Content

SAFC vs Aston Villa: things to consider as a mighty challenge looms

by

 

Monsieur Salut welcomes anyone who has missed Salut! Sunderland‘s comprehensive buildup to tonight’s game and offers pointers to the best of that coverage…

Approaching the home game against Aston Villa, kicking off a few hours from now, the Sunderland Echo speculated that SAFC’s survival propsects may well depend on winning this match or the next one, at QPR on Saturday. If pushed, I’d say we probably need to win both or at least emerge with four points.

The crisis has reached those desperate proportions.

Read more

Sunderland vs Aston Villa prize Guess the Score. Last chance saloon?

by
There is indeed a prize. Whether it’s a great prize depends on whether you feel a coffee mug can ever be great

Confidence remains in short supply as another failure to win a game not only exposes our limited powers of resistance but confirms our desperate short-term outlook.

As Mick Goulding and others have pointed out, here and elsewhere, a draw at in-form Millwall, while creditable enough if viewed in isolation, simply isn’t good enough in our current parlous state.

Read more

Aston Villa ‘Who are You?’: Bruce, Grabban, Birmingham rivalry and SAFC’s ‘necessary’ relegation

by
Tom: ‘Like Villa, I’m under Chinese ownership’;

Tom Jolliffe* cannot see beyond an away win at the Stadium of Light tomorrow. At least he applies a neat sense of humour, and traces of sympathy, to his asnwers about our plight and his club Aston Villa’s buoyant current state and longer-term prospects (which should not, in his view, include much room for Lewis Grabban beyond the Championship). And however controversial this will be, Monsieur Salut thinks he’s closer to being right than wrong in his assessment of Steve Bruce …

Read more

The Chapman Report from Millwall. Full steam ahead but bound for the sidings

by
Bob Chapman: sensing the inevitable

If Bob Chapman, eternal optimist and home-and-away stalwart, is resigned to relegation, then we must be in the deepest of trouble. At least his day out produced this little gem of a report on a day that promises to be busy, if not congested, as we tie up Millwall loose ends and prepare for the Aston Villa home game …

It’s always a bonus these days when I am able to incorporate other activities in a typical match day.

Although I continue to do it, the usual 460-mile drive up and down to the SoL offers little appeal. The highlight of the day invariably being a  couple of pints in the Dun Cow beforehand followed by fish and chips at Wetherby on the way back. Consequently, away days with a bunch of mates has invariably been a much better experience these past few seasons.

Read more

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Team: Aston Villa

by
Pete Sixsmith

John McCormick writes: Like most others I have been to see League games that didn’t involve Sunderland. Like a few, I have written about it – my  first piece of writing for this site was about Newcastle v Leyton Orient and a player called Dick Keith. If I had known then that I’d be posting pieces like this one from Pete Sixsmith I might not have bothered.

The man is a master. Read on and you’ll see what I mean:

Read more

Sixer’s weekend off. Snowfall, no football but Millwall

by

John McCormick writes:

I had one of Millwall or QPR pencilled in as my London weekend away. Circumstances meant neither could be but those circumstances also meant we could book some time away at the back end of winter. We chose to visit the Lake District as February changed into March.

I took the photo of Newlands on the Wednesday.  I’d have taken one of Shap on the Thursday but I didn’t dare take my hand off the wheel.

Pete Sixsmith, in contrast, was looking forward to a weekend at home. Like my week away, it turned out out to be not quite as expected:

Read more

Sixer’s Sevens: Millwall expected to win, we needed to. An underwhelming draw

by
Jake: ‘it’s not always pretty’

Pete Sixsmith wasn’t travelling to this match and what appears here is likely to be a joint effort with John McCormick, Pete Sixsmith and Monsieur Salut – all from afar – and maybe Bob Chapman from the Den all chipping in. As M Salut writes, Sunderland’s failure to respond to Millwall’s second half pressure after taking the lead in the first half has led to an inevitable equaliser. ‘Have we enough character to weather the storm and see the game out?’ an increasingly exasperated Benno asked and the feeble resistance since the interval suggested worse was to come. Benno’s comments, and the commentary of Nick Barnes, exposed all our failings in a game that had to be won, not drawn, not because in-form Millwall are a soft touch but because our need is desperate. The seven-word verdicts are a) M Salut’s contingency offering and b) Bob’s view from the Den …

Read more

A champion Championship series: the first time Sixer saw your ground or your team

by
Sixer tastes the tropical flavour of a County Durham winter as he delivers the papers

Most weeks, readers of Salut! Sunderland drop by on Friday morning to catch the latest instalment in Pete Sixsmith’s twin series, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Ground (if the game in question is away), Team (if it’s at the Stadium of Light).

This week, the Millwall edition was posted earlier than usual – namely at this link.

Read more

Millwall Who are You?: ‘ridiculous for SAFC to be in this situation’

by
Stephen Jones: ‘I’ve been blessed as a supporter’

Stephen Jones*, our Millwall ‘Who are You?’ volunteer, joins the growing number of outsiders who doubt our ability to get out of trouble. Gone are the words of encouragement from earlier in the season. People who do not support Sunderland see the same signs as those who do. Of course, a few wins would change everything. But where are they going to come from given the difficulty we have in avoiding defeat let alone taking three points, no matter who the opposition? And a word of warning for our flaky defence: George Saville, who scored twice against us at the Stadium of Light, has been having a barren spell and may see a game against us as just the opportunity to start hitting goals again …

Read more