Colin Randall - SAFC Blog - Page 83 of 572

Sixer’s Sevens: Middlesbrough 1-0 Sunderland. Valiant defeat or deservedly bottom?

November 6, 2017November 5, 2017 by Colin Randall

Monsieur Salut writes: Pete Sixsmith should have been sitting next to me today, I had to cry off – wife unwell – but watched on the TV what I thought was far from a bottom-of-the-table performance. It just wasn’t quite good enough and we lost anyway. Grabban should have scored minutes before we inevitably succumbed to a smart Boro move, aided by the usual slack defending. On BBC Radio Newcastle, Benno said the timing of substitutions was again questionable: ‘where are we going to get a win from? I don’t know’. Nick Barnes: ‘Fantastic Grabban chance … [then] huffed and puffed but really didn’t cause Boro any problems second half.’ Sixer’s verdict is the one that counts and he has seen enough wretched play this season, and for the past 50, to be entitled to his even harsher judgement …

Is Middlesbrough vs SAFC a derby? Last chance to vote

November 6, 2017November 5, 2017 by Colin Randall

[polldaddy poll=9867201]

Managerless and bottom of the league, we need distraction. The poll provided one. Monsieur Salut brings news of the results so far …

‘I remember thinking how curious it was to see all these ancient buses full of supporters from Tow Law or Spennymoor or Crook. They seemed such far off places, somehow separate from Sunderland.’

That matchday memory of a Sunderland childhood was shared with me many years ago by Kate Adie, the top BBC reporter, in an interview for Wear Down South, the magazine of the London and SE branch of the Sunderland AFC Supporters’ Association.

The great debate: Newcastle-SAFC is a derby, Middlesbrough’s not’. You decide

November 5, 2017November 3, 2017 by Colin Randall

[polldaddy poll=9867201]

Is Middlesbrough vs Sunderland a derby or just a match between teams not that far apart geographically?

Monsieur Salut writes: it is a simple enough if inconsequential issue. I think it is a derby, Bill Harris – an SAFC stalwart, Salut! Sunderland reader and occasional Guess the Score winner – is adamant it is not.

Sunderland in crisis: Ellis some way Short of convincing

November 5, 2017November 3, 2017 by Colin Randall

Jake: ‘we won’t just mind our own business’

The Northern Echo publishes the full transcript of an interview with Sunderland owner Ellis Short at the official club site. You can see and hear it at safc.com and decide for yourselves how searching the questions were.

Salut! Sunderland will just pick out a few key points, all of which you’ll find amplified at the links above:

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Ground: Middlesbrough, Ayresome Park and the Riverside

November 5, 2017November 3, 2017 by Colin Randall

John McCormick writes: a few of the old grounds I’ve visited are not around now – Oxford’s Manor, Maine Road, the Old Den, Boothferry Park and the Brittania spring to mind – but what is strange is that I haven’t been to any, not one, of the new grounds that replaced them.

For some reason, though, I rarely think of Ayresome Park when I’m mentally checking away trips off. But been there I have, way back in the Sixties, though in common with my other dead grounds I’ve never been to its replacement.

Pete Sixsmith has, however. In fact he’s been to both and is thus able to inform, entertain and educate us with another account from his ‘first time’ series. So pour a Double Maxim, kick your shoes off, sit back, relax and enjoy:

Middlesbrough Who are You?: ‘if we score early, SAFC may fall apart’

November 2, 2017November 2, 2017 by Colin Randall

Andy Falconer: wondering whether we should all give up and follow South Shields

Who are You? may be slowly turning into a family affair. After Wrinkly Pete roped in his Bristol City-supporting nephew, Monsieur Salut does the same with the Boro-supporting part of the Randall clan (my sister has lived in Middlesbrough almost all her adult life). Andy Falconer* grew up close to Ayresome Park. He is bang up to date with comments on Simon Grayson’s saacking – risky for Sunderland, he believes – and expresses a liking for McGeady, Watmore and Catts while naturally thinking no Sunderland player could truly enhance the Boro squad. He sees a bitter scrap at the bottom for us, promotion via the playoffs for his lot …

Middlesbrough vs Sunderland prize Guess the Score: life after Simon

November 6, 2017November 2, 2017 by Colin Randall

Jake: ‘Yep, it’s still a mug for the winner’

Just as Sunderland supporters were given two reasons to smile – the dismissal of Simon Grayson demanded by so many and a sudden leap to the heady heights of third bottom – a quick look at the Championship results and table showed the other sick man of North-eastern football suddenly feeling a lot more perky.

Boro’s 3-1 win at Hull City took them to just outside the playoffs and reminds us of the scale of Sunday’s task with or more likely without a new manager.

Sixer’s Bolton Soapbox: ‘don’t kid yourselves Grayson’s swansong was a six-goal thriller’

November 1, 2017November 1, 2017 by Colin Randall

Jake: ‘don’t worry Sixer, you’ll be ho-ho-hoing again soon’

Poor Pete Sixsmith, enduring yet another game in which Sunderland looked every inch relegation candidates, twice trailing to and only then scraping a draw against another side looking every inch relegation candidates.

Shortly after the error-strewn match, the glaringly obvious reason for there being no post-match managerial press conference was confirmed. The men largely responsible for the Sunderland’s failings, and therefore in part responsible for the manager’s impotency in the face of a great club’s decline, had sacked Simon Grayson. Where do we go from here? In Sixer’s case, to the welcome respite of Christmas Santa duties …

Nick Barnes: ‘what’s it like covering a normal club instead of Sunderland?’

November 1, 2017 by Colin Randall

Nick Barnes, interviewing Grayson’s equally hapless predecessor

Monsieur Salut writes: one saving grace of supporting Sunderland from afar, whether from France or London in my case, is the need to rely on Nick Barnes and Gary Bennett‘s commentary on each game at BBC Radio Newcastle. It’s not free as it used to be but for once, that is not the club’s fault – the Football League insists that commentary via club sites should be paid-for.

Someone I follow at Twitter said last night that Benno’s moaning got him down. In my case, it’s the cause of that moaning that depresses me: the utter dross and incompetence he and Nick are required to assess. But I believe they do it, the commentary and the punditry, in style, Nick’s measured eloquence combining effectively with Benno’s footballing nous and passion for the club he captained.

Here, from a Facebook posting he has given me consent to reproduce, Nick – read more about him here – reflects on the club’s predicament and suggests we will rise again. As for when, he is less sure.

And if you read on, there’s a response from Graeme Anderson, another man who knows the joys and other emotions of reporting on Sunderland …

Grayson sacked. But what do the masters of his misfortune plan next?

October 31, 2017 by Colin Randall

Time to unscrew the name plate on the manager’s office door again

To no great surprise, Simon Grayson has been sacked after yet another wretched result, 3-3 at home to the Championship’s bottom club, Bolton Wanderers.

Nice guy out of his depth or decent manager with all the odds stacked against him by a basket case of a football club. Either way, Grayson is no longer Sunderland’s manager.

Having scraped two draws from two home games he said himself were important to win after the horrendous start to the season, Grayson found on Tuesday night that the patience of our absent owner and present but struggling chief executive had run out.