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Sunderland vs Portsmouth Who are You? ‘We should be runaway favourites by now’

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Peter Allen: ‘These days, Saturdays for me mean dodging Gilets Jaunes missiles on the boulevards of Paris’

Monsieur Salut writes: Peter Allen is my very good pal and partner-in-crime (if that’s the right way to describe our shared trade of journalism) in Paris. He happens to support Portsmouth and, having made it to Wembley, hoped to visit Sunderland for this Saturday’s game. Instead, he will be stuck in France, scouring the internet for an audio or visual link.

His real Who are You? was the one he did back in December but which became a casualty when this site crashed on the day we played them at Fratton Park. I refreshed it earlier this week and it remains, despite being out of date in terms of the League One promotion race, a great read. See it at this link.

And now, at much shorter length, is how he sees things as the season nears a climax …

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Sunderland vs Portsmouth: a question of points no longer in our hands

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There IS a prize and you know what it is

Even as I wrote last week that we would remain masters of our destiny and go up automatically provided we matched our rivals’ results, I was riddled with doubt, says Monsieur Salut.

A quick look at the fixtures at the top end of League One table showed there was no room for the least slip. Even when I saw that Coventry were ahead at Portsmouth, it seemed too much to hope that this would remain the case (if the spirit of Jimmy Hill has any influence, his old club’s two games involving us and Pompey could not have gone better).

As for Barnsley and Luton, did anyone seriously expect other than comfortable wins at Plymouth and Accrington Stanley.

Pete Sixsmith in exalted company. Tune in to BBC Newcastle to hear him with Simon Pryde, John Anderson and Marco Gabbiadini. Total Sport 5.30-7.00.

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Sixer’s Soapbox: Peterborough make their point against Sunderland

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John McCormick is editing this in Liverpool, where one of the clubs could win the Champions League, not to mention the Premier League, and the other’s just put four past Manchester United. When he has finished he’ll be seeing daughter Helen and her Spurs supporting boyfriend Will off to Lime Street Station, from where they’ll get to Euston in time for Will to travel up the Northern line to a brand new state of the art stadium and a team that’s hoping to qualify for Europe without having to win the Champions League, which they could also do. Such is life outside County Durham, where a different form of reality is emerging from the ashes of a long hard season.

Pete Sixsmith – to be found on BBC Radio Newcastle’s Total Sport between 6pm and 7pm on Wednesday, ie tomorrow – picks up the story:

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Sixer’s Peterborough sevens. Bitterly disappointing

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Is there another twist to come? With only two or three games left time is not on our side, and nor are the fixtures.  We  might yet do it, and at the very least we have the playoffs, so all is not yet lost, but…

…which means this away draw, against a tough team, is not one we can take any pleasure in, as Pete Sixsmith makes abundantly clear in this seven word, post-whistle text:

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Sunderland vs Portsmouth ‘Who are You?’: a buildup that began in December

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THIS interview, from just before our 3-1 defeat at Fratton Park in December, was among many items lost when the Salut! Sunderland site crashed. It took an expensive repair job to get back to normal but not everything was salvaged. John McCormick edited and posted the original article so what appears below – restored now more than anything because Peter Allen put a lot of thoughts into his responses and it remains a good read despite the passage of time – has been cobbled together from the e-mail exchange of questions and answers and the headline will differ from John’s.

Monsieur Salut writes: Peter Allen* was my favourite confrere among the British continent of foreign correspondents when I lived in Paris. We worked, ate and drank together, often enough finding a televised match to watch. We were even tear-gassed together, covering a student riot outside the Sorbonne. Pete is still in Paris but is a lifelong Pompey supporter. He’s seen good days and miserable days for his club. [Back in December] he thought the League One championship would be decided when our teams met near the end of the season. [That has all changed but here is how he looked forward to that first game between us this season, when Wembley for Checkatrade and maybe even the playoffs were far from our thoughts] …

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Jim Baxter: Dave Parnaby’s Appreciation

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Pete Sixsmith provides the introduction to today’s guest:

Dave Parnaby is a Kelloe lad who started following Sunderland in the 1960s. He was a very good player himself, turning out with distinction for Gateshead, Barrow and er, Shildon Sunderland Supporters, among others.

He was Head of PE at Spennymoor Comprehensive School where his coaching abilities led to him being appointed manager of the England Schools FA Under 15 team, the top job in that organisation. His success came to the notice of Middlesbrough FC and he was persuaded to leave teaching and become their Academy Director.

The rest, as they say, is history as he supervised the progress of players like Stewart Downing, Ben Gibson and our own Lee Cattermole and Charlie Wyke. He remains a Sunderland supporter – once bitten by this club, it’s impossible to get rid of that love for it.

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The First Time Ever I Saw Your Ground: Peterborough United, London Road and the ABAX stadium

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John McCormick writes: It was an easy walk from our house to the railway bridge where, if you timed it right, you could be enveloped by the steam emitted from the likes of the Flying Scotsman and the Mallard as they thundered up and down the line between London and Newcastle (our thoughts never went further north). Only now, while looking for material to embellish this tale, have I found out what class of engine they were.

Pete Sixsmith, of course, knew. Is there nothing this man cannot turn his hand to?

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Peterborough United vs Sunderland: the stakes are high

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There IS a prize and you know what it is

We did what was necessary against Doncaster Rovers. We are still masters of our own destiny. But that could change if we falter against Posh.

With so few games left, there is no further leeway. The results of others have to be matched. If they are, we go up automatically, without the ordeal of playoffs.

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