It’s over 100 years since E M Forster wrote “The Machine Stops”. If you haven’t read it I suggest you give it a go. After you have you won’t worry too much about the slight delay to the publication of this post in Pete Sixsmith’s “First Time ” series. You might, however, worry about the prevalence of the gremlins that stopped it reaching us.
“The Machine Stops”, by the way, is recognised as a classic in the world of science fiction. Pete Sixsmith, not quite as old, is recognised as a classic in the world of football writing. You know why:
Colin Randall
View from the Avenue: a Sunderland rallying cry to still half-term wobbles
Monsieur Salut says: Paul Summerside and I joust regularly at Facebook about Brexit, a subject I broadly feel wisest to avoid at Salut! Sunderland. But he confesses, as a man who more than anything shares the thought that politicians should sort out the wretched mess they created, that this week’s turmoil also prompted some reflection on how things are going at the Stadium of Light …
Scunthorpe vs Sunderland Who are You?: ‘please don’t sing Garden Shed or Shearer song’
Monsieur Salut writes: Ian Moore* came our way thanks to Matt Blanchard from the Scunthorpe Iron-Bru fan site and podcast (Matt answered our questions in superb style before the first game, which Sunderland won 3-0). It’s another fine addition to the best Who are You? series I can recall in Salut! Sunderland‘s 12 years of existence. But I fear his plea to away supporters to think of something new rather than trotting out My Garden Shed will fall on deaf ears, especially when they find out Alan Shearer is among his sporting heroes (I made up the bit about our fans’ musical tribute to him) …
French Fancies: ‘star chroniclers’ Henry Winter, Sam Wallace and tenuous Sunderland links
France’s leading Sunday newspaper hails four stars of Premier League football writing[/caption]
How can I make this sound like it has the least thing to do with supporting Sunderland? Monsieur Salut asks himself the question and finally manages to come up with an answer …
Scunthorpe vs SAFC prize Guess the Score: make Rod Liddle eat his words
Monsieur Salut introduces the latest prize Guess the Score competition. Don’t worry if your entry is ‘held for moderation’ – it can happen if you haven’t posted before or are using a different computer – as we will know when you tried to post it and if more than one reader correctly predicts the outcome, that will determine who was first …
At the beginning of the season, Rod Liddle – that most acquired of tastes as a man and a writer – wrote about Sunderland in The Sunday Times: “Let’s see how these overpaid moppets cope at Scunny on a cold January afternoon.”
Liddle is a Millwall fan so presumably won’t be there to “see” how things go.
Sixer’s Soapbox: Sunderland 1 Luton 1. Mazdas but no Maja
Malcom Dawson wrote this introduction wthout seeing Pete Sixsmith’s match report:
Lee Probert’s performance will undoubtedly dominate the headlines and let’s face it he was shocking. Consistent but shockingly consistent. Even before the penalty and the sendings off he was subjected to chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” and “you’re not fit to referee”.
What’s more, he appeared to blow for fouls commited by Sunderland players, immediately after it seemed he had ignored a similar infringement committed by a man in blue. And this is allowing for my bias. The home crowd might be partisan but they aren’t stupid.
Bad refereeing apart, the other talking point was the absence of Josh Maja. As I am at the fag end of a dose of bronchitis, I am inclined to go along with the manager’s assertion that he was ill. I hope they told the representative of Crystal Palace who was supposed to be coming to watch him. The official reason won’t be enough to stop the rumour mongers, though personally I still think he’ll stay, at least until the end of the season.
More worrying for me though is our inability to push home an advantage, a defence that has its shaky moments and the number of occasions we give the ball away needlessly.
I said before the game that avoiding defeat wouldn’t be a disaster, especially if Portsmouth lost but I left yesterday’s game frustrated at a failure to consolidate our promotion push.
How was Pete Sixsmith feeling as he left the ground and how did he rate yesterday’s performance? Let him enlighten you.
Rate the ref: Sunderland v Luton Town
The 223 posts have been put in the spreadsheet. (Mr Probert didn’t score very well).
The poll has been removed as it’s being set up for the next game. Comments are below for you to read and add to:
Sixer’s Sevens: Sunderland rue lack of killer finish as Luton are gifted a penalty
SAFC made a return to the Stadium of Light, Pete Sixsmith made a return to the Stadum of Light and Mick Harford made return to Sunderland while Josh Maja didn’t, because he was sick, we’re told. I reckon a few thousand others will have been sick – as a parrot – after an inexplicable penalty which led to one of Pete’s texts labelling the ref as inept. I wonder how that will affect his score when ‘rate the ref’ opens in 15 minutes
Pete sent more texts during and after the game, one of them seven words long. You’ll find it below. It suggests there is an issue Jack Ross need to address, with or without Josh Maja, before we can breathe more easily. Expect more from Pete is due course …
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Team: Luton Town
John McCormick writes, I’m not sure whether or not I ever saw Luton during the sixties. Pete Sixsmith didn’t, so I doubt that I did. I might have seen them in the game below but it’s unlikely as I was in my first year away and didn’t go back that often. I did go back two years later, though, when I was one of 53,000 that saw us cruise past Luton in a cup game. Can you guess what year that was without reading Pete’s piece?
What a stupid question. Why would anyone not want to read Pete’s piece?
Wrinkly Pete: home is where the heart is but our away days arouse the passion
Peter Lynn, aka the wrinkly one, gets to a lot of games home and away. He’s noticed, even when things are going badly, how much more vocal the travelling support is than Stadium of Light crowds, where he feels something special has to happen on the field to inspire a real buzz in the stands …
Can we play you (away) every week?
Every fan of every club will be aware of the taunting lyrics “can we play you every week?” sung to Bread of Heaven when a thumping takes place. Sometimes you’re on the receiving end and sometimes giving it out.
My spin on it is that we would be better off playing away from home. I imagine many saying/thinking “How dare you say that?” Well read on……..