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George Mulhall: an appreciation

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UPDATE: George Mulhall’s son, Neil, has written to Salut! Sunderland: “I would like to thank you for your lovely tribute to my father. It brought tears to my eyes reading it.” Neil and other relatives can be assured our thoughts are with them.

Pete Sixsmith writes: on a day when the SAFC news feed went haywire with talk of a new owner, new investors, new manager, new strip, new badge, new division to play in and new hope for the future (maybe), I would prefer to concentrate on something that happened almost half a century ago.

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Crisis Sunderland: Short out (about time), Coleman out (and his fault lay exactly where?)

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Thanks, Chris

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Monsieur Salut writes: read on to learn what little we know about the welcome departure of E Short esquire as owner of SAFC. And here is the thoroughly inadequate SAFC statement on Chris Coleman’s sacking:

Sunderland AFC announces that manager Chris Coleman and his assistant Kit Symons have been released from their contracts. The club would like to place on record its sincere thanks to Chris and Kit for their tireless efforts in what has been a hugely disappointing season for everyone involved with the club. The club is unable to make further comment at this time.

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Sixer’s selection: The Good, the OK, the Downright Awful and the Borrowed

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Sixer keeping cool

John McCormick writes: I’m remaining neutral in respect of a preference for promotion but I have to express an opinion about last night’s result. While we were outplayed for a lot of the second half Fulham only won because of two decisions the ref got wrong. One was to allow a goal where the scorer had moved offside before a free kick was taken – a close decision, this, and perhaps forgivable to get wrong. The other was much clearer, although I didn’t see it until a post-game replay. We should have had a penalty. That we didn’t hardly affects us but there may be consequences for Cardiff.

Bob Chapman, our man at the match, may not agree with me and I won’t know for a while as his report is expected to be late in arriving. To keep us occupied and entertained until it does here’s a little something from Pete Sixsmith. I’ve given you Patrick and Jozy, can you put names to the other faces?

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Sixer’s Fulham Sevens: A harsh decision costs us (and Cardiff City?)

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Jake gives Sixer star billing

John McCormick writes: Pete Sixsmith  was not present today. Neither was I,  although I had put this on on my list. And nor did I manage to get to a pub for the start and missed the first 40 minutes and hence our goal, but not the equaliser that came from the recovery after the non-penalty decision.

The second half saw us holding on until the inevitable lat(ish) and offside? goal but I don’t think we were disgraced – just not good enough against a quite good and increasingly desperate team at home – and better than the commentator suggested. And, after all, we drew the pair 2-2 on aggregate and won it on away goals, so it’s a moral victory isn’t it?

Does Pete’s stand-in agree? You’ll have to wait for a full report but here’s Bob Chapman’s immediate seven-word text, forwarded by Pete to give you a hint:

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The First Time Ever I Saw Your Ground: Fulham and Craven Cottage

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Pete Sixsmith, Review.org

John McCormick writes: I remember a pleasant afternoon at Fulham in the early seventies. In my case it was made pleasant by the few pints of proper beer we enjoyed in the pub on the other side of Putney Bridge and by an away win, which I enjoyed trouble free although esconced with locals. Not all grounds were so welcoming in those days, as I found out a few weeks later at Millwall. Pete Sixsmith has already written about that game – or one little different; now he finishes a series which has brightened a dismal season with an account of another trip to Craven Cottage, one which took place some five years before I got there:

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Fulham vs SAFC Who are You?: ‘I named a cactus after Lee Clark’

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Joe at the Cottage
It’s that time of year. Salut! Sunderland is asking people to judge the best interviews of the season in our Who are You? series. If you want to have your say, and remember interviews you especially liked, just send your first three in order, and maybe add a comment on why you’ve made those choices. Do it as a comment below or write to this e-mail address
Joe Jenkins, our Fulham interviewee, is a mate so maybe I shouldn’t vote for him. But if I decide I can, he might pick up points from me – it’s a gem …

The bane of our lives on ‘making Sunderland great again’

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Jake: ‘when will we next see sunny times for Sunderland AFC?’

It would be an exaggeration to suggest Martin Bain as a name to inspire great affection and confidence among the fans. He may merely be doing Ellis Short’s bidding in energetically cutting costs to please the owner. But the cost to the club of that exercise has become painfully clear and Bain must realise he bears a sizeable share of responsibility for our shocking position.

Salut! Sunderland would be quite pleased to see the back of him, and suspects most supporters feel likewise. But in the interests of fairness, and in line with our desire to report all sides on major issues affecting the club, here is a piece quoting his remarks to local media. The comments – drawn from interviews with the Sunderland Echo/Shields Gazette, Newcastle Evening Chronicle and the BBC (*see footnote for links), seemed designed as much to send upbeat messages to potential buyer as to appease supporters, though he says he ‘totally understands’ their anger, anguish and frustration ….

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