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This is how it was for us – Salut! Sunderland – after an explosion of hits all day long, driven first by fast-spreading news of the Who Are They? awards shortlist and then by the red-hot nature of events.

But this morning we are indebted to the Villa Talk fans’ website for dramatic news that Mike Ashley, convinced that the world of English football reneged on guarantees to ensure Newcastle United Premier League status for ever, is prepared to lead the Toon north and into the Scottish Premier League.

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***** see also Toon truly Doon *****

AND some restrained, non-gloating images – utterly priceless – at Ready to Go

SUNDERLAND SAFE … TOON DOON with BORO …

… from the SoL and the south of France, both Pete Sixsmith – surely, I thought, that’s him above but it’s not* – and Colin Randall did their bits to keep Salut! Sunderland abreast of momentous events.

But Villa earned our undying affection by sending Newcastle United crashing deservedly out of the Premier League.

Minutes after the final whistles sounded everywhere, Salut! Sunderland passed the 1,000 mark for hits so far today – helped hugely by visits from fans of other clubs after our feature on the Who Are They? awards – and then Niall Quinn announced that Ricky Sbragia had stood down as manager but had a guaranteed future at the Stadium of Light if he wanted it …

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Each matchday, Pete Sixsmith – Sixer to friends – delivers his seven-word verdict. It has not always made a pretty sight, but it IS always to the point and fair. His seven words* at around 6pm today are some of the most important he will ever have written – which is saying a lot for a bloke who has passed exams, taught Stan Cummins’s sister (isn’t that right Pete?) and filled in his own tax forms … roll on salvation

May 24 2009 Sunderland 2 (0) Chelsea 3 (0) Better performance but Villa are the heroes
May 18 2009 Portsmouth (0) 3 Sunderland (0) 1 Another defensive horror show threatens another relegation
May 9 2009 Bolton (0) O Sunderland (0) O Effort and commitment but still need point
May 3 2009 Sunderland (0) 0 Everton (0) 2 Another defensive shambles, another nail in coffin
April 25 2009 West Bromwich Albion (1) 3 Sunderland (0) 0 A performance so bad it defies description
April 18 2009 Sunderland (1) 1 v Hull City (0) 0 Vital win in a truly awful game
April 11 2009 Sunderland (0) 1 v Man United (1) 2 Better performance than result gives some hope
April 04 2009 West Ham United 2 (1) v Sunderland (0) 0 Dreadful result and performance enhances relegation credentials

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So we’re all fretting away like mad. We need our minds taking off the trauma of 4pm-6pm Sunday.

Then let Salut! Sunderland offer a little relief by announcing that it has found three prizes for winners of the great Who Are They? awards.

No, we cannot offer a Championship season ticket for St James’ Park as they haven’t been printed yet and we wouldn’t want to tempt fate anyway. No flyaway holidays; not even a measly million from Chris Tarrant or your MP’s duck pond account.

But we have things football fans would actually want to possess:

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See also: How many SAFC games have mattered so much? Follow this link

So it’s come down to the game that we feared when the fixtures came out in July.

“Chelsea at home, last game of the season, hope we don’t need anything from that,” went the crack.

“Nah, we’ll be pushing for the top half by then. Keano’s made some nifty signings in Chimbonda and Diouf and I’m sure that this is the season when Stokes really breaks through. In fact, Chelsea will be more worried than us. Reckon it could stop them winning the league. Scolari won’t like 48,000 Mackems roaring their heads off.”

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Two last looks at the vital game on Sunday start here. We can lose and stay up, of course. But, Colin Randall insists, it is not good enough to settle for second best against Chelsea and pray for comforting news from other grounds …

We all have memories. For Sunderland fans, there have been exhilarating moments to make all that passion and loyalty seem worthwhile.

There have been a good deal more gut-wrenching ones that will stick with you until long after the cows have come home.

Vital games are sometimes dotted around a season. This time, we’re concerned only with last games of seasons. And Sunderland v Chelsea matters a massive amount, as did the same encounter back in 1963 about which Pete Sixsmith is preparing a Soapbox piece as I write.

