (‘hence the -ley‘), was mentioned in the Domesday book and had a ‘venerable football club which has done more than many may think, including FA and League cups and a short spell in what we now call the Premier League’. And that team proceeded to tonk us 3-0 as we continued our undignified slither from first to third tier. And this is how Sixer set up that forgettable match …

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Barnsley Who are You?: the Sunderland star who’s too good even for this match of the season

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Click on Jake’s banner to reach the prize Guess the Score competition. There’s still time to enter

 

Monsieur Salut writes: as has happened all too often, the results on Saturday showed a win for Barnsley, a draw for us. But Tuesday remains an all-important step in our attempt to climb back to the Championship. Those of us who worry about our inability to dominate lesser sides cry out for evidence that we can match – and preferably more – the better ones.

Before we welcome our Barnsley interviewee Daniel Finney*, let us offer a signpost to the prize Guess the Score competition. Find it at https://safc.blog/2019/03/guess-the-score-amid-sunderlands-wembley-euphoria-work-to-be-done-at-wycombe-and-barnsley/ . Even if you did not enter the double competition by guessing the Wycombe result as well, you may still have a go at predicting the outcome of Tuesday night’s crucial game at Oakwell.

Now to Daniel. He was one of three or four Barnsley fans who responded to our requests for a Who are You? candidate ahead of the home game. He agreed to be patient as Lucy Dawn did the honours  and now his time has come. He came up with cracking answers so it was worth waiting for … and no prizes for working out who among our players he considers too good for the third tier

Daniel: ‘ha’way Lads. Click on my photo to see all the Who are You? interviews this season’

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Sixer’s Wycombe Soapbox: a play in three acts

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As befits a man returning from the county of Buckinghamshire, wot is down south, Pete Sixsmith, imbued with culture, has written a masterly account of a divided nation, of skulduggery and of a last minute reprieve.

Those of you who, in the Bard’s words “lack  the stomach for this fight” are advised to turn your heads from this page.

Those of you who have seen Friday nights in the singing ends of the CIU will be all right

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Hopeless ref, ruffian Wycombe opponents maybe. But should Sunderland stop looking for excuses?

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First of all, I was not there. I have no first-hand idea of whether Lee Swabey is a model referee, a man who leaves each game with head rightly held high, or a disgrace, the worst of a bad bunch allowed to officiate the third tier of English football. Or somewhere in between.

There wasn’t even Barnes and Benno to guide me. Sometimes I cannot locate the link and others direct me to it. Yesterday, that “audio commentary” prompt at safc.com did not display itself at its usual top left corner spot, whatever screen or browser I tried. The club site was having its own problems and kept apologising for the shortcomings of its text commentary.

But there is powerful consensus among the SAFC fans contributing to social media, and the more measured North-eastern football writers who tweets and report I see, that Mr Swabey was not up to yesterday’s task.

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Ross and McGeady: deserving Sunderland winners

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Jack Ross, eyes wide open

We do plenty for each other, SAFC and Salut! Sunderland, so no one will mind if we simply record the EFL League One Player/Manager of the Month awards – both going our way – by reference to the official club site. Jack Ross said the award to Aiden McGeady was a ‘no brainer’ and few who have seen his compelling technique in recent weeks would disagree; Ross himself deserves immense credit for moulding a viable League One squad that is just a whisper away from an automatic promotion place and – sorry to remind our churlish dissenter, ‘Brian’ – has reached a Wembley final for which every ticket will be sold.

As good as it gets it League One?

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The First Time Ever I Saw Your Ground: Wycombe Wanderers and Adams Park

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Sixsmith in the park

John McCormick writes: Before Pete Sixsmith sent his material I spent some time perusing Youtube for clips of Wycombe Wanderers. None I found were really suitable for inclusion. After it arrived I looked for the 2005 game against West Ham. Again, no luck.

Eventually I found a clip to enhance another fine piece of writing from resident maestro Pete. The link might be tenuous but who cares, it’s Sunderland in a winning season.

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There is no Wycombe Wanderers-Sunderland Who are You? Here’s one we prepared earlier

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Jon Dickinson: on stage (right) accompanying the Wycombe Wanderers boss and former player Gareth Ainsworth

Monsieur Salut writes: we tried very hard to find a Wycombe Wanderers supporter to talk about his or her club and ours ahead of Saturday’s game. We failed. Jon Dickinson*, our interviewee ahead of the first game, also tried to find a pal who might be up for it. He wasn’t successful either.

Sorry folks. But since it was so good, let’s settle for a re-run of Jon’s original Q+A – as rock musician, he was gigging when the SoL match happened and had to follow from afar as the Chairboys went close to snatching an unexpcted win .. apologies for any references that seem outdated

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Do they mean us? How Sunderland fans shocked a Bristol Rovers Gashead

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Monsieur Salut writes: you might struggle to believe it but Doug Shields, a Bristol Rovers diehard, did an excellent and amusing Who are You? interview here before the game at the SoL. This offering also has its entertaining moments.

But he doesn’t seem to have enjoyed his brief acquaintance with our fans the other night.

A lot of what follows is about food and I do wonder whether sour grapes might have crept into Doug’s dietary programme.

Or perhaps all Gasheads are gentle, indeed genteel souls whose idea of letting their hair down is to have two sweet sherries, not one, to wash down their crustless cucumber sandwiches while mistaking ‘Ha’way’, meaning come on, for ‘away’. Little wonder us ruffians from the north seemed so uncouth. Let Doug, a self-confessed lager drinker, take up the story …

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