Colin Randall

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

Will Cardiff or Fulham join Wolves, and will Derby join Villa and Middlesbrough?

by
no slide rule needed

This will be my final dodgy numbers post of the season. (If you haven’t seen the previous ones you can follow the link above, and/or those below). There is still a game to go, and two questions remain unanswered, but we can now look at the league table and judge how well our start of season pundits did. Their choices for the top six spots, in order of popularity were: Middlesbrough, Aston Villa, Fulham, Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday and Sunderland.

Three out of six, and wrong about the top two. Is that a “not bad” verdict or something worse? 

Read more

Sixer and Orwell: from Benjamin the donkey to Donald the SAFC saviour?

by

 

 

Photo from 1933 – only three years before our last top flight title – by Monsieur Salut’s own National Union of Journalists 

Monsieur Salut writes: what might George Orwell have said of the takeover? Will a new manager give Jack Rodwell a cuddle and turn him back into the player he thinks he still is? Questions about the takeover abound and who better than Pete Sixsmith to delve into his old George Orwell paperbacks, and memories of teaching history to year 11, and seek to tease out the answers? ….

Many years ago, when I was a history teacher in County Durham, I would suggest that my Year 11 students should read Animal Farm to get George Orwell’s view of the Russian Revolution and the descent into Stalinism. It was a popular read partly because it was a short one, partly because it had talking animals in it and partly because they liked to draw parallels between the animals and various members of the teaching staff.

The animal I was decreed to resemble was not one of the pigs but Benjamin the donkey. He is the companion of the great Boxer, the mainstay of the revolution who follows every edict with rampant enthusiasm, something Benjamin does not.

Read more

George Mulhall: an appreciation

by

UPDATE: George Mulhall’s son, Neil, has written to Salut! Sunderland: “I would like to thank you for your lovely tribute to my father. It brought tears to my eyes reading it.” Neil and other relatives can be assured our thoughts are with them.

Pete Sixsmith writes: on a day when the SAFC news feed went haywire with talk of a new owner, new investors, new manager, new strip, new badge, new division to play in and new hope for the future (maybe), I would prefer to concentrate on something that happened almost half a century ago.

Read more

Crisis Sunderland: Short out (about time), Coleman out (and his fault lay exactly where?)

by
Thanks, Chris

[polldaddy poll=9991274]

Monsieur Salut writes: read on to learn what little we know about the welcome departure of E Short esquire as owner of SAFC. And here is the thoroughly inadequate SAFC statement on Chris Coleman’s sacking:

Sunderland AFC announces that manager Chris Coleman and his assistant Kit Symons have been released from their contracts. The club would like to place on record its sincere thanks to Chris and Kit for their tireless efforts in what has been a hugely disappointing season for everyone involved with the club. The club is unable to make further comment at this time.

Read more

Sixer’s selection: The Good, the OK, the Downright Awful and the Borrowed

by
Sixer keeping cool

John McCormick writes: I’m remaining neutral in respect of a preference for promotion but I have to express an opinion about last night’s result. While we were outplayed for a lot of the second half Fulham only won because of two decisions the ref got wrong. One was to allow a goal where the scorer had moved offside before a free kick was taken – a close decision, this, and perhaps forgivable to get wrong. The other was much clearer, although I didn’t see it until a post-game replay. We should have had a penalty. That we didn’t hardly affects us but there may be consequences for Cardiff.

Bob Chapman, our man at the match, may not agree with me and I won’t know for a while as his report is expected to be late in arriving. To keep us occupied and entertained until it does here’s a little something from Pete Sixsmith. I’ve given you Patrick and Jozy, can you put names to the other faces?

Read more

Sixer’s Fulham Sevens: A harsh decision costs us (and Cardiff City?)

by
Jake gives Sixer star billing

John McCormick writes: Pete Sixsmith  was not present today. Neither was I,  although I had put this on on my list. And nor did I manage to get to a pub for the start and missed the first 40 minutes and hence our goal, but not the equaliser that came from the recovery after the non-penalty decision.

The second half saw us holding on until the inevitable lat(ish) and offside? goal but I don’t think we were disgraced – just not good enough against a quite good and increasingly desperate team at home – and better than the commentator suggested. And, after all, we drew the pair 2-2 on aggregate and won it on away goals, so it’s a moral victory isn’t it?

Does Pete’s stand-in agree? You’ll have to wait for a full report but here’s Bob Chapman’s immediate seven-word text, forwarded by Pete to give you a hint:

Read more

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Ground: Fulham and Craven Cottage

by
Pete Sixsmith, Review.org

John McCormick writes: I remember a pleasant afternoon at Fulham in the early seventies. In my case it was made pleasant by the few pints of proper beer we enjoyed in the pub on the other side of Putney Bridge and by an away win, which I enjoyed trouble free although esconced with locals. Not all grounds were so welcoming in those days, as I found out a few weeks later at Millwall. Pete Sixsmith has already written about that game – or one little different; now he finishes a series which has brightened a dismal season with an account of another trip to Craven Cottage, one which took place some five years before I got there:

Read more