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Port Vale vs SAFC: another Who are You?, a big Sunderland connection

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Ally Simcock

Monsieur Salut writes: sometimes, Salut! Sunderland struggles to find anyone supporting an opposing side to do the ‘Who are You?’ interview. Sometimes – not often – we receive a cast-iron promise, send out the questions and wait in vain for responses. And then there are the times we are overwhelmed with offers. Port Vale is one such example. Let’s hear from Ally Simcock*, former chairman [sorry, M Salut is too old to be doing with chairs as people] of the supporters’ club, a prolific writer on all things Vale and now a supporters’ liaison officer with the club. She reveals a Sunderland connection that goes right to the top of her club … and I have promised a third volunteer, Lisa Bowker, that I’ll be back with questions if it goes to the replay Ally predicts …

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Anything Raheem Sterling can do, Leon Osman did better for Everton

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The penalty awarded to Raheem Sterling for Man City after his foot prodded the ground and he fell over against Shakhtar Donetsk, having suffered absolutely no contact from any defender, has revived the debate about whether players should own up. Yes, it does sound a preposterous notion in 2018. Keith Hackett, a former referee talking on TalkSport, said that while a ref could take account of a player’s honest admission and change a decision, it was not something officials actually expected to happen. Oh dear.

But worst penalty decision in history, a question that we’ve seen being asked today? Sterling is in perfectly good company, Think back to Boxing Day 2011 at the Stadium of Light. This is the piece we published then, after Everton’s Leon Osman, untouched by any Sunderland player, missed his kick, stubbed the ground and went down with his hand raised in appeal mode. A world-class referee, Howard Webb, was fooled and Everton equalised from the spot to save a point. Go to the link to read the lively debate that followed …

Postscript: Sterling did offer a public apology to the referee Viktor Kassai and to Shakhtar (the penalty brought the second of City’s six goals). I am sure an Everton supporter will put us right if Osman, too, finally admitted he had ‘misled’ Webb …

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The tables turned: Sixer – ‘happy for once with SAFC’ – answers Port Vale’s questions

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No prize this time but Guess the Score just for fun – just click on this caption

Monsieur Salut writes: since Rob Fielding was kind enough to answer our Who are You? questions we could hardly say no when he asked for a reciprocal gesture.

Pete Sixsmith knows his Potteries and will be at Sunday’s match so it seemed right for him to do the honours for Rob’s highly professional OneValeFan site, where I noticed one Vale fan describing the likely away contingent of around 2,000 as a ‘poor show really … we’d take more than that if the game was at Sunderland’ …

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‘The novelty of a packed away end’: Port Vale vs SAFC Who are You?

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Rob Fielding. Click on his photo to see all other editions of Who are You? this season

Monsieur Salut writes: a slightly troubled search for a Port Vale fan for this week’s Who are You? finally led to three offers of help. Rob Fielding*, who runs the onevalefan.co.uk fan site, then turned around the questions as quickly as anyone in the history of the series and we are deeply grateful to him

This is what his fellow-Vale fan Tony Boulton, a Burslem boy in Texas, has to say: ‘Rob is a great bloke. He’s been working on his website for over 20 years, since the emergence of forums. Despite the very nature of fan communication, in the age of social media, he has persevered and kept it under control with an amazing level of integrity. Our history does not bear comparison to Sunderland, but we are two tiers below where we would like to think we can be. Football has changed so much, but the mid 90s was our heyday and if we never see that success again, we did make it to Wembley three times. That was something we could only dream about, when I was a kid …

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Bye bye Papy – Papy bye bye

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Malcolm Dawson writes……..in the briefest of statements the club has announced that it has reached an agreement with Papy Djilobodji that will finally bring an end to his employment at SAFC and bring closure to a saga which seems to epitomise the way the club had been badly run and the contrast in policy and attitudes that this current regime has brought to Sunderland AFC.

The statement in full reads: “Sunderland AFC has reached an agreement with Papy Djilobodji for his departure, his employment having terminated on 21 September 2018.” I would suspect the terms of the agreement precludes the club saying much more at this time, but a costly court case has been avoided and hopefully the matter has been resolved to the benefit of the club rather than the player.

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The Port Vale vs Sunderland Guess the Score. Let’s keep up that winning feeling

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Jake: ‘the road to Wembley looks longer than in previous years’

Oh, the shame of playing in the FA Cup first round. That’s one way of looking at Sunday’s visit to Port Vale. Another is to be philosophical about the chance to test players’ fitness, give lesser-used squad members some game time and maintain the great recent run for Sunderland AFC.

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The Plymouth Argyle Soapbox: Sixer defers to Marshall’s Lore on a ‘day to cherish’

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Jake: ‘Stop press: Sixer stepped off the Soapbox and it’s John Marshall in his place’

Monsieur Salut writes: John Marshall can always be relied upon to step in as an admirable substitute on occasions when Pete Sixsmith is absent from a Sunderland game. Sixer did see a SAFC win – Shildon’s ‘best performance of the season’, according the manager, to beat Barton Town 2-0 away in the second round of the Buildbase FA Vase – but arranged for John to provide both the Seven and the Soapbox report on a terrific result that took us to five wins on the trot and a place in the top two …

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