The football part of Martin Bates‘s grand pilgrimage to Sunderland, where his parents were born and raised before heading west to Canada, began with a stirring but losing performance at home to Manchester City. Since he was fearing the worst at Anfield on Saturday when two home goals went in, you can imagine Martin’s joy at witnessing a gutsy late revival. Here is part two of a Canadian Mackem’s trip-home diary …
Malcolm Dawson writes…..Anfield is not my favourite ground. I’ve nothing against the Scousers or the city of Liverpool but after …
Malcolm Dawson writes…..an away point is always good and after it seemed like defeat was on the cards especially welcome. …
Monsieur Salut writes: from an easily conceded defeat to a heartening recovery for a draw, Sunderland tested our nerves today but the point gives us a glimmer of hope for the rest of the season. We gave Liverpool masses of possession and eventually paid the price, defensive lapses – with Billy Jones at fault both times – handing Liverpool a 2-0 lead. But as thousands of home fans made their commendable stand against their rip-off owners’ ticket pricing plans, the comeback began. Mignolet allowed Adam Johnson’s free kick to beat him at the post and Jermain Defoe then showed again what a classy striker he is, finishing a terrific little move involving PVA and the impressive Khazri. Below you see Pete Sixsmith’s customary seven-word verdict (1) and a companion summing-up from John McCormick (2) …
Nathalie Randall is Monsieur Salut’s younger daughter, a very decent footballer (for Old Actonians, who play in quite a good women’s league with Premier in its title), a great mum to Maya but a very disloyal child. Despite being frogmarched to Sunderland games from an early age, she supports Liverpool. She has already explained why on these pages and, believe me, it doesn’t bear repeating.
But here, Nathalie looks forward to Saturday’s game at Anfield.
Yes, her pocket money has been stopped before and it doesn’t work …
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Monsieur Salut writes: It is not often that Salut! Sunderland‘s parent (or should that be geriatric?) site Salut draws more hits.It got close today because of the magic words in the headline (world-renowned managers of football clubs that have become global brands).
There wasn’t much chance of injecting a link to Sunderland in the Pep Guardiola profile I wrote for The National (decent, joined-up writing paper published in Abu Dhabi), though I considered mentioning his conversation with Boro’s Spanish manager Aitor Karaoke about life in England – though what would he know, being in Middlesbrough?.
But here it is, just in case anyone cares. My profile of Louis van Gaal, when he was appointed manager of Manchester United, still attracts loads of visitors to francesalut.com. Today, I expressed the hope that Pep is a little more mature in his dealings with the press because fabulously rewarded men and women in very public roles simply have to learn the law of rough and smooth …
Neil Atkinson*, our old pal from The Anfield Wrap podcast and site, had to rise above a mountain of typos to make sense of Salut! Sunderland‘s questions ahead of SAFC’s visit to Liverpool on Saturday. Once he’d deciphered them, he came up with these thoughtful and entertaining responses, kindly predicting survival for Sunderland and offering a lyrical, Shankly-inspired appraisal of Jurgen Klopp’s needs …
Can the new-look Lads make our Canadian diarist Martin Bates‘s trip “home” feel all the more worthwhile?
Martin has already vividly described his first few days back on Wearside, where bis parents were born and raised before emigrating, and promises more. He has a ticket for the Liverpool game and also for the next home tie, against Man Utd a week later.
How sweet the flight home would feel if, somehow, it was made after Sunderland’s points tally had risen to 25. Even a draw and a win would send him home happy.
Many readers will recall Martin Bates‘s welcome contributions in words and pictures from Toronto when the pre-season tour reached Canada. From pure Wearside stock, Martin is Sunderland daft and anyone befriending him on Facebook will have sensed his great excitement at starting a trip back home, picking up tickets for the Man City, Liverpool and Man Utd games and soaking up the atmosphere and beer of the city where his roots are found. This, we hope, is the first of at least two slices of his back-to-Sunderland diary …
Monsieur Salut writes: I was wrong. Pete Sixsmith‘s internet woes are over so he was up and about at the crack of dawn to reflect on the 1-0 defeat at home to Man City. I’m busy writing a profile of City’s manager-in-waiting – being contenders for four major trophies being seen as a clear sign of failure in that part of the NW Midlands – so apologies to Sixer for the delay in posting …