Burnley Guess the Score and a Hull fan aids Bradley Lowery’s fund

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Jake: ‘is there any point in urging a special performance?’

Monsieur Salut writes: I had an itch to get this week’s Guess the Score out there, but an e-mail from a Hull City supporter exiled in Sri Lanka removed any doubt. You may recall that last week, despite Sunderland’s inactivity, we offered a mini-edition of Nick Barnes’s splendid Matchbook for the first to post correct scorelines in two games of interest to but not involving SAFC, partly because some unexpected advertising enabled us to do so and partly because the publishers, Tales from Red and Whites are paying £5 into the Bradley Lowery fund for each copy bought. So there were two winners – a Hull supporter and Bradley. Read on …

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Sixer’s Travels: as a postponed trip to Middlesbrough mercifully spares one fate …

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But it was still a weekend of pleasure rather than the usual Sunderland-induced pain, according to Pete Sixsmith. He saw some decent non-league football, albeit watching Shildon lose, and some rugby league. He’s already worried about Saturday but put aside such cares to compose another piece of classy writing combining sport, social observation, politics and travel …

Thanks to Middlesbrough for making the quarter finals of the FA Cup. Not only were they brushed aside by Manchester City, their presence in what used to be called the Sixth Round, spared us from having to go there on a Saturday and thereby probably spoiling our weekend.

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Wrinkly Pete: Nice legs, shame about the football.

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Peter Lynn, aka Wrinkly Pete

John McCormick writes: Pete Lynn, aka Wrinkly Pete, is no stranger to this website. Nor is he a stranger to the Stadium of Light, despite having to make a considerable effort to get there.

But make the effort he does, and sometimes the journey, if not the result, makes him wax lyrical. Here he is explaining in his usual inimitable manner why he enjoys the trip up north:

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Sunderland and Hull, Middlesbrough or Palace? Swansea or Bournemouth? Not WBA, as Leicester take off

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John McCormick
John McCormick: We’re  bottom and there’s now a gap

When I last reported in with the Salut Sunderland relegation watch we had had some recent wins but were still in the relegation zone, along with Swansea and Hull. (Swansea weren’t one of the clubs chosen in our start-of season poll but I included them in December on the grounds that some people did vote for “another club” and they  had begun to fit that bill after a decline).

That was only a month ago, just after the transfer window closed, since when new signings have had time to settle and new managers to generate – but maybe not sustain – a bounce. With a cup  weekend giving most of them a breather we have another chance to review  the situation.

But before I do, I have to congratulate West Bromwich Albion, who passed through our metaphorical barrier with ease. Would that we could reach such heights.

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Guess someone else’s score, help Bradley Lowery: Hull-Swansea, Bournemouth-West Ham anyone?

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Win the prize: help Bradley Lowery

 

Monsieur Salut writes: please see John McCormick’s fine piece on Barca 6-1 PSG. My view from France? The PSG collapse was lead item on the French lunchtime news, which I found shocking given there is also a presidential election campaign and a gruesome family murder in Brittany. I am quite pleased about PSG’s heavy defeat but only because I regard them as a fairly loathsome club and don’t (yet? really?) feel the same way about Barcelona. And now for some Salut! Sunderland housekeeping …

It boils down to an invitation to Guess the Score – in the absence of a Sunderland game – in either of the two matches affecting us, Bournemouth vs West Ham and Hull vs Swansea. Be first to be right in either case and you can either have the mini-version of Nick Barnes’s Matchbook, knowing a fiver will go to the Bradley Lowery fund, or – if, say, you support one of the teams involved – a mug reflecting your allegiance … in the latter case, Salut! Sunderland would pay the fiver into Bradley’s fund

Goes without saying that two first-to-be-correct scorelines = two prizes. You must have a UK delivery address.

14 Bournemouth P27 GD-15 Pts27
15 Leicester 27 -15 27
16 Swansea 27 -24 27
17 Crystal Palace 27 -11 25
18 Middlesbrough 27 -11 22
19 Hull 27 -29 21
20 Sunderland 27 -26 19

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Barcelona: Brilliant ballplayers or blatant bilkers?

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John McCormick with something to get your teeth into

Down here in Liverpool the red half of the city reveres Louis Suarez. They see it as no surprise that Liverpool FC achieved their highest ever PL position, not to mention winning the League cup and making the FA cup final, when he was there. They don’t forget he was their highest scorer for three consecutive seasons. But what they seem to remember more than this, or his undoubted skill, is his will to win. During his time at Liverpool Louis Suarez fought for everything, never gave up and lifted the team around him. He deserves massive respect for that and he still gets it.

