If I wasn’t impressed listening to Sunderland v Everton on TalkSport, imagine what it as like as viewed from my row in the East Stand. Pete Sixsmith was there …
Ah, Christmas. The time of year when friends come together, to eat drink and be merry, to enjoy wonderful hospitality – and to end up at the Stadium of Light, with 46,000 others, watching Sunderland extend the hand of friendship to relegation threatened Everton, by allowing them to do exactly what they wanted to do for an hour.
How can Sunderland 1 Everton1 be other than a disappointment? Here are some early thoughts on two more points squandered at home…
Stan Collymore, sharing the TalkSport commentary, thought it a cracking game. He also warmly praised the referee Martin Atkinson for a mature, relatively whistle-free performance that allowed play to flow.
So what!
Are the fans of Leeds, Norwich City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Bristol City, West Ham, Spurs, Nottingham Forest and Southampton really more passionate than Sunderland’s?
Most of us would put ourselves ahead of at least six of the nine clubs currently placed above Sunderland in the Sky Sports 92 Fans’ League. Some would put us at the top. Even neutrals would eliminate a few of the others.
Today is a good day to show how passionate we are. A big Boxing Day gate – all tickets sold apparently – has a duty to blow the ball out at our end and suck it in at Everton’s.
And here’s a reminder of what the 92 project is about (an adapted version of Salut! Sunderland’s original posting on the subject, plus the clip that shows you how to register and take part:
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.
Boxing Day football. A 40,000 plus gate for a home game against opponents from the North West brings back unfortunate memories …
My first Boxing Day at Roker Park.
We’re second placed and it looks like being a promotion season.
… and a prosperous new year to all readers, especially if you support Sunderland. With thanks again to Kevin Dooley’s …
ToffeeWeb, the much-admired independent site for supporters of Everton, has a hard centre but softer heart. Lyndon Lloyd‘s instinctive response when approached by us to preview Saturday’s clash between Sunderland and Everton was to say : “Sorry, we don’t do these things. No time.” He relented because of the trouble we’d taken to hunt him down. The algebraic equation of that hunt would be Relatively Uncommon Name + Facebook = Found. But thanks Lyndon*, and Salut! Sunderland wishes you and your site a very happy Christmas marred only by disappointment on Boxing Day …
Salut! Sunderland: After all that praise for David Moyes, we are now hearing the voices of disappointment. Is it time for change?
It depends on who you ask! There are some who have long been infuriated with his conservative tactics and the propensity for his teams to fall back on the long-ball game in times of adversity, but you can’t argue with his record at Everton on a shoe-string budget.
Three consecutive top-6 finishes and, so far, the record of the only team outside of the so-called Sky Four to have cracked the Champions League places this century speak for itself and I don’t think it would do us any good right now to disrupt the consistency that we’ve enjoyed the last seven years.
OK Father Christmas, père Noël, Papá Noel, ??????????, ????? ??????? – this completes Salut! Sunderland’s Christmas wishlist. We’ll leave your usual bottle of beer and cigar by the Christmas tree …
R is for Roker Park. We wake from the dream to find ourselves back on/in the (much modernised) Fulwell, Clock Stand Paddock, Roker End, wherever it was we used to stand (or, for those who already did in those days, sit). The Stadium of Light’s great and all that, but can you actually fall in love with the East Stand?
For the second part of our letter to Santa, we name a few more of the things we’d like to see over the coming months. Come up with the best or funniest alternative wish for any letter – as judged by Salut! Sunderland – and we’ll send a tenner (up to one prize for each of the three parts of the series) ….
J is for Joan’s cafe, named as the venue for a Jedward concert after the nearby Stadium of Light is judged too big considering the likely turnout. Tickets narrowly fail to sell out.
K is for Roy Keane, who leaves Ipswich “by mutual consent” in May as relegation confirmed. When Grant Leadbitter and Carlos Edwards send text messages in commiseration, Keano replies saying: “I refer you both to what I told Dwight Yorke when he sent a similar SMS after I left Sunderland.”
Is Santa listening? Probably not, but Salut! Sunderland thought it would produce its own list of the presents it wants, the things it wants to happen not just for Christmas but for the coming year. Let’s see how many are granted. This is the first of three instalments. Come up with a better suggestion or two and you might win a prize …
A is for Arsène. The elegantly whingeing Alsacian – (“is that why they’re called Arsenal?” asked the daughter who knows nothing about football) – announces a new deal with Optical Express, suddenly sees things more clearly, apologises for his players’ occasional diving and heaps praise on teams that beat or draw against Arsenal as well as those that lose.
B is for Bruce: Steve wins three manager-of-the-month awards in succession and we’re not only safe but sixth.
What the Dickens is this? Why, nought but a heartwarming tale from the season of goodwill, in which Sir Michael Ashley plays Scroogely, the fans play with large alphabet shapes but still cannot get the hang of spelling the simplest of words and the One Wise Man plays himself. Are you sitting quietly? Then Pete Sixsmith will begin …
Once upon a time – on, of all the good days the year, Christmas Eve – old Scroogely sat in his counting house at sports direct deckchair stripes@stmikes’park.com. He looked up and snarled at Bob Lambias, his poor benighted clerk, who sat in the cold, cheerless office surrounded by Lonsdale track suits and Dunlop trainers.