Colin Randall

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

QPR vs Sunderland prize Guess the Score: rising above the gloom

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Have a go. There’s nothing much to lose

In the depths of our despair, it seems beyond belief that interest in one small corner of Sunderland AFC’s world should suddenly perk up.

But in the wake of Tuesday night’s surrender to Aston Villa, Salut! Sunderland’s Facebook group gained three new members. Not spammers, hookers or chancers – we get applictaions from them, too – but from self-evidently genuine Sunderland supporters. We’re now nudging 750 and none, as far as we know, are hookers.

Maybe Chris Coleman should print this out, fold it with something harder curled inside and rap it over the heads of our players and, if he happens to be passing in the corridor, Martin Bain.

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Sunderland’s headlong descent and the destruction of hopes, dreams and passion

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Abigail with Barry and Martin at PN; she saw us avoid defeat there

Let it be made clear that grandparents cannot be held responsible for what happens, provided lawful, between their sons and daughters and their grandchildren.

So Barry Emmerson must not feel personally culpable because his son, Martin, took 10-year-old Abigail, known to Salut! Sunderland readers, to her first Sunderland game after a recent dip in enthusiasm. The game Abigail chose was Villa at home … she describes the experience here while walking home with her dad after the score went to 0-3. And now Barry, responding to Pete Sixsmith’s eloquent portrayal of death barely warmed up, tells of the anguish it left him feeling

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A View from the Avenue: SAFC a scuttled ship and we’re drowning with it

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Paul Summerside: not past caring – just yet

Monsieur Salut writes: Paul Summerside tends to post his thoughts at the Salut! Sunderland Facebook page (and how I wish all of its 740 members came here at least once a day or even once a week). Sometimes, I pick on them and reproduce here, with scant editing. Sometimes, I’m a bit pushed and add them as a comment. And sometimes, I’m so pushed I do nothing. But this seems the perfect accompaniment to the sheer if despairing brilliance of Pete Sixsmith’s report of the meek acceptance of a Villa stroll. As you’ll see, Paul is one of those already voting ith his feet …

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SAFC vs Aston Villa: things to consider as a mighty challenge looms

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Monsieur Salut welcomes anyone who has missed Salut! Sunderland‘s comprehensive buildup to tonight’s game and offers pointers to the best of that coverage…

Approaching the home game against Aston Villa, kicking off a few hours from now, the Sunderland Echo speculated that SAFC’s survival propsects may well depend on winning this match or the next one, at QPR on Saturday. If pushed, I’d say we probably need to win both or at least emerge with four points.

The crisis has reached those desperate proportions.

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Sunderland vs Aston Villa prize Guess the Score. Last chance saloon?

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There is indeed a prize. Whether it’s a great prize depends on whether you feel a coffee mug can ever be great

Confidence remains in short supply as another failure to win a game not only exposes our limited powers of resistance but confirms our desperate short-term outlook.

As Mick Goulding and others have pointed out, here and elsewhere, a draw at in-form Millwall, while creditable enough if viewed in isolation, simply isn’t good enough in our current parlous state.

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Aston Villa ‘Who are You?’: Bruce, Grabban, Birmingham rivalry and SAFC’s ‘necessary’ relegation

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Tom: ‘Like Villa, I’m under Chinese ownership’;

Tom Jolliffe* cannot see beyond an away win at the Stadium of Light tomorrow. At least he applies a neat sense of humour, and traces of sympathy, to his asnwers about our plight and his club Aston Villa’s buoyant current state and longer-term prospects (which should not, in his view, include much room for Lewis Grabban beyond the Championship). And however controversial this will be, Monsieur Salut thinks he’s closer to being right than wrong in his assessment of Steve Bruce …

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The Chapman Report from Millwall. Full steam ahead but bound for the sidings

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Bob Chapman: sensing the inevitable

If Bob Chapman, eternal optimist and home-and-away stalwart, is resigned to relegation, then we must be in the deepest of trouble. At least his day out produced this little gem of a report on a day that promises to be busy, if not congested, as we tie up Millwall loose ends and prepare for the Aston Villa home game …

It’s always a bonus these days when I am able to incorporate other activities in a typical match day.

Although I continue to do it, the usual 460-mile drive up and down to the SoL offers little appeal. The highlight of the day invariably being a  couple of pints in the Dun Cow beforehand followed by fish and chips at Wetherby on the way back. Consequently, away days with a bunch of mates has invariably been a much better experience these past few seasons.

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The First Time Ever I Saw Your Team: Aston Villa

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Pete Sixsmith

John McCormick writes: Like most others I have been to see League games that didn’t involve Sunderland. Like a few, I have written about it – my  first piece of writing for this site was about Newcastle v Leyton Orient and a player called Dick Keith. If I had known then that I’d be posting pieces like this one from Pete Sixsmith I might not have bothered.

The man is a master. Read on and you’ll see what I mean:

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