Colin Randall 
John McCormick writes: I won’t be going to the North East before June, so I won’t be seeing any home games this season. Just as well, I suppose, as the text friend Paul sent from the North stand yesterday suggested the team froze more than the weather.
Pete Sixsmith’s report, a little more detailed but no more positive, would tend to agree …
John McCormick writes: The darkness began to descend early in the second half at the Stadium of Light, and that was before Jake Clarke-Salter got himself sent off for the second time in an hour of playing.
Pete Sixsmith sat through the debacle and his match report will let us know how bad it got. Until then we’ll have to make do with his seven-word text, sent immediately on the final whistle.
John McCormick writes: Tuesday morning, and I’m idly contemplating the weekend and Pete Sixsmith’s “first time” feature which will announce it. “Did I see Preston in our promotion year?” I thought to myself. So I got out my trusty promotion year souvenir brochure that my dad bought me (2/6) and had a look.
Preston were there, as I expected, but I remember nothing about the game, not even the very decent score, which makes me wonder if I went. Fortunately, Pete Sixsmith definitely did:
Monsieur Salut writes: thinking Kevin Kilbane had a bit of a raw deal from SAFC fans isn’t the same as thinking he was a rip-roaring success for us. I saw him play badly, but also saw him play well and still be slagged off. To our PNE ‘Who are You?’ interviewee Norm Shilcock*, he’s a ‘great homegrown hero’ and he should know because he used to teach philosophy.
Norm, who ‘blogs, blags and comments’ at www.thesocialnorm.co.uk, nearly didn’t make it to Salut! Sunderland. Incompetence sometimes rules around here and I sent the questions to someone else not just once but twice before realising. So hats off to him for turning in his answers so quickly. Stand by for some terrific thoughts on us, Grayson and Coleman, David Beckham, PNE’s chances of staying up if they made it to the Premier League …
Just when we’re all down in the dumps, Pete Sixsmith rides along on his white steer to cheer us up a little. A wave of nostalgia swept over Sixsmith Towers after Salut! Sunderland‘s associate editor John McCormick alerted him to a showing of the 1973 FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough. Sixer revelled in the reminder of his best day out as a SAFC supporter … …
Monsieur Salut writes: here’s another Guess the Score. Pete Sixsmith may or may not enter but is already fearful of another home defeat, sensing that Preston North End are simply too well organised for us. As each matchday passes, the exercise of predicting results looks more academic. The point may soon come at which not even blind faith and predictions of SAFC-winning scorelines can any longer make a difference to the way things will end up in May …
Salut! Sunderland is not about to wash its hands of Sunderland AFC, or even to wash its hands of the labour of love running this site entails.
A harsh reader would say Bob Chapman brings it on himself. A drive up from the Home Counties for the Villa game weould have been enough to put off most people but four days later, he was enduring more dross from the worst Sunderland team he has seen in 54 years of following the club home and away. If only the team could play football as well as the likes of Bob and Pete Sixsmith write, we’d be out of sight at the top of the Championship. But how both of them would love to be able to report on a day out with old friends, supping good ale and recalling bands from the 1960s and 70s, without having to describe how it was all spoilt by SAFC …
Could we have got something from this game? I thought so, but Bob Chapman’s report will give a more accurate picture than the SAFC website and that won’t arrive until tomorrow.
Bob will be reporting in the Place of Pete Sixsmith, who decided against a trip to Loftus Road. Even so, it was Pete who forwarded the seven-word text that summed up a dismal day.
John McCormick writes: I had to check with the Statcat when this one came up – why did I not see us play at QPR when I lived in London? It transpires they were promoted in 1973. I was busy that year and didn’t notice them going up, just before I moved to London, and by the time we joined them in Division One I was on my way to Liverpool.
Did I miss something special by not going to see QPR when I had the chance? In the early 1970s they were quite a team, with the likes of Stan Bowles, Gerry Francis and Rodney Marsh exciting the crowds. However, Rodney Marsh moved on in 1972 and there are those who argue QPR were never the same without him so I probably didn’t.
What about Pete Sixsmith? I rather get the feeling he visited Loftus Road too early and missed QPR at their peak, even though they had recently lifted neutral hearts. It’s possible, though, that more pressing things required attention at the time and the wider world of football had to take a back seat for a while:
Monsieur Salut writes: Ian McCullough* is a seasoned sportswriter and a friend of a friend (John Crowley, who has also occupied this hot seat). He supports QPR but has a soft spot for Sunderland and will be at Saturday’s match with a Mackem pal. His assessment of QPR’s decline could as easily apply to us.
Ian’s team has hardly had a great season but, on 40 points against our rock-bottom 28, can be fairly sure they will not finish last. Our relegation rivals are doing their best to give us a chance but it is not, so far, a chance our team seems able to grasp. Can Saturday provide enough respite from the unfortunate atmosphere when home games go wrong to enable them to play with rare assurance and pick up three points? John O’Shea talks of there still being 30 points to play for but the supporters desperately need some encouragement from Chris Coleman and whoever he can turn out.
Welcome Ian (@IanMac08 at Twitter), even it feels like intruding into private grief …