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Arsenal fans gun for Wenger but how Sunderland would relish his ‘failure’

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Jake: ‘sometimes we just like to intrude on other people’s grief’
  • Monsieur Salut writes: our friends at the Arsenal fan site Gunners Town (is the Steve Wellman in that linked item the Arsenal-supporting Steve Wellman I once worked with?) react with detached amusement when we dare to mention their club’s problems and wish they were ours.

    Last month, a piece in Arsène Wenger’s defence appeared on these pages. It was written by my daughter Nathalie, who once turned out as a sub in an Arsenal ladies’ pre-season friendly (they beat Swindon something like 13-1, Nathalie later had a trials evening at Highbury – she’s a good player, still –  but lacked the exceptional fitness levels required and went off to QPR instead).

    Gunners Town indulgently retweeted a link to her piece, which criticised the “bleating from Arsenal fans and the media about how Wenger needs to go” and included the immortal words: “My dad says he would love to have the kind of failure Arsenal have had.”

    A few hours after Nathalie’s article appeared, Arsenal were soundly beaten 5-1 at Bayern Munich. She saw no reason to change her mind. I am now awaiting her response to last night’s debacle, 5-1 all over again and this time at the Emirates (was it even quieter than usual there?). Don’t worry Gooners, losing at home by four clear goals feels a bit less painful once it’s happened a few times.

    Anyway, and this time with only the most tenuous of Sunderland links (Brian Clough’s decline as manager; we never saw decline as player, just a career-ending injury and regretted that he never managed us), is a dignified and well-argued post-Bayern II lament from Gary Lawrence, an Arsenal season ticket holder for more than 40 years. If you come here only to read about Sunderland, feel free to leave now. But what constitutes success and sackable-offence failure is a good football talking point … and yes, M Salut would still accept the sort of failure Arsenal fans have to endure: fifth top, League Cup quarter finalists, FA Cup semis, Champions League last 16.

    Maybe what north London needs is a few seasons of nailbiting escape acts from relegation, always fearing – as we do now – that time may have run out. Could be character-building …

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    • Encouraging but bruising for Kirchhoff as Manchester United beat Under 23s

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    Pete Sixsmith: ‘you know I’m getting quite used to seeing the Lads lose’

    What better way to get over the serial disappointment of following Sunderland’s first team than to take a look at the young ‘uns bursting with ambition and talent? That was Pete Sixsmith‘s theory. At least he saw Jan Kirchhoff’s return from injury (not that Man Utd seemed to care too much whether they inflicted another one on him) …

     

    It was hoped that Monday’s Under 23 game with Manchester United might wash away the blues after the miserable weekend that we had just experienced. Our lads had just qualified for the latter stages of two cup competitions, we were in a decent place in the league and they were near the bottom, we had the promise of a return for Jan Kirchhoff and Lynden Gooch and George Honeyman were both scheduled to turn out.

    As usual, it was a let-down.

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    Wrinkly Pete’s Crystal Ball. ‘If my memory serves me well’

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    Peter Lynn, aka Wrinkly Pete

    John McCormick writes: Wrinkly Pete often illuminates his posts with reference to old songs which, given most of our readers can remember us winning a trophy, still resonate. He missed one, though, but I spotted it and stuck it in the title.

    Read on and you’ll find it somewhere in his prose. So this week’s quiz is:

    What’s the title, and can you identify any singers/groups and the years in which they recorded versions?

    No prizes, but there are at least four to find, and all from different years, if my memory serves me well. And if you think I’m looking back to keep my mind from pondering what lies ahead, maybe I am, not that Wrinkly Pete agrees.

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    Sixer’s Manchester City Soapbox: our time looks up, but never say die

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    Jake: ‘no shortage of effort, but …’

    The exchanges between Pete Sixsmith, up in the East Stand, and Monsieur Salut, watching and listening in his French bunker (thanks Nick Barnes for the kind mention), were not encouraging. At half time, Sixer bemoaned being both the better side and behind. Long before the final whistle, after the killer second goal, he’d given up the ghost and did not update a seven-word instant verdict sent as City fans celebrated Sane’s cool finish. Where do we go from here? Sixer and I both fear the word is ‘down’. Pete does at least offer a smidgeon of hope with his very last words …

    Oh for the days of last minute goals by Ji Dong-won and Darren Bent and little scufflers from Phil Bardsley.

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