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Just the ticket for Chelsea, or lamb to the slaughter (2)

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Over the weekend we brought you the happy tale of the Toronto-based Sunderland supporter who travelled all the way from Canada to find “Britain Closed” signs up everywhere. Having missed out on SAFC v Bolton Wanderers, she managed to get a ticket for the sell-out game at Chelsea this Saturday. Here’s a follow-up from the North-eastern press …

Salut! Sunderland is indebted to The Northern Echo‘s Andy Richardson, who has caught up splendidly with our story of the Canadian SAFC fan promised a seat at Stamford Bridge this Saturday after being robbed by the weather of the game she’d planned to attend.

Andy informs us that the supporter is 39-year-old Sarah Harriman and that it was indeed a call to BBC’s Radio 5 Live’s 606 programme that led to the offer of a ticket for the Chelsea match.

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Soapbox: how can a week without football be interesting?

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Depriving Pete Sixsmith of a football game on a Saturday – in truth, on any day at all – is a bit like putting a junkie on cold turkey. The withdrawal symptons include harking back nearly half a century to the year when it was really was cold, and some matches were postponed dozens of times before they could be played …


The “Big Freeze” really hit us badly last week. Try as I did, it just wasn’t possible to get to work on Wednesday and Thursday, and by Friday most of the kids had decided to take the whole week off so we only had about 40 per cent of the little darlings in.

It came as no surprise when the rather Orwellian “Safety Committee” decided that the Stadium of Light surrounds were too dangerous for Sunderland v Bolton to go ahead. I suspect they were also looking at the forecast, which was poor and wondering how on earth people would get tot the stadium and then get home in what was predicted to be a white out.

So, for the first time since the rainstorm at New Mills last March, I was unable to watch a football match on a Saturday afternoon in the season. And it was boring, boring,boring.

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Just the ticket for Chelsea, or lamb to the slaughter

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We await news of Pete Sixsmith’s weekend with interest. Did he get to a game, any game? In the meantime here’s a heartwarming tale of human kindness …

When you’ve travelled all the way from Toronto hoping to catch a Sunderland win at home to Bolton Wanderers, it must seem a mixed blessing when the consolation for that game’s postponement is an unexpected ticket for Chelsea away.

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Sunderland up to sixth top? Yes, but only the fans

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We promised occasional updates on how Sunderland fans were faring in the Sky Sports 92 Fans’ League. The video tells you all you need to know about it but we’re doing OK: up to sixth now, behind Leeds (top), Norwich, Liverpool, Chelsea and West Ham. Sign up and help us climb even higher. The piece below is a reminder of how it started at Salut! Sunderland – and on this depressingly footie-free – SAFC footie that is – Saturday, have a look round our site if you are new to it (scroll up and down the sidebars for links) …


Imagine it. You support Chelsea, Arsenal, Man United or Liverpool. You’ve followed them for ever, or rather since you were old enough to work out they were quite good and won a lot. You may even have been to the city where they play.

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Match off as Britain closes for January

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Sunderland v Bolton is off, the only consolation that it was postponed early enough to stop people travelling. But in times of dire shortages of grit for the roads, are we losing ours as a country? …


The answer is probably not, at least not on the basis of a football match being called off. We haven’t necessarily become a nation of wannies.

But I cannot help thinking how we managed in the past.

The news came not long after I had written this at the Blackcats list:

But when it was the 60s and I had my paper round in Shildon, it snowed heavily every year and life just went on. I don’t recall schools closing, buses not running, people not getting to work. There were postponements, yes, but games were played on layers of snow.

To which Mick replied:

I remember The Big One in 1963, when the snow lasted for 2 months. I also did a paper round in all weathers (including New Year’s Day, which wasn’t a Bank Holiday until the mid-70’s).

And I also remember seeing games played on snow. It couldn’t have been deep, but they scratched out the markings and played on a white pitch. I’ve seen this at both Roker Park and St. James. I also have a vivid memory of seeing it on telly for a European Cup game between Spurs and (I think) Dukla Prague, which would make it 61-62 season (Spurs were champs in 61). Like with your first memories of games under floodlights, there’s something magic about watching a game on a snow covered pitch. It loooks great in white

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Who are you? We’re Bolton Wanderers, minus the diving Diouf

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Just when we needed a meek bunch of surrender monkeys to come to the Stadium of Light, roll over and remind us of what it’s like to win in the Premier, our opponents go and change their new manager. Will Owen Coyle – still to be officially apppointed as we write – apply the well-known clauses of Sod’s Law and galvanise his new team? Or can, for once, Sunderland play to potential and not only score but score at least one more than the other team, thus taking our first double of the season. Or will, indeed, the grim weather force a postponement in any case? Chris Mann*, from the Burnden Aces fan site, is a welcome return visitor to Salut! Sunderland …

Salut! Sunderland Bolton were the last team we managed to beat away in the Premier. That’s pretty much the story of our season but how has it been for you?

Most of us started the season a little optimistic that we could get points on the board early on, then within five minutes of the first game Darren Bent put an end to it all.

We went on a little run in September but since then struggled and it was no surprise that Gary Megson was sacked (unless of course you work for the media and jump on the anti-Bolton bandwagon). We did all right in December, but we need to stop throwing leads away and turn a few of our draws into wins.

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Recognition for Sunderland’s Spurs reject (and Hull hero)

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Real fans, real opinions. Sounds a bit like us, but it’s footballfancast.com, which lists 10 success stories from the Premier season so far – “men who’ve done a lot better than anticipated and have an enhanced reputation as a result”. We’re happy to pass the news on with due credit to the site in question …

Guess which club has two players in the list. And guess which position in this unofficial mini-league is awarded to one of those players. Think “striker not as good as my missus, says cuddly ‘Arry” and “defender whose departure broke Hull hearts”.

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Back to Premier basics: does Megson sacking help or hinder vs Bolton?

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Sunderland 3 Barrow 0 had a mildly satisfying ring to it. Sunderland 3 Bolton 0 or Portsmouth/Coventry 0 SAFC 3 would feel even better. Steve Bruce and his team have little time – or cause – for self-congratulation before sleeves need to be rolled up for the more important tests ahead …

On a forced march through Parisian department stores, I felt the mobile vibrate. Salut! Sunderland readers know all about Sixer’s Sevens, Pete Sixsmith’s indispensable seven-word summary of each game. This was what I call a Sixer’s One, a goal alert and, happily, the single word was Steed.

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