It wasn’t signed, sealed and announced as Pete Sixsmith succumbed to the editor’s pressure and wrote his customary piece welcoming an ostensibly smart and necessary new signing. It is now (see the official announcement at safc.com)*. We don’t often get to bring in players from one of the best two or three teams in Europe so it feels quite a special moment in Sunderland history …
This Sunderland fan and ex-player (nearly) thinks relegation might be OK
Forget the idiotic media-fuelled and possibly media-created spat between Big Sam and some manager-come-lately on Merseyside. Either the whole thing is a nonsense or one or two men need to grow up if an honest disagreement about fitness is to be seen by either as a row. This is a piece of more significance for Sunderland supporters. David Preece, Sunderland-born, a SAFC fan and on our books until he embarked on a career elsewhere, can write as well as keep goal (he’s currently player/goalkeeping coach at Lincoln City but see that wonderful bit of action in the clip).
His well-argued article for the Sunderland Echo can be seen in full at this link. We reproduce extracts with the Echo’s kind consent …
And this is the posting that took Salut! Sunderland past the milestone of 3 million hits …@salutsunderland I was pretty close. pic.twitter.com/mZPbVtlLMJ
— Robbie (@Robert_S_Sweet) January 7, 2016
The Salut! Sunderland 3m hits competition. Nearly there
As one door closes, another opens. Personalised Football Gifts, the Weardale-based supplier of fine mugs to winners of our regular Guess the Score competition, has decided the time has come to end the arrangement. Quite simply, not enough readers followed links to their site so it is hardly a decision we can quarrel with. A winner of this week’s Arsenal v SAFC competition will still receive a mug. As a mark of appreciation of their sponsorship over the past couple of years, we have offered to keep the company’s ad on the site until the end of the season. Thanks to Ian, Hazel, Helen and, until his departure from the company, Alan, for all their support … and now let’s move on with Classic Football Shirts
Sixer recalls: when ooh ahh Cantona saved Man Utd’s blushes
Malcolm Dawson writes….I got a text from Pete Sixsmith this afternoon. It read “sitting having a drink of tea in …
Sixer’s Arsenal Who are You?: ‘sorry dad, sorry uncle, I’m a Gooner’
The allegiance of our second Arsenal ‘Who are You?’ interviewee of the season is the product of boyhood rebellion. With a name like Sixsmith, you’d naturally expect him to grow up Sunderland through and through. But Andy Sixsmith*, sports presenter for Made in Tyne and Wear TV, is not made of the same stuff as Uncle Pete, Uncle Phil or his old dad, Michael (not to mention a maternal Mag). Peering into a crystal ball as a lad, he clearly saw it coming and wanted nowt to do with our chronic misery. Uncle Pete nominated him for this slot so let’s see what he makes of the questions …
Arsenal v Sunderland Guess the Score: a quick return to the library
Salut! Sunderland is in an irrational hurry to reach that third millionth hit. It will happen sooner or later but posting Guess the Score early in the week will hasten progress towards the milestone. Don’t forget there’s another competition, arising from our little statistical celebration, and that carries a prize worth £50 at https://safc.blog/2016/01/a-mighty-thank-you-as-salut-sunderland-reaches-three-million/. Now guess the score in Saturday’s FA Cup third round game at the Emirates …
Ambrose Fogarty RIP: ‘a perfect fit’ for Sunderland, Hartlepool and Ireland
Monsieur Salut writes: Pete Sixsmith remembers a player who figured in his youth and mine as we made our way every other Saturday to Roker Park. Despite having to slog for a regular place against gifted stars of the age, ‘Amby’ Fogarty was a good player who served our club, other clubs and his country well …
They don’t make players with names like that anymore. Ambrose Gerald Fogarty, born in Dublin in 1933, just before Hitler came to power in Germany, has died at the ripe old age of 82.
A mighty thank you as Salut! Sunderland reaches three million
The weekend brought many extra readers to Salut! Sunderland, thanks to a rare win and Rob Hutchison’s fine piece on past transfer calamities. This led us closer still to that magical milestone of three million hits since the site was created in the new year of 2007.
To mark this achievement, Salut! Sunderland – or rather our friends at Classic Football Shirts – can offer a prize worth £50 in our 3M Competition. Back in November we invited thoughts on why readership levels had been, shall we say, sluggish since the last milestone – two million was reached rather more quickly – and the response was excellent. Monsieur Salut will choose a winner from those comments and any further received by the end of this week, say midnight on Friday UK time, and he or she will have the £50 to spend on or towards Classic Football Shirts products …
Sixer’s Villa Soapbox: old guard see us through basement battle
Malcolm Dawson writes…….Sixsmith Towers was a haven of joy and celebration this morning as Pete Sixsmith listened to Test Match …
As the window opens, a team of Sunderland signings to forget
Rob Hutchison was probably a little harsh with his one-word verdicts on the Lads v Liverpool, or maybe just realistic and angry. Now he turns his fire on a succession of dodgy signings Sunderland have made in the past and picks a team we trust is pure fantasy (again with a spot of harshness along the way)..