Malcolm Dawson writes………Tuesday evening sees the Lads return to the “Son of Filbert Street Stadium”, where last season they kick …
Managers are not paid to say their teams played badly, they deserved to lose and there’s surely now no way back. Over to our own David Moyes, who ‘thought’ we deserved a point or three. Mmm …
Monsieur Salut writes: Nothing is actually settled. Losing 1-0 to Watford, deservedly as well, does not relegate Sunderland. But we know the game is up. We just aren’t good enough to do what Hull did in routine home game today, what Palace under Big Sam managed at Chelsea. A decent Borini shot late on and a pathetic strike by Januzaj (from am excellent position; Gary Bennett said it looked more like a backpass) was all we mustered. Pickford stopped it being worse, Pete Sixsmith stayed away; the seven-word verdict is Bob Chapman’s and see his stand-in Soapbox report here …
Monsieur Salut writes: the London and SE branch of the SAFC Supporters’ Association has just reached 50 years of age. In common with many who leave Sunderland-supporting parts of the North East to ply their trades in and around the Smoke, I eventually got round to joining the branch after seeing numerous mentions in the matchday programmes of various London clubs where I had attended away games. I’d put my membership at around 30 years, but I could and should have joined sooner, since I moved south a few months before the 1973 FA Cup Final. Plenty have done much longer stretches. Step forward Ian Todd, who was largely instrumental in creating the branch 50 years ago and has been a tireless mainstay of its activities.
Special events are planned, with a get-together and buffet at the Stadium of Light on the evening we play West Ham on April 15 – open to members, past members and their guests – and, on the eve of the final game at Chelsea, at the Knights Templar near Chancery Lane, London (all-comers welcome; many will recall the splendid pre-League Cup final gathering there in 2014). Check out details at weardownsouth.com and now read what Ian had to say in a piece headlined ‘It’s all my fault’ in the new edition of the excellent branch newsletter, Wear Down South …
Colin Randall writes: not everyone will share this thought but I needed cheering up on Wednesday. Getting back to sunshine in Marseille helped (as did the cost of the trip, return flight from Stansted at four euros each, the outward journey having been only 14). Then I saw our Watford interviewee Del Day‘s Facebook update: ‘Revolution anyone?’ Sixer would approve of that one. Del, when not feeling political and cross, runs an independent music publicity company, Ark PR, a small booking agency, Big City Lights, and the Maiden Voyage record company. He adored Graham Taylor to the extent that both his daughters have Taylor as middle names, his wife having baulked at calling them Blissett. Over to Del*, with some terrific thoughts on old player links between our clubs and a gloomy prognosis on our current condition …
This, then, is the fantasy for Vicarage Road.
Jermain Defoe returns from his Wembley triumph, hits more goals for Sunderland and launches David Moyes’ ultimately successful act of escapology.
Watford (a) becomes the first of several wins that somehow secure survival on or before that doddle of a closing fixture at little Stamford Bridge on May 21 when our best hope, as somoene else has already pointed out, may be that Chelsea are hung over and incapable after title celebrations.
Let us see how closely your predictions – and the realities to come – follow that narrative. It’s time once more to Guess the Score – and once again to aid the Bradley Lowery fighting fund in the process.
Monsieur Salut writes: we’ve acclaimed Jermain Defoe. So has the country at large. Pete Sixsmith’s Observer Q+A talked of a man who, at Sunderland AFC, had enhanced his reputation as a striker and – through his quite beautiful bond with Bradley Lowery – as a man.
Pete’s piece, reproduced in expanded form here, briefly mentioned the other positive from our truly awful season: the superior goalkeeping of Jordan Pickford, albeit interrupted by a midseason injury layoff.
Jordan deserves and will probably attain the status of England’s Number One. He may well do it while keeping goal for a club other than the one he has always supported, SAFC. That is his right, maybe even a personal duty, as a pro. I wish him well and, while regretting that Sunderland are unlikely to provide the platform for his ambition, will follow his progress much as I follow Jordan Henderson’s.
Here are some excerpts from an interview with Jordan (P), speaking to EASPORTS.com to mark his EA SPORTS FIFA 17 rating being upgraded (that’s a football video game for the unitiated). To read the full interview, go to https://www.easports.com/uk/fifa/news/2017/jordan-pickford-interview …
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First, heartiest congratulations to Jermain Defoe, for opening the England scoring with a trademark finish against Lithuania. In a wretched season for Sunderland, he has brought rare shafts of bright light. And recalled by Gareth Southgate after 1,465 days in the international wilderness, he ‘rolled back the years to show England what they have missed,’ according to The Guardian‘s Dominic Fifield, with little Bradley Lowery present to complete a heartwarming night. Enjoy the clip, below, while it lasts – and sadly the same can probably be said about Jermain’s sparkling Sunderland career.
Now on to the reason we probably have only 10 games left to enjoy the sight of Jermain in our colours: Pete Sixsmith is a regular in those view-from-the-stands round-ups in The Observer. They like his contributions, he – rightly – likes The Observer so it is a perfect match. But just as relegation for Sunderland will means relegation for Monsieur Salut from his little slot with ESPN, the Observer will not be calling quite so often if at all for the thoughts of a Championship team’s supporter. Here, on Pete’s calculation of what the paper will still want from him this season, is his penultimate offering ‘before we disappear into the Championship for goodness knows how long…….’
Salut! Sunderland challenges David Moyes to prove Sixer wrong. It would make our summers …
No game, and no need – or desire – for a relegation review so soon after the last one, which means I’m taking another meander around the Northwest to bring you up to date, more or less, with some of the clubs on this side of the Pennines.
I was going to title this piece “take a walk on the west side” in homage to wrinkly Pete’s propensity for including songs. You’ll find out why I didn’t at the end.
