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Once again, Salut! Sunderland’s Pete Sixsmith was asked to sum up the match for The Observer. Why couldn’t he have had something cheerful to say? Abject, dismal, appalling – those are the words that spring to mind for many Sunderland fans when contemplating our second-half descent into unnecessary defeat at Burnley. Here is Pete’s more considered view …

The word for that is “disappointing”. It was a meek surrender. There was no fight. The defending was awful, it was a stupid penalty and the marking for the second goal was poor.

Owen Coyle out-thought Steve Bruce today – I though Chris Eagles was the difference when he came on, He ran at McCartney and gave us problems. Our sub, Jones, couldn’t get into the game. Bruce is still developing our team and he would have learnt some important things about the players today.

And Pete’s – surprisingly generous – ratings:

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The last time I saw Sunderland play at Turf Moor in the top division was 40 years ago. I had just left school, to the delight of Messrs McConnell, Reed , Kilminster and Weatherley and was waiting to go to college. I had been working at Aycliffe Hospital as an orderly and the money I earned was all wasted on football, football and more football.

The game was a disaster; we ended up losing 3-0 and on the way back, the first thoughts of relegation began to stir in what was then an optimistic brain.

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Burnley, “little Burnley”. The dark, satanic north-west as captured by Andreas Andrews.
Also, a force in English football in the early 1960s, but a narrow escape from relegation from the Football League in the 1980s. Burnley fans have known thin times and only the older ones can have first-hand memories of a more glorious era. Tony Scholes, editor of the Clarets Mad fan site, is old enough to recall the last promotion to the top flight: clinched with a 2-0 victory over Sunderland just before we won the FA Cup final in 1973. Buoyed by home wins against Man Utd and Everton, he’s confident of seeing us off on Saturday lunchtime …

Salut! Sunderland: The playoff final: best day of your life or just the best day as a fan?

Tony: It was certainly up there with my best days as a Burnley fan, no doubt about that. It was an amazing day right from the moment we set off from Burnley early that morning. I’ve seen us win at the old Wembley but this one was far more important and frankly for a team the size of Burnley to reach the Premier League is something very special.

It was just a simply incredible day and like most Burnley fans I’ve not got my feet back on the ground just yet. It’s the second time I’ve seen Burnley win promotion to the top division. The last time we did it was as champions and the promotion clincher was a 2-0 home win against Sunderland in April 1973. Our current chief exec Paul Fletcher scored both goals that night.

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What a week, weather wise. After a thoroughly depressing August, September gives us four beautiful days in succession, to make the wretched summer seem even more wretched. I judge the quality of a summer by the number of times I can have an al fresco breakfast in the extensive grounds of Sixsmith Towers, basking in the sun, pecking at croissants and kedgeree. Number of times in Barbeque Summer 2009; a big fat zero!

A good week for Durham cricketers who wrapped up the Championship for the second successive season, with the only blot on the horizon being the news that the Countys Chief Executive is a Mag – and a grinning one at that. Remind me to cancel my membership.

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Back to work. Sunderland v Hull City is the first of three games against clubs whose own supporters would probably settle for the top half of the bottom six. Gary Clark epitomises the Tiger spirit of Hull. He wrote a book about the road to the Premier, From Boothferry To Wembley, and now has copies of the follow-up, This Is The Best Trip We’ve Ever Been On, available on Paypal or by Googling Gary Clark Hull. Better still, he also writes for Salut! Sunderland, but at such great length that we should really split his epic into two parts …

As widely predicted by those stalwarts in Hull, the Tigers finished 17th in the Premiership last season, a position achieved on the last day of the season after the last ball had been kicked.

Everybody else had us relegated in August. We kept our rightful place in the top flight by gaining one more point than Newcastle, who lost on the last day via a solitary, wickedly deflected goal at Villa Park. Which was hard luck on them. But they had been rather s—- all year and probably deserved to go down more than we did.

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The next three Premier games seem not just winnable, but the sort of matches we must take maximum points from if the SAFC owner Ellis Short is to get his wish of a top 10 finish. Colin Randall aims for gold …

Salut! Sunderland is settling slowly into this, its new home. It is not a commercial enterprise so we can afford to be philosophical about how long it is taking to build the links and other features in the sidebars that were a popular attraction at the old site.

Steve Bruce suddenly finds his rebuilding project – Sunderland AFC – has a little more urgency.

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Pete Sixsmith does not feign interest in mere internationals. he seizes a Premier-free Saturday by the horns and seeks out some real football, though first there was the sad business of bidding farewell to Squinny – friend, fan and all-round good fella …

The first weekend of the season without a Premier League game. The first weekend of the season where I have the opportunity to delve into the lower echelons of English football looking for a decent game, a day out, a couple of pints and to continue my search for the perfect pie. No worries about whether Richardson will do the business or will the defence buckle; just football for fun.

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