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Blue murder for us on Sunday, forced to pray for good news from Hull or Villa? Or an extraordinary win that makes it unnecessary for us to want for anything except defeat for the Mags? If only Jerry Evans, in the second part of the final Who are They? of the 2008/9 season, could be proved right; Blues fan though he’s been since childhood, he not only thinks we’ll somehow manage it, but hopes so too. He is also a true gent who wants “hate” taken out of footballing rivalries – and rather disapproves of our desire to see the Mags go down – and whose thoughts have been joy to deal with. See the first part of his contribution here and then enjoy his responses to our questions …

So how has the season been for you?

The overall results have been excellent. Third behind an outstanding Man Utd and a resurgent Liverpool is no disgrace. Perhaps the long term injury to the magnificent Essien made the difference. And to hold the stunning Barcelona to one goal in three hours was a great achievement. If Chelsea had set out to throw everything at the Catalans, I believe they might have leaked several goals. Iniesta, Xavi, Messi and co are at the pinnacle of this wonderful game.

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Consider the mess we’re in and you could come up with a decent argument in favour of delaying making the player-of-the-season award until our fate is clear.

Stay up, especially if we can somehow manage to do so in style, and enough people will stop behind at teatime on Sunday to make Danny Collins feel special as he collects his totally deserved honour, matched by a similar award – for the second consecutive season – in the supporters’ poll. Go down and a discreet handover – and handshakes – in the players’ bar would probably suffice.

But no, it will happen before the Chelsea game kicks off. It is not a huge misjudgement, but it seems like a misjudgement all the same.

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The romantic in me says Sunderland will finally produce a performance worthy of our magnificent fans and beat Chelsea. The realist in me, er, can just shut up!
For our last Who Are They? feature of the season, we – by which I mean the Colin part of Salut! Sunderland – could not only have turned to a past contributor, David “Sid” Millward, but joined him on a junket via Grand Central and one or other of the SoL corporate bunkers.
I have chosen to stay in France – or rather the sight of the bank balance, as much as Sid being a Chelski fan, dictated that I should – and watch the game on some dodgy web link.
So Sid wasn’t asked to pen some more thoughts. Step forward instead Jerry Evans, even older than the old codgers at Salut! Sunderland but seen in action above with his grandson Nicholas. Jerry’s musings – return here tomorrow and you’ll see why he thinks people like the admirable Jeremy Robson are wrong to hate the Mags – make him a late entrant for the judging currently in progress for our first annual award. And guess who, according to the romantic in him, will win (Sunday’s game, not the award) …

So many years have seen me before the mast at Stamford Bridge that my name has changed from time to time – maybe to protect me because of my football allegiance.

Jeremy Evans was born in wartime – the end of 1939 – but I was known to the family as Jem by the time Great Uncle Bill sat me on his knee at Kingston in 1948 and declared that as I had a burgeoning interest in the game I must go and watch Chelsea play, as he himself had been doing since the year dot.

I dutifully obeyed, of course, and on April 16 1949 stood on the huge west banking at The Bridge for the first time, watching the powerful Derby County easily dispatch the Blues 3-0. I must have thought: “This is how it is. Visitors are strong, and they beat us because we are not very good.”

And for many years that simplistic verdict was not far off the mark. Incidentally, Sunderland, who finished eighth in 48/49, had a 3-0/1-0 double over Chelsea that season.

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So we saved the biggest, scariest matchday of the season for last. The performance at Portsmouth reinforced doubts about our ability to claw our own way out of trouble. But Colin Randall doesn’t need to think back far to a time when we were beating Chelsea for fun …

Prizes are being solicited, and winners chosen, in the great Salut! Sunderland “Who are They?” awards, to be presented to the writers of the best previews contributed this season by supporters of opposing teams.

But no prizes are offered to readers who can identify the two consecutive seasons in which games between Sunderland and Chelsea ended as above.

Come back soon after the season ends for news of the awardwinners. Come back tomorrow for a Chelsea fan’s preview – included as a late entrant for the judges – of Sunday’s game.

And savour the above clip as a reminder of better times for Sunderland AFC before reading on …

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