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SAFC vs Middlesbrough Guess the Score: Boro licking their lips

February 21, 2018February 21, 2018 by Colin Randall

*Think SAFC can win this one? Enter your scoreline prediction for a chance to win a mug. Think it may be a draw or away win? Enter on a strictly-for-fun/realism basis*

Without needing to try too hard, we can place Sunderland vs Middlesbrough and a handful of other games between now and Saturday firmly in the context of Championship ups and downs.

If Boro had three more points than their current total of 51, they would be in the top six. The playoffs would once again seem attainable. And they would stay there provided neither Bristol City tonight (home to fifth-top Fulham) and Sheffield Utd on Friday (at Hull City) could do more than draw.

Now where would those three Boro points be most likely to come from? Surely we are not thinking of Fortress Stadium of Light where proud, committed men of the calibre of Jack Rodwell ply their trade.

Sixer’s Bolton Soapbox: Sunderland lacking up front after going behind

February 21, 2018February 21, 2018 by Colin Randall

John McCormick writes: the only pleasure associated with last night was that I met up with Pete Sixsmith and Pete Horan prior to the game. Not over a pint, of course, given that the only pub nearby wouldn’t let me (and by extension us) in. We weren’t together at the ground so my view of the game, which I’ll give you some time in the next 24 hours, might be different from his.

Do you really think it will be? Here’s a clue – look what I put on the SAFC facebook page when I got in last night.

Chroniclers of doom. Where, Ellis Short, will SAFC be a year hence?

February 21, 2018 by Colin Randall

Gloomy times, gloomy thoughts from Monsieur Salut …

No football club, whatever its history, has a divine right to play at all times in the highest division (Man Utd, Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal may claim exemption from this rule of natural justice though each has suffered past relegation).

It follows that no club has a divine right, once relegated, to descend no lower. Think Leeds, Villa, Southampton, Nottingham Forest among others.

Come May, if not – mathematically – a good deal earlier, Sunderland supporters may be forced to accept the power of that second “no divine right” rule. How much deeper we can sink is open to speculation.

Sixer’s Sevens: Bolton Wanderers 1-0 SAFC. Rock bottom again

February 20, 2018 by Colin Randall

The latest defeat in a sorry season does not, of course, send us down again just yet. It does put us bottom as Burton won and it does make relegation even more probable than it was. Sunderland appear from messages seen from the Macron stadium to have put in plenty of bustle but with the usual lack of skill and penetration, Fletcher missing and missing badly with the chance that fell to him.

Pete Sixsmith met our associate editor John McCormick for the visit to Bolton, a longer trip for Sixer than Liverpool-based John. And what a long trip home it will seem …

Bolton Wanderers vs SAFC: their turn to ask the questions

February 20, 2018February 20, 2018 by Colin Randall

You can get this book, co-written by Tom Purcell and our Bolton ‘Who are You?’ interviewee Michael Gething at the Salut! Sunderland Amazon link here. Copies are offered for anything between 1p and a somewhat ambitious £180.69

Scroll down for a Bolton Q+A session – Gabe John from the Burnden Aces fan site seeking answers from Monsieur Salut – ahead of tonight’s game. But first a little history about our long-running feature in which opposing supporters talk about forthcoming games against Sunderland and anything else that takes their fancy …

Salut! Sunderland‘s “Who are You? series drew its first breath 10 years ago.

The site was a year old and constantly on the look-out for new features. Interviewing fans of Sunderland’s next opponents ahead of each game was hardly an original idea but we did come up with one refinement: they were invited to write pieces of their own, with questions following.

The first Who are You? – we called it “Who are They?” back then, in January 2008 – was from a Spurs fan ( a pal of mine, David Sapsted) – and the series instantly became a regular, in time changing to a purely Q+A format though interviewees who want to write articles are welcome to do so.

Bolton Wanderers Who are You?: ‘overpaid players who won’t fight for club’

February 20, 2018February 19, 2018 by Colin Randall

Michael Gething is the chairman of London Whites, the London branch of the Bolton Wanderers supporters’ club. He knows people involved with the SAFCSA equivalent, is friendly through work in the music business with our one-word ratings man Rob Hutchison and fondly remembers better times for train travel when the two branches could pool resources and get their members to different games.

He’s as down-to-earth as you might expect, a true fan of his club who appreciates the company of true fans of other clubs. He has a good idea of one of the reasons we’re in such a pickle just now (see headline, scroll down for his response to the ‘did you see Sunderland’s catastrophe coming?’ question) and, sadly for us, he expects a Bolton win on Tuesday …

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Ground: Bolton Wanderers, Burnden Park and the Macron

February 20, 2018February 19, 2018 by Colin Randall

John McCormick writes: every footballer and fan should be honoured to visit a club like Bolton Wanderers but I’ve never been there. I’ll be remedying that on Tuesday, however, so if my former OU colleague Brian (a diehard Wanderer who will surely relish the magic and nostalgia of Pete Sixmith‘s prose) fancies a pre match pint it would be great if he got in touch via the comments at the bottom …

A View from the Avenue: have the miracles run out?

February 18, 2018 by Colin Randall

Paul Summerside doesn’t mince his words. He calls himself a ‘lapsed SAFC fan’ but is one of 20,000+ longing to resume active support. Ellis Short and Martin Bain may throw up their arms in proclaimed innocence, but what can either of them actually offer those who can take no more? As ever, the pages of Salut Sunderland are open to the owner and/or chief executive. As ever, don’t hold your breath …

At church this morning, the crew of Fulwell 73 (oh the irony) were filming for a forthcoming documentary on this season at SAFC, called Keep the Faith.

Bolton Wanderers vs Sunderland Guess the Score: more misery or modest redemption?

February 20, 2018February 18, 2018 by Colin Randall

Roll up masochists and dreamers. It’s competition time again

We went early with the latest of Pete Sixsmith’s chronicles of doom from the Stadium of Light. He’s off to watch Rugby League today so sent his piece just as Channel Five’s Championship programme prepared to delight Brentford fans and horrify Sunderland supporters with what are laughingly called the highlights of another calamitous afternoon.

Now, we turn our attentions to Bolton Wanderers and Tuesday night. About the only saving graces on Saturday were that they lost, Birmingham lost, Burton failed to beat Nottingham Forest (which would have dumped us back in bottom place) and neither Barnsley nor Hull had games.

Sixer’s Brentford Soapbox: warmth from sunshine, warmth for Liam Miller, otherwise chilly

February 19, 2018February 17, 2018 by Colin Randall

Pete Sixsmith will be on his way tomorrow to watch his beloved rugby league. It rarely fails to put a smile on his face. We have seen, on a handful of occasions this season, how a good Sunderland performance can have the same effect. At most games, however, he witnesses a shambles of a team that would turn the man who is depressive into one who is suicidal. Brentford fans turned out in force and rightly enjoyed their day out (and how they must have loved Sixer’s Bees edition of his fabulous series The First Time Ever I Saw Your Team

Where on earth we, Sunderland, go from here should be anyone’s guess but isn’t – we’re bound for another taste of third division football unless something happens and quickly ….