Colin Randall - SAFC Blog - Page 69 of 572

A View from the Avenue: have the miracles run out?

February 18, 2018 by Colin Randall

Paul Summerside doesn’t mince his words. He calls himself a ‘lapsed SAFC fan’ but is one of 20,000+ longing to resume active support. Ellis Short and Martin Bain may throw up their arms in proclaimed innocence, but what can either of them actually offer those who can take no more? As ever, the pages of Salut Sunderland are open to the owner and/or chief executive. As ever, don’t hold your breath …

At church this morning, the crew of Fulwell 73 (oh the irony) were filming for a forthcoming documentary on this season at SAFC, called Keep the Faith.

Bolton Wanderers vs Sunderland Guess the Score: more misery or modest redemption?

February 20, 2018February 18, 2018 by Colin Randall

Roll up masochists and dreamers. It’s competition time again

We went early with the latest of Pete Sixsmith’s chronicles of doom from the Stadium of Light. He’s off to watch Rugby League today so sent his piece just as Channel Five’s Championship programme prepared to delight Brentford fans and horrify Sunderland supporters with what are laughingly called the highlights of another calamitous afternoon.

Now, we turn our attentions to Bolton Wanderers and Tuesday night. About the only saving graces on Saturday were that they lost, Birmingham lost, Burton failed to beat Nottingham Forest (which would have dumped us back in bottom place) and neither Barnsley nor Hull had games.

Sixer’s Brentford Soapbox: warmth from sunshine, warmth for Liam Miller, otherwise chilly

February 19, 2018February 17, 2018 by Colin Randall

Pete Sixsmith will be on his way tomorrow to watch his beloved rugby league. It rarely fails to put a smile on his face. We have seen, on a handful of occasions this season, how a good Sunderland performance can have the same effect. At most games, however, he witnesses a shambles of a team that would turn the man who is depressive into one who is suicidal. Brentford fans turned out in force and rightly enjoyed their day out (and how they must have loved Sixer’s Bees edition of his fabulous series The First Time Ever I Saw Your Team

Where on earth we, Sunderland, go from here should be anyone’s guess but isn’t – we’re bound for another taste of third division football unless something happens and quickly ….

Sixer’s Sevens: Brentford exploit our defensive frailty

February 20, 2018February 17, 2018 by Colin Randall

1-0 down after 15 minutes, 2-0 after half an hour. Jones booked five minutes later. What a surprise.

How much is a typical League One club worth? Surely someone wants to buy and turn this club around.

Pete Sixsmith sent an e-mail not long before the kick-off. It included the phrase “sorry team for today”. He wasn’t kidding and by half-time he was able send a text with what would become his final verdict on that sorry team:

The heart of old Sunderland remembered

February 18, 2018February 17, 2018 by Colin Randall

Mike Dennison, well known to subscribers to the Black Cats e-mail loop, alerts us to a fascinating book of Sunderland reminiscences from the prolific Ian Mole …

Many Sunderland fans will be familiar with Ian Mole’s writing from the informative and amusing Lines From London Reports he has contributed to the website of the fanzine A Love Supreme.

Recalling Sunderland’s most memorable games in history

February 28, 2018February 16, 2018 by Colin Randall

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A just-for-fun poll introduces this look at some of the greatest games in Sunderland AFC’s history. Many readers will approve of the choices made by Ben Jones, a sportswriter and ‘massive Sunderland fan’. Others might add the 4-1 defeat of Chelsea in the first of our seventh-top Premier seasons under Peter Reid. Or the first FA Cup 6th Round replay against Manchester United at Roker Park in 1964. Back in 2013, a Roker Report piece on great games over the festive period threw others into the mix: the last-second win against Man City on New Year’s Day, 2012; a 4-1 Boxing Day romp at Bradford in 2000 and two Old Trafford classics (a 5-3 win on Boxing Day 1950 and a 2-1 defeat on New Year’s Day 2003. You decide …

Since Sunderland became the first new team to join the Football League in 1890 and from the earliest seasons, their name has been embroidered prominently in the tapestry of English football history.

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Team: Brentford

February 17, 2018February 16, 2018 by Colin Randall

John McCormick writes: Brentford – my favouritest club in all of London Town. I’ve seen them play at Griffin Park a few times, but have I seen them play at Roker? Definitely not in 1992, I never returned to the North East that season. 1967? It’s possible, indeed probable. However, I have no memory of any such game. Nothing, nada, zilch. Nowt at all, not even what is surely a memorable scoreline.

Unlike Pete Sixsmith:

Crowing About: why Coleman’s words are cutting the mustard

February 15, 2018 by Colin Randall

Jake: ‘click my image to join the **Salut! Sunderland** Facebook group’

For his second contribution to the pages of Salut! Sunderland, Martin Crow compares and contrasts – favourably – the Chris Coleman way with words, when talking publicly about Sunderland AFC, with the mix of gibberish, gallows humour, boorishness, beyond-the-pale philosophy and heavy gloom that has gone before …

Wrinkly Pete: all he is saying, is give these a chance

February 15, 2018February 15, 2018 by Colin Randall

In Channel Five‘s footy programme on Saturday the presenters made mention of the numbers leaving the SOL with half-an hour to go. People have always left early but when we stood in the Fulwell End all those years ago, with crowds of 50,000 plus, it was never so often, so many and so early. Which begs a couple of questions:

Do you stay to the end or leave early?

Do you applaud the team off the pitch irrespective of the score, or do you boo a loss (irrespective of how well they played)?

Wrinkly Pete has some food for thought for those that do the latter:

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Sunderland vs Brentford Who are You?: ‘I hope you stay up’

February 14, 2018 by Colin Randall

Jon Restall, on the left, celebrates promotion with a pal

Monsieur Salut writes: if I cannot actually see Griffin Park from where I write, I could walk it in 15-20 minutes. I have lived in this part of west London for 30+ years. My younger daughter’s first senior game as a player was a 5-5 draw in the red and white stripes of Brentford (she scored though with a scoreline like that, so did a lot of girls). Our Who are You? interviewee Jon Restall* – part of the highly active Brentford fans’ network Beesotted will miss the little old stadium when the club moves to a new home. Jon is a Bees fanatic and gets to loads of games.

He’ll be present in spirit this weekend for the visit of his team to the Stadium of Light – it’s his wife’s birthday and she apparently saw no great attraction in a romantic weekend on Wearside. We hope he misses a defeat for his club – he naturally fancies Brentford to be the latest of this season’s happy visitors to Sunderland …