John McCormick writes:I couldn’t get the matchday centre, no matter what I tried (and try I did). Various websites were no help because there are no clubs outside the Premiership so I was reliant on Pete Sixsmith and his half time text: “0-0 Better than Saturday but not very inspiring”.
I found the BBC’s text service for the second half. It sounded as if Pete had summarised the first half perfectly. Then came a second text “terrible error by Browning 0-1” One of our ex-players, of course
And that was that, as Pete’s final text, in seven words, no more, no less explained:
Paul Summerside: staying away until a certain individual departs
Monsieur Salut writes: I detected little optimism in close season about our prospects for a quick return to the Premier League, Hope, yes, but we always suffer from that. I imagine you’d get pretty long odds just now on us recovering from a dismal start and getting back up. As things stand, there’s more chance of winning something playing live casino games than of the present bunch of players leading a determined charge on the top six, let alone the top two.
But we can probably all agree the start to the season has been rather more dismal than most of us expected. Pete Sixsmith’s second goal update from the Stadium of Light reported the start of the exodus vs Sheffield United. And now Paul Summerside, briefly optimistic about the Simon Grayson era, has returned to the sulky gloom he experienced as Sunderland wasted everyone’s time last season (the old Jeremy Robson joke – ‘shall we just fax the points to you and save us all the trouble of staging or attending a game?’- rang true week after week).
Paul has sparked a lively debate at the Salut! Sunderland Facebook group* on the correct response, as he sees it, to the terrible malaise afflicting our club. His is drastic …
John McCormick writes: It’s the time of the week that all true Sunderland fans have come to fear. A chance to guess the score in a Sunderland AFC game.
What will you do? Be honest and write us off? Or keep the faith and go for a win?
For the second time in recent games we had more possession than our opponents, yet were beaten. I said the first time that the defeat had to be a message, for our players, for our manager and, above all, for our owner. They don’t appear to have understood, so Sheffield United obligingly repeated it.
If that’s not enough Pete Sixsmith’s seven word text, sent immediately after the final whistle, puts it simply:
Fixtures come thick and fast in the Championship. No sooner have we left our (in my case metaphorical) seats after Sheffield Utd than we’re sitting back down for the arrival of Nottingham Forest.
I have memories of watching Forest play us in the 60s and it’s likely I was at some of the games that Pete Sixsmith also attended. But I’m not sure about this one – I have no memory of ever seeing Harry Hood play. So it was with great interest that I read Pete’s account of this game, wondering if it would reawaken some distant flicker in my mind. It didn’t, although I do remember Churchill’s funeral, but that doesn’t mean it’s not another superb account.
Dave Eyre: the Blade who lifted the Champions League trophy**
On a train somewhere during a long trip to the United States, our Sheffield United interviewee Dave Eyre* will try to find wifi access to events at the Stadium of Light. He predicts an uneventful season for both clubs, a win on Saturday for the Blades. United are an interesting club and Dave, an academic and folk music broadcaster, is an interesting man. These are fascinating and thought-provoking responses to the Salut! Sunderland questions though we can surely quarrel with his assertion that the United-Wednesday rivalry is more intense than Sunderland-Newcastle …
Salut! Sunderland: So how will Sheffield United do on their return to the second tier and can they ever return to the top?
Dave Eyre: I expect this year to be one of consolidation. It’s taken a while – six years – to get back into this division. Looking at the money being spent by some clubs we will not be competing via the transfer stakes and buying our way further up. But we have a great academy with some superb prospects and if Huddersfield can do it why not? We have a history as a First Division/Premiership club; brilliant facilities ready for the Premier League; and the first ever goal scored in the Premier League was at Bramall Lane – Brian Deane against Manchester United. We won 2-1.
Jake: ‘haway, Monsieur Salut, get your finger out, there’s as many winners waiting for prizes as the Lads had home wins last season ‘
On a mid-December day in 2016, 40,267 souls were recorded as being present when, shortly after 4pm, Patrick van Aanholt, scored the goal that proved a winner against Watford at the Stadium of Light. Sunderland have not won a home game since.
Simon Grayson has had only two SoL games in charge so can hardly be blamed for this lamentable state of affairs. David Moyes can be blamed a lot, as can our want-away ower Ellis Short and his hired-to-be-stingy chief executive Martin Bain.
Can we break this wretched duck – no home wins in a year now in its ninth month – against Sheffield United?
