Colin Randall

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

Sixer’s Sevens: blushes avoided as Watmore, McNulty and Grigg edge SAFC past Grimsby Town

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Was it inevitable that despite sacking Jack Ross, Sunderland still contrived to go behind to opposition they should be walloping? What happened to No Manager Bounce?

Well, it bounced. The same resilience we showed on better days under Ross surfaced and goals from Watmore – welcome back – and McNulty put us ahead. There wasn’t even time to think of a late flurry of SAFC goals as Grimsby drew level immediately courtesy of Pete Sixsmith’s regular companion. ‘appalling defending’. We were spared penalties – and blushes – by a good Sunderland move, Hume’s cross headed home by Will Grigg. A first step back to Wembley of the EFL Trophy (aka Leasing,com)?

What you see below is Sixer’s instant seven-word verdict. One of 6,952 souls present at the SoL, he’ll be back with more …

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Sunderland vs Grimsby Town. After Lincoln debacle, will Tuesday’s child be full of woe?

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Jake: ‘Time for some semblance of redemption’

Trust it to be on an especially dismal weekend for Sunderland supporters for this site to work just as it should: loads of readers, strong comments from our fans, appreciation from opposing supporters and, so far as Monsieur Salut can tell, no sign of the Turkish hackers.

It will hardly cheer up Pete Sixsmith to know “Clanford”, at this Lincoln City fan forum ensured a lot Imps fans would read his brilliant if depressing account (see it here if you missed it). Another City fan, Brendan Bradley, added this comment: “If there’s one sentence that applies to 100 per cent of football supporters though it’s this one: ‘as often happens, the game spoilt a pleasant day’.”

Another game looms before the international break and you will see if you read on that your thoughts are invited on how it will go. It is only the EFL Trophy, uninvitingly entitled Leasing.com Trophy for sponsorship reasons, but remember that as the equally mundane Checkatrade Trophy last season, it did get us one of those losing outings to Wembley we seem to specialise in.

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Sixer’s Sevens: Lincoln 2 Sunderland 0, Sixsmith 4

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At 3,12pm the BBC reported Chris Maguire had been sent off. In the absence of any confirmation from Pete Sixsmith I went looking elsewhere and found a site that gave the score at 2-0. It was quickly corrected to 1-0, something Pete did confirm. How many League games since we prevented our opponents from scoring?

Pete became a bit busier after half-time, sending four seven word texts instead of the usual one:

A performance flatter than the Lincolnshire countryside

Imps cause Ross all kinds of trouble

Outplayed and out thought by rampant Imps

And one that says it all:

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The first time ever I saw your ground: Lincoln City and Sincil Bank

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Pete Sixsmith, Montgomery and other heroes

Johnn McCormick writes: Today, we welcome the return of an excellent but brief series, twice. This is a repost because we appear once again to have been visited by the purveyor of Turkish massage sites. So if you’ve seen this before please accept our apologies. If you haven’t here’s another piece to enjoy. 

Pete Sixsmith is a member of the 92 club and over the previous two seasons he has regaled us with tales of visits to grounds in Divisions two and three, and tales of visits by Division two and three clubs to Roker Park and the Stadium of Light. Then we ran out of new grounds and the series ended.

Until today. Lincoln City tootled up from non-League to League Two and League One in fine style, and now we’re off to play them.

But not for the first time. Over to Mr Sixsmith

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Lincoln City vs Sunderland: more points on the board please, Lads

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Jake: nowt for Lincoln City and three or four for SAFC would make for a good-looking scoreline’


A well-known writer on Sunderland AFC has solemnly declared that this Saturday’s visit to Lincoln City will be the farthest south he will travel this season in the cause of following the team.

It remains to be seen whether that writer, none other than our own Pete Sixsmith, will maintain this boycott of half the country if promotion ends up being potentially sealed at, say, Burton in April. Or indeed if we return to Wembley for some reason.

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From Anfield to Accrington? Why Wembley will wait

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If you read Pete Sixsmith’s match report on the Sheffield United cup match or Malcolm’s account from last Saturday you’ll know I was  up for the MK Dons game. Malcolm might have given you a clue that it wasn’t just any old visit. Pete did, too, but I deleted his brief reference.

It was, in fact, my first trip to the SOL since the start of the previous season, and my first Sunderland game since December, and it had to be organised with great care. Trains instead of the car, and clothes that were guaranteed to keep me warm. And I can now add that by the time I got home I was knackered, far more than usual.

The reason lies in events that began nigh on a year ago but please forgive my artistic licence; I’m starting a lot further back than that.

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Substitute Sixer’s Soapbox: an ultimately shaky win over MK Dons and ‘unhelpful constant criticism’ of Ross

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Readers will know we have been experiencing technical problems caused by a malicious redirection of certain of our pages to a scummy Turkish escort site. Salut! Sunderland is now more secure (at a hefty price) but neither that, nor as much self-help and professional cleansing as we have been able to do without further expenditure, has rid us of this Turkish blight.

When a page redirects to Istanbul – as happened with Sixer’s Sevens after the MK Dons match and this full report by our deputy editor Malcolm Dawson – we are excluded from the invaluable headline-grabbing newsnow.co.uk site and the number of readers plummets alarmingly.

Reposting, while irrtating for readers who have already seen the relevant item, has been known to help. So we are today republishing Malcolm’s outstanding analysis in the hope it may avoid the vulture-like attentions of our friends from the east and attract the audience it deserves.

A full professional clean-up to eliminate (maybe!)  the bug would be too expensive so if anyone knows a SAFC-supporting IT wizard who would be happy to do it for a pittance, please say so …

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Sixer’s MK Dons Sevens: a flying start but nervy 2-1 win

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Monsieur Salut writes: Pete Sixsmith greatly enjoyed his midweek trip to Bramall Lane, a winning display on the field enhanced by a feelgood, relatively sober atmosphere among our travelling fans.

And so back to the mundane but – surely for us – more important world of League One. Sixer was there with our associate editor John McCormick in the East Stand, deputy editor Malcolm Dawson back in his usual seat so a decent turn-out for the Salut! Sunderland editorial team.

A bright start produced two goals, another cracker for Max Power – ‘even better than on Wednesday at Sheff Utd’, said Sixer – and a second from Luke O’Nien. At half time, Pete deplored ‘another spineless referee’ for failing to reduce ‘Franchise FC’ to 10 men for an assault on O’Nien that screamed red but drew yellow.

Jake: ‘from Spain, it sounded like the classic game of two halves’

In true Sunderland fashion, we failed to build on or convincingly defend even a two-goal lead and, as Ipswich coasted to victory at home to Tranmere, a goal was duly conceded.

Sixer reported us ‘living on our nerves’ while Gary Bennett said we looked too much like an away team clinging on desperately to a slim lead. That said, we did hang on and three valuable points are ours. Pete’s seven-word verdict – take your pick from the two he offered – will be followed by a full appraisal …

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Sunderland vs MK Dons. How many of SAFC’s Bramall Lane stars will feature?

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Jake: ‘now for some points on the table … please’

Football talk thrives on whats ifs.

What if Jack Ross, suitably impressed by his much-changed team’s latest winning exploits in the Carabao Cup, decided the same side can surely coast past MK Dons in the more important matter of the League One promotion race?

It was, after all, a fine 1-0 win against Sheffield United, albeit also much changed after their 2-0 Premier League triumph at Everton.

But we know it won’t happen because football doesn’t tend to work that way. A few of Wednesday night’s stars may get into the squad but the chances of Ross announcing an unchanged side are less than zero.

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