The first time ever I saw your team: Derby County

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The newly slimline version of Pete Sixsmith has obviously been reading Salut! Live‘s interesting series Cover Story, comparing different versions of the same songs – health warning: mainly folk or folk-rock). He should actually be contributing to it.

Since it was written by a folkie, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, has been mentioned. Sixer adapts the song title to revive memories of when he first saw us up against the opponents we will face in the Championship. He may well turn it into a regular feature …


The season kicks off on Friday night with the visit of Derby County, once of the Baseball Ground now of Pride Park or whichever company has attached their name to this decent stadium, within walking distance of the excellent Brunswick Inn and the railway station.

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Putting the 5-0 hammering by Celtic ‘in context’. We have a winner, plus Derby buildup

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After the final pre-season friendly ended, appropriately in cricket season, with Celtic declaring on five for none, a sports journalism graduate called Paul Nicholson caused amusement at Twitter with his plea for the result to be put into context.

Celtic were ahead of us in preparations, he argued with extraordinary generosity towards players who collected lots of twos, threes and fours in the ratings awarded by North-eastern sportswriters. Why, they had even “played competitive games”.

So what I took to be Paul’s charity provided the inspiration for a little competition. And you, the readers, provided the inspiring responses. Paul himself has now responded, too, saying that contrary to my assumption, he is not a Sunderland fan and that his comments would appear more charitable still if we were aware of his actual allegiance (clue? based in N***ast*e).

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Robbin Ruiter signs: best news of Sunderland’s transfer window so far?

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Source: Wikipedia

Those attending, and others reading about, the pre-season friendlies in which Robbin Ruiter played for us in goal can voice only satisfaction and relief that he is now a Sunderland player.

No one should damn Jason Steele on the basis of one rotten performance (vs Celtic). There were others in the team that day, notably Lamine Kone, who struggled to reach more than 2/10 in post-match ratings.

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The Sunderland vs Derby County ‘Who are You?’: a man in the know

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Nick Britten: not really as handsome as he seems. And his wife, charming as she is, likes the colour of the shirt stripes

Monsieur Salut writes:
Nick Britten* has written a column for the Derby County matchday programme for 16 years. I think we both wrote for our respective club programmes about the time he rescued me from the A38 (update: oops – Nick corrects me and says it was the A50, and he should know) after the Sunderland SAFCSA London branch’s dozy coach driver got us all stuck in the not-very-hard shoulder mud on the way back from the Old Trafford FA Cup semi-final vs Millwall.

Oh, and he married a Mag. Read on for a knowledgeable Derby fan’s view of how his team and ours stand at the start of the new season, his thoughts on Grayson and his predicted scoreline for the opening game at the SoL on Friday night (maybe skip that bit) … but all in all, a great start to the 2017-2018 Who are You? series

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Sunderland’s Championship prospects – and a controversial view of Grabban

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Source: SAFC at Facaebook

Salut! Reflections has developed into a corner of Salut! Sunderland for outsiders, not usually supporters of SAFC. The contributions range from blandly stating the obvious to offering interesting or pertinent points about the progress or lack of it of our club. Even after heavy editing, those in the former category struggle to shine.

This is at the higher end, more imaginatively written, up to date and opinionated. Since we are assured the author, William Sundin, is a media production graduate from Sunderland University, there may be a good reason for that. What we certainly hope to be true is that his failure to see the qualities of Lewis Grabban reflects his shortcomings, not the player’s …

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Beauty or beast: prize Guess the Score as Grayson’s ‘different animal’ faces Derby County

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Jake: ‘allow Monsieur Salut to introduce another season of Guess the Score competitions’

A new season beckons and we’re raring to go, full of optimism and excitement, our confidence nourished by the knowledge that Sunderland AFC are in the safest of hands.

No pre-season calamities, no breaking of ranks or signs of dressing room dissent, no one facing disciplinary action before the league programme even starts. And everything points to Simon Grayson holding on to the few remaining players of real quality.

That’s the fantasy out of the way. Can we now settle down to a start to the season that at least makes us look capable of competing at Championship level?

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After Celtic drubbing, should we bet on promotion or avoidance of relegation?

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Jake: ‘how much are we all putting on a home win to start the season?’

Monsieur Salut writes: what were our honest expectations for the coming season on, say, Friday night? And 24 hours later, after SAFC 0-5 Celtic? Did they dip still lower after hearing Darron Gibson’s unwisely expressed assessment of the true level of commitment among the players at Simon Grayson’s disposal? Too many questions. Let’s see how an outsider views our prospects …


After a disastrous 2016-2017 season, Sunderland face a difficult test in the Championship.

Having ended last season with only six wins and six draws in 38 Premier League matches, producing a measly of 24 points, the club has been focused on strengthening the squad in the summer transfer window.

The original idea may have been to find a side capable of gaining promotion once again to the Premier League. Unless the humiliation of Saturday’s final pre-season friendly proves a blip, the sights may now need to be lowered.

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A strange feeling, from a stalwart supporter

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Ian Todd (source: www.weardownsouth.com)

John McCormick writes: many of you will know at first glance that the photo on the left is of Ian Todd. Others may not and, perhaps, would appreciate some kind of introduction.

I’m not sure I’m equipped to provide one, other than to say this man is the kind of Sunderland supporter I’d like to think  I am, and I’ve been to daft and distant places like Norwich, Bristol, Oxford and Leyton Orient, not to mention those most hostile of venues, Old Trafford and Millwall’s old Den.

Ian has been much further, much more often, and done so much more wherever he went. And he still keeps going.

Over to Ian:

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