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On tour with SAFC: in praise of Cork

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By Pete Sixsmith, on the road from Cork to Galway

So, the caravan (or Toyota Auris) rolled on to Cork and arrived in a city that was the opposite of Dublin.

Small, manageable, incredibly friendly and not full of dangerous drunks looking for a hoolie.

We stayed in a Universty Hall of Residence unsullied by wretched students and had a fabulous meal in a quiet restaurant called The Hardwood Cafe. It was run by three foreigners – a Canadian chef, a Lithuanian waitress and a manager from Limerick. We had heard good things about the nearby hayfield manor, hotel in cork, and, due to our positive experience in the city, I am seriously considering coming back to stay there.

As we were the only customers the craic was almost as good as the food and the absence of custom was best explained by the population of Cork seething about a ropey referees decision which allowed Waterford to pinch a draw in the hurling quarter finals. From there to an authentic Irish pub and a great music session. Suddenly Ireland began to look good.

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Keano’s squad: fine wine maturing, or a bit Corked?

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Just needed the tiniest of excuses to bring you a few more of Peadar O’Sullivan’s pictures.

Peadar could not make it to Cork City to see the team he follows take on the Lads last night. So what reception would he have given the returning heroes – or, according to view, villains – Roy Keane and Liam Miller?

The Irish soccer website, Eleven-a-Side, carried a great line about the crowd giving Keano a warmly ambiguous welcome.

Check out the site and its chatroom. OK, there is the occasional jibe harking back to burn-everything-English-except-her-coal days.

When I invited readers to let me know their thoughts on Sunderland’s Irish tour, one character, Kenny in Cork, effectively told where to go, adding: “Sickining (sic) to see over 2000 of these queen loving fools wear Sunderland shirts at the cross tonight – clowns.”

Leaving aside his imperfect knowledge of the North East’s relationship with the Royal family, we’d have to acknowledge that the SAFC support has also included a few (fewer just now, you’d suppose) Irish-baiting No Surrender imbeciles. And to be fair, our Kenny was shot down in flames by a majority of the people who posted replies.

Mostly, it’s good crack/craic, and the bits by Shane Breslin, the man who runs the show, are particularly well-written. He’s doubtful, by the way, about our prospects of making much of an impact with the present strike force.

But expect Shane’s site to cover Sunderland’s fortunes quite a bit in the coming season, starting – if we start today – with his own take on Keano’s tussle with Fulham for the signature of the Cork striker Roy O’Donovan.

And turn the page, electronically, for some more of Peadar’s pictures…….

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Bohemian rhapsody

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This batch of pictures comes from a fabulous portfolio created during the pre-season friendly against Bohemians by Peadar O’Sullivan, passionate football fan and clearly gifted amateur photographer.

Now I remember Aisling Quinn as a little girl proudly taking to the field at the Stadium of Light to help her big daddy celebrate the finale of the thrilling 1998/1999 promotion season in which he had played such a massive role. Great to see you’ve kept the faith, Aisling.

King Charlie? Not just a Rep of Ireland legend, Peadar, but a Sunderland one, too. Some of us are old enough to remember without needing to be told by fathers or grandfathers!

Great pictures Peadar, and thanks for the kind permission to dip into your work.
To reward those who read on to the next page, here’s one more for now (I have asked if I can use the lot, not in a desire to be cheeky but because these are shots any Sunderland fan would want to see and they deserve the Salut! Sunderland treatment)…….

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Penmanship: my strip tease

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John Penman, an East Stand regular who makes long trips down from his home in Scotland to be at games, finds a way of telling his life story through the SAFC tops he has owned and loved

As I wait patiently for my new 2007-08 kit to be delivered, I cast my mind back to the other strips that I have owned bearing the SAFC crest.

These days strips are big business but it most certainly wasn’t always like that. My first kit was bought circa 1982 in a sports shop in Glasgow of all places. I had just been browsing when the pinstripe red short sleeved top caught my eye.

Strip1

It was very much love at first sight as I grabbed the shirt just in case someone were to beat me to it (there was only one in the shop).

Over the next few months it made various appearances most notably in a nightclub after we beat West Brom 3-2 at the Hawthorns in April 1982, virtually securing our top league status. Whether it could be called a fashion accessory is debatable and it wasn’t particularly liked by the ladies since football fans in these days were generally perceived as thugs by the general public.

