Pete Sixsmith bemoaned the 4am alarm call. He was nervy in the buildup, still nervy at half time with the Lads one up. See how he feels now in his seven-word verdicts (two for the price of one). To finish the game on 3-0, comfortably in the end, reflected a fabulous team display with Lee Cattermole in magnificent form and great sharpness from Borini, Defoe and Watmore. …
The nerves are beginning to show. Monsieur Salut accepts at ESPN that it’s not Big Sam’s mustn’t-lose, but a clear must-win match. History offers little solace. The task falls to Sunderland AFC, in front of their 15th sell-out away crowd in a wretched season, to raise their games and flatten the Norfolk Dumplings, so known because the unflattened version is a traditional local delicacy (Delia probably does them quite well).
Pete Sixsmith anticipates Saturday’s trip and remembers others from the past, including the 2-2 draw also attended by M Salut and also occurring towards the end of a (vain) fight against relegation …
This, redirected from the original and now abbreviated version for a boring technical reason, is the full interview with Gary Gowers, a Carrow Road regular since the age of six, editor of NorwichCity.MyFootballwriter.com and the Norwich City voice at the Metro newspaper. Thanks, Gary, for some great answers …
SEE FULL INTERVIEW AT https://safc.blog/2016/04/the-norwich-city-interview-i-fear-sunderland-will-pull-it-off-again/
Malcolm Dawson writes…….where I agree with Big Sam is that Saturday’s game at Carrow Road is a “must not lose”. Where I disagree with him is that I do feel it is a “must win” fixture. Do the maths. If we lose we are virtually dead and buried. No argument. But a draw still leaves us 4 points behind the Canaries meaning we have to win our game in hand, get at least one more point than them in the remaining four fixtures and hope that should it all come down to goal difference our defeats are by smaller margins than theirs. A win not only puts us just one point behind with that extra game to play but will improve the GD.
Colin Randall flicked through the pages of his interweb contacts and found Gary Gowers, a die hard Norwich fan who maintains the tradition of excellent WAYs from East Anglia. A win for either side will virtually seal the Mags’ fate but I’m pretty sure, whilst wanting all three points both Alex Neil and Sam Allardyce would settle for a draw. Personally I’d rather be in Norwich’s position than ours but as Gary says it’s squeaky bum time this weekend.
Probably for one week only, French Fancies returns to record the latest edition of the Mediterranean exploits of one Steven Fletcher, on loan from SAFC to Marseille …
There are worse things footballers can be called than goats, as Olympique de Marseille were during Saturday’s 0-0 draw on Saturday, a 14th home game in Ligue 1 without a win.
If the people calling you goats also happen to accompany the jibe with the Benny Hill theme tune played from the stands, it seems even less wounding as an insult.
No, it doesn’t all come down to this one game. But if we leave aside the crazy mathematics that would theoretically allow for Newcastle to finish on 43 points while Palace and Watford went down with Villa, we know in our hearts what is at stake at Carrow Road on Saturday.
By and large, the day we started supporting Sunderland AFC, is like taking a lawfully recognised partner,’to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health’. The analogy is Michael Ganley’s. He has turned his own lifelong passion into a remarkable initiative that fully merits our support …
A fascinating SAFC-related project, noble enough to make us forget our woes as supporters for a while, deserves exposure at Salut! Sunderland.
The Fans Museum – check it out at www.safc-museum.co.uk – has a wide and growing collection of historical items associated with Sunderland AFC.
The primary aim is to use this history and make it accessible to all, reflecting the fact that football within the city of Sunderland – and beyond in the traditionally large County Durham and Tyne Valley catchment areas – is one of the main driving factors of its history and is something all people from Sunderland, and many from the region more broadly, can relate to.
Malcolm Dawson writes….I spent the first weekend of the season staying at my mate’s house in Nottinghamshire. He is a …
Malcolm Dawson writes……thanks to Sky TV messing with the fixtures, I passed my season ticket onto one of my young …
Pete Sixsmith, back from groundhopping in North Wales, saw little in it a half time. But Sunderland pretty much collapsed in the second half, going behind and then trying to go further behind until Vardy’s second made a Leicester title more likely, which we applaud, and a Sunderland relegation a near-certainty unless we can play a lot better next Saturday and Rodwell and Borini don’t miss the sort of chances they had today . These are Sixer’s intiial thoughts, in seven words …