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Another Saturday, another trip to Walsall. After last week’s eventful 2-2 draw in League One, the Lads return to the Bescot for the FA Cup 2nd round.
The Barnsley midweek game produced a Guess the Score winner, the first for a few games. Malcolm Ray, no stranger to prizes from Salut! Sunderland, will soon be the owner of a copy of Managers, Volume III of the Tales From the Red and Whites series, kindly donated by the publishers.
Pete Sixsmith’s phone was busy from the off, with texts announcing not one, not two, but three goals for Sunderland in the first half hour.
Then came the second half, and another two texts, and with half an hour to go I was thinking, “No more texts, Pete, no more”. Fortunately, when one did come it was a good’n.
Then came the final, post whistle seven-worder that promises a must-read match report tomorrow:
This absolutely must be posted. Salut! Sunderland’s gut reaction to Max Power’s sending off at Walsall was along the lines of “what an idiot”. Well some of those connected with the site – and many more beyond it – thought so, anyway.
But now the red card has been shown to have been a miscarriage of justice and has been rescinded. The appeal many said would be a waste of time succeeded. Jack Ross’s defence of the player is vindicated. Power is 100 per cent cleared. Another black stain on the reputation of League One referees.
Monsieur Salut writes: what an enjoyable series Who are You? is to edit this season. I am not suggesting we should therefore remain contentedly in League One, but if you’ve been following the interviews we’ve published so far, you’ll know what I mean.
Lucy Dawn* – who makes point of not giving her age, though we are far to gentlemanly to ask in any case – comes up with another fine set of answers to our questions. The game itself, which she hopes to attend, is as important as they get at this stage of the season – we’re on a 13-game unbeaten run, they’d won six on the trot until Saturday’s home draw with Doncaster …
John McCormick writes: one of the joys of this series (and of its companion for away matches) is elegant prose, another is the pictures and videos which accompany it and then there are the asides that might be, but aren’t always, football related.
It’s just a little bit of a magic combination, not to be found on every fan site. We’re lucky to have it on ours.
Before introducing Guess the Score, Monsieur Salut has some words to add on the Max Power issue. They are not the words I originally wrote to accompany the article …
What I felt and many others felt was the rank stupidity of Max Power, a gifted player enough suspected of possessing the suicidal tendencies often if wrongly attributed to lemmings, dumped Sunderland into deep trouble with his 23rd minute red card, number three of the season, at Walsall.
John McCormick writes: there’s no formal division of labour at Salut HQ. It usually works out that M Salut himself does the “Who are you?” and “Guess the score” pieces, along with sundry items that come his way, I do the “First time ever I saw your ground/team” series and also “Sixer’s Sevens” if Malcolm’s at the match, and Malcolm does match reports on Sunday morning, especially if he was there and can provide his well-informed introductions. Other writers chip in from time to time, Jake embellishes all of our efforts and Pete Sixsmith, of course, provides an axle round which our efforts can spin. However, like our players, we can and do swap roles.
And, like the team on the pitch, we don’t all have to be there for it to work.
Pete Sixsmith once again dips into his magic memory to bring you a trip to the land of contrasts: bashed metal and heavy metal: old canals and new motorways: Aston Villa with their football league glory and a historic stadium and erm, Walsall who, literally, are in a different league.
Nowt wrong with that, though, as Pete makes abundantly clear.
Monsieur Salut writes (and guess how easy it is to write Monsieur Slut by mistake): I knew some games would be a struggle for Who are You? and Walsall away this Saturday was already proving a challenge before we were duly drawn against them in the FA Cup for a week later. Richard Hall*, located by the usual online searches, agreed to have a go. So why not get him to do both games; why not go back to him for the return league game?
So Richard’s answers on the League One match, and revelations about his cultural tastes (Shostakovich fifth, the works of an American ‘Marxist humanist’ Raya Dunayevskaya and even a spot of Michael Jackson washed down with old world wine) will be followed next week by his FA Cup thoughts. It amounts to another great read in this series. And Richard knows the North East well, having worked in Middlesbrough, lived in Darlington and joined a friend for games at the SoL. But we’ll try to spare him a third set of questions …
Colin Randall 
Pete Sixsmith’s phone was busy from the off, with texts announcing not one, not two, but three goals for Sunderland in the first half hour.
John McCormick writes: one of the joys of this series (and of its companion for away matches) is elegant prose, another is the pictures and videos which accompany it and then there are the asides that might be, but aren’t always, football related.
I was intending to avoid puns about turning the power off but I thought of one that seemed OK, so there it is in the headline.