Despite all this I wore it for many years and even after it had outgrown its nightclub appeal, I wore it to work.

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On tour with SAFC: Hurley, hurling and a pair of hoolies

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Petes
By Pete Sixsmith in Dublin

So, the season almost begins and here we are on a pre season tour.

The last time I followed Sunderland abroad was an absolutely disastrous pre season to Spain.

Disastrous on a personal level because my father had just died and my travelling companion’s daughter’s father-in-law was just about to. And disastrous from a playing point of view because we realised in the delightful city of Seville that we were prime candidates for relegation.

Well, this time in Dublin there are no personal sadnessess and despite a lack-lustre performance on Saturday no real fears of relegation.

But it would not be fair to say that all in the garden is rosy.

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Coming out

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Dope1_2There are some things in life you just cannot bring yourself to say.

A child abuser, I suspect, would struggle with all the implications of announcing to the world: “I’m a paedophile.”

Tony Blair might not actually enjoy being ordered to exclaim: “Yep, I was a Tory all along.”

Simon Cowell would never shout it from the hilltops that none of his programmes will ever produce as many as three people you’d ever need to listen to (though that’s the old folkie in me talking).

Mick McCarthy is perhaps unlikely to tweak his cv to include the following win/draw/lose summary of his career as a Premiership manager: LLLLLLLLLLLLLLDWDLLLLLLLLLDLL

And that was just his record up to the unlucky 1-2 defeat at home to Chelsea on Jan 15 2006. He had more to go.

But most of all, you do NOT admit to an unclean family secret………

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Len Shackleton: the sad news that was too hot to print

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Shack
The other day, I came across my old Len Shackleton t-shirt in a pile of worn-less-often SAFC related togs. It may have been sandwiched between my Lionel Perez t-shirt and a couple of old tops commemorating promotions that led to relegations.

Most people probably remember the Shack one from the excellent people at Philosophy Football: blank page from his book, Clown Prince of Football, on the front, Shackleton and No 10 on the back.

The slogan on the front, of course, loyally follows the title of the chapter which constituted that blank page: “The Average Director’s Knowledge of Football.”

But coming across it again reminded me of a story about the day he died that I never tire of telling other Sunderland fans – indeed fans of other clubs, too.

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Roy Keane and the great transfers debate (3)

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It is just as well that Paul Wilson may have set the true standard, in terms of how much notice we need to take, for predictions appearing in the Guardian‘s online football pages about the prospects for Sunderland AFC under Roy Keane.

But this is a tale of three Pauls, not one, and one Mark. It starts with a Paul of our own, Paul Saleh, a Shields-born fan* who has been among fans posting pertinent pre-season comments to the ever-lively Blackcats forum,

He reported on a sarky piece (Guardian online – read on for more) about Keano’s activity in the transfer market, and admitted that this reflected his own feelings. “I like to err on the side of pessimism,” he said, “so that when good stuff happens, I enjoy it even more.”

This is where another fan, Mark (Sugden), came in, suggesting that “if anyone else had made the signings we’ve made, you’d think they’d gone bonkers”.

“Throw in a potential £9m for Craig Gordon and that’s 19 million for three players none of whom have proved it at the top level yet. Throw in a guy from Reading who couldn’t make their first team and an Aberdeen defender that at 28 has never made it to the Old Firm or played outwith Scotland. Then you’ve got a Norwich midfielder who nobody’s heard of.”

Being supporters, Pauls hopes for the “good stuff” to defeat his pessimism while Mark searches for a brighter assessment of the buys:

“…..maybe he (RK) sees potential in them all. Halford never got a chance at Reading, Anderson has been brilliant away from the glare of the Old Firm spotlight while Richardson just needs a run of games to prove his potential. As for Chopra, he’s a natural goalscorer who will be desperate to prove himself after leaving the Mags. Still haven’t heard of the Norwich bloke but he will turn into a revelation. Suppose we just have to trust the manager.”

But journalists like the Observer‘s Paul Wilson and our third Paul, the Guardian‘s chief sports writer Paul Doyle, do not need to search for silver linings.

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