Sixer’s Sevens: SAFC 1 West Brom 1. Van Aanholt to the rescue

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Jake: 'underwhelmed, but a point'
Jake: ‘underwhelmed, but a point’

The first-half disappointments – Defoe’s missed sitter, sloppy play leading to WBA’s well-taken goal – had Pete Sixsmith gloomily tweeting a seven-word verdict he thought might survive to end: ‘Lacking in quality all over the field.’ It was difficult to quarrel with that. Patrick Van Aanholt deserves immense credit for almost everything he did after coming on for the the hapless Kirchhoff, his magical crossfield ball to Khazri setting up another good Defoe chance and then starting and ending the move for the equaliser. But don’t expect Sixer to get carried away …

 

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Sunderland v West Brom: random thoughts on Rondon, Vic Halom and Baggies anthem

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Andrew says: 'Di Canio's Last Stand. This, also showing my brother, was taken 45 mins before his "chat" to Mackem faithful for last time before he was fired'
Andrew says: ‘Di Canio’s Last Stand. This, also showing my brother, was taken 45 mins before his “chat” to Mackem faithful for last time before he was fired’

Monsieur Salut writes: the review section of the UAE newspaper I write for, The National, has a feature they call The Long Read. I’ve done it a couple of times – from the Jungle in Calais and on Muslim writers threatened by fanatics for having a progressive instead of medieval outlook. It came to mind when I was posting Andrew Caulton’s ‘Who are you?’ interview. A passionate West Bromwich Albion fan exiled in the USA, Andrew goes on a bit, but then so do my questions. And I found his replies engrossing.

As a postscript, I reminded him he had promised a photo showing his brother and Paolo Di Canio at the infamous WBA v SAFC game that was to be PDC’s last in charge. He searched high and low for that picture now and it has now been been added to this follow-up …

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West Bromwich Albion ‘Who are You?’: once-reviled Pulis’s ‘searing honesty’

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Andrew

USA-based Andrew Caulton:’Astle Gates – a reverential place for any Baggies fan. I go to at least one game a season and have seen us score twice in the last five years’


Monsieur Salut writes: Every few months, a satellite US radio station Sirius XM, asks me onto a late show (late for me) to talk about the latest woes afflicting Sunderland. That is where Andrew Caulton*, an Englishman in New Hampshire with fingers in lots of football pies, heard me (twice). We met again at Twitter, where he revealed his lifelong West Brom allegiance and readily agreed to sit in the ‘Who are You?’ hot seat. His recollections of the 1973 cup run and of coaching Calum Davenport, who played for us on loan, are priceless.

It is another long read but Andrew seems the sort of bloke you could happily natter with for hours in the pub …

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Allardyce: once Sunderland’s Messiah, now just a very naughty boy

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We’ve already had Pete Sixsmith’s words of wisdom on the Sam Allardyce affair. Here, Salut! Sunderland’s deputy editor Malcolm Dawson considers the issues that arise but also what it means to us, supporters of Sunderland …

MD taking a sideways look at the weighty issues.
MD taking a sideways look at the weighty issues.

“Being slightly paranoid is like being slightly pregnant. It tends to get worse.” 

Molly Ivens

It would be easy to become paranoid as a Sunderland supporter. Every time we seem to be on the up, something comes along to kick us in the teeth.

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Allardyce’s broken England dream: dodgy entrapment or just deserts

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Sam Allardyce - a Sunderland love story gone wrong
Sam Allardyce – a Sunderland love story gone wrong, followed by the merest flirtation with England

Monsieur Salut writes: Despite far too many decades as a journalist (three of them with The Daily Telegraph), I have serious misgivings about sting operations. They may sometimes uncover genuine malpractice but, among a number of concerns, I wonder who polices the stinger, in this case the Telegraph. This newspaper has after all spent several years getting rid of the sort of seasoned, sensible and in many case outstandingly good journalists who might have been trusted with such a role. For some reason, it makes me think of speed cops hiding behind bushes, as happens in France. It’s, well, just not British.

That said, Sam Allardyce has been a very foolish man. Pete Sixsmith takes up the story and offers scant sympathy …

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There’s only one Bradley Lowery. Here’s how Sunderland fans can help

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Bradley
Bradley


Anyone who watched the otherwise one-to-forget Everton match on the TV, and plenty of those inside the stadium, will have had their hearts warmed by the sight of little Bradley Lowery, the SAFC mascot for the game.

Bradley is fighting a form of cancer called neuroblastoma and needs costly treatment in the USA. A good piece about the way sporting and other personalities, from Jordan Henderson to Katie Price, who have rallied to the cause appears at the Sunderland Echo site, this link

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