Colin Randall 
We’ve had a first winner in this season’s Guess the Score series and it’s yet another correct prediction from Paul Devine, a Sunderland supporter exiled in the Netherlands. He sensed we would draw 1-1 with Derby County and was right.
As I write, the Bury League Cup game is still to come. There may be another winner to announce from that tie (NB: the obvious update is that I am delighted we got through).
But now on to Carrow Road.
This is turning into a classic series from Pete Sixsmith. Can he possibly keep it up? If he can, there must be a book in this gripping series of reminiscences from a man who has seen more football grounds than Donald Trump has mislaid staff.
In the third instalment of The First Time Ever I Saw your Team, Sixer again mixes football nostalgia, history and travelogue as he prepares for a weekend’s trip to Norwich City with a look back to the first time he visited Carrow Road …
After experiencing one of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution in Bury, with its steam railway, its statues of Sir Robert Peel and John Kay (the inventor of the Flying Shuttle rather than the legendary SAFC full back of the late 80s and early 90s) and the home of Richmal Crompton of William fame, we take to the road once again.
This time we are travelling in an easterly direction, ignoring the high Pennines and touching on the low Fens as we trek along the A17/47 super route to what has oft been described as “Britain’s nicest city”, Norwich.
Welcome to the 2017-2018 edition of Sixer’s Sevens, in which Pete Sixsmith captures the essence of each game in just seven words. An asterisk before the verdict indicates that Sixer was absent and the words have been supplied by a supersub.
But no Supersub was needed today. Pete was there. We got through (and after the most tedious draw in history we’re away to Carlisle in the next round). His match report will follow, though with Norwich so near and so far I’m not sure when, so for now we’ll have to mull over a very non-committal verdict that make no mention of George Honeyman, who did his bit in a team that just might be coming together. Maybe Jake got it right with his caption.
We’ve done the Bury buildup.
An outstanding Who are You? from Norwich is lined up, as is Guess the Score and the latest edition of Pete Sixsmith’s marvellous new series, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Team.
So let’s veer slight off-piste and talk Scrabble.
APOLOGIES FOR THE EARLIER LOSS OF THE SITE FROM THE WEB: IT SEEMS LIKELY ONE OF THE IMAGES — USED OF SEB WAS TO BLAME. ITS REMOVAL HAS DONE THE TRICK
There are departures and departures. Sometimes players go and we’re delighted to see the back of them, either because they proved to be useless for Sunderland or seemed to care nothing for the club. Offer your own list of candidates.
A few are so good or promising that it would be unrealistic to expect them as professionals to stay. Witness the two Jordans, Henderson and Pickford: they’ll always be Sunderland fans but how many of us would allow such simple preferences to stand in the way of massive job opportunities?
And then there are those who have done a job for us but for whom a move is in the best interests of club and player.
Seb Larsson falls into that category.
Like Mel, commenting in the Bury vs Sunderland Guess the Score competition (have a go whoever you support), I was at Roker Park on Boxing Day 1962 when an accidental collision with Bury’s keeper Chris Harker effectively ended Brian Clough’s career. King Charlie missed a penalty, we lost 1-0 and a fluke winner for Chelsea in the final game of the season cost us promotion. I was not there when a 5-2 win won us promotion many years later. Neil Davis is too young to have been there in the 1960s but remembers the other game as the best defeat he’s experienced … read of for some great thoughts from a solid fan of a proper club …
Pete Sixsmith has added another superb instalment to his self-inflicted First Time Ever I Saw Your Team series.
Whoever who support, it’s a great read, taking in Sixer’s experiences of seeing SAFC play Bury.
Monsieur Salut thought he had missed a rather important shared experience of the more distant past – that awful Boxing Day in 1962 when Brian Clough collided with the blameless Bury keeper Chris Harker. But Sixer wasn’t there that day to share the agony of the Fulwell end (compounded by Charlie Hurley’s missed penalty and a 1-0 defeat).
Torn medial and cruciate ligaments were a lot harder to repair back then and although Cloughie came back, it was not for another season and a half and the injury effectively ended his playing career. Was it a blessing in disguise given how distinguished a manager he became?
For his first contribution to a series he devised in a quiet moment between delivering papers, visiting obscure football grounds and losing weight, Pete Sixsmith very nearly won the Freedom of Derby, so contented were the Rams fans who strayed here long enough to see it.
Second instalment: back where we won 5-2 to clinch promotion yonks ago, and where more recently we went two goals down before snatching victory in the first of our pre-season friendlies.
This was a great idea for a series. Let’s hope Sixer’s lighter shape can withstand the demands it will place on him for all the instalments to come …
Paul Summerside was Mr Doom and Gloom last season – as, in our different ways, were most of the rest of us – and eventually went on strike, boycotting the Stadium of Light in protest at David Moyes still being in charge.
After one home draw against broadly similar underachievers, he/we will hardly be proclaiming the return of Good Times. But in a fascinating debate at Salut! Sunderland‘s Facebook pages – join the group* if you haven’t already – he made these cautiously upbeat points. The optimism depends on Simon Grayson getting the proceeds of the Jeremain Lens departure (UPDATE: on reflection a lot less sensible and lucrative than it appeared; just a loan with SAFC receiving only £1.4m – and more – to strengthen his side …
Monsieur Salut writes: the season is underway – with a 1-1 draw at home to Derby County – and so is the 2017-2018 edition of Sixer’s Sevens, in which Pete Sixsmith captures the essence of each game in just seven words. An asterisk before the verdict indicates that Sixer was absent and the words have been supplied by a supersub.