Sixer’s Sevens: SAFC 0 Watford 1. Undone by all the old faults

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Jake: 'oh dear ...'
Jake: ‘oh dear …’

Monsieur Saltut writes: deprived of Sixer – Pete was on Santa duty again – and deputy editor Malcolm Dawson, also absent from the SoL, Salut! Sunderland struggled to follow the game as much as the team struggled against a lively, well-drilled Watford side. There wasn’t even Barnes and Benno on local radio – some technical hitch presumably – but a decent stream was located to show exactly why Sunderland are in such trouble.

Sloppy play all over the pitch let the fans down after a woeful start that the Hornets sting in under four minutes. It improved when Johnson and Defoe came on and there were chances, but Watford might have doubled or trebled their lead as gaps were left, inevitably, at the back. The asterisk denotes the non-Sixer seven-word verdict (it’s mine) …

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SAFC v Watford Who are You?: ‘your garden shed may be bigger than this, but …’

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Ben with Danny Graham
Ben Clarke with Danny Graham

OK, he didn’t exactly anticipate the song our supporters will be singing at Vicarage Road later in the season. But our Watford ‘Who are You?’ interviewee Ben Clarke makes it clear that for him, stadium size doesn’t matter. And he has good cause to be happy with what he, among the regular 21,000 sell-out attendances, has seen so far. They have not only been getting some decent results, taking them to 10th place, they’ve also been easy on the eye. Ben doubts the club can maintain such a lofty position for any newly promotion side, but nor does he expect a serious relegation threat. Here are his answers to our questions. Ben expresses his views on football succinctly but he is a home-and-away regular so his opinions count. As for SAFC, he likes the club and feels Big Sam will save us, but only just …

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SAFC v Watford: prizes for guessing where the goals will go in

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Paddy Power
Paddy Power: ‘what’s the betting this chap will be picking the ball out of the net a few times?’

Read on for how to enter. The prizes are a £10 Amazon Voucher, a copy of Football Manager 2016 or a Sunderland shirt (home, away or third)


Here is a neat little companion to Salut! Sunderland’s regular Guess the Score feature.

It comes from the Irish bookie Paddy Power, owner one of Monsieur Salut’s favourite radio voices, and is open, for prize purposes (see below for details), to a maximum of six readers. Any entries beyond six will be for fun only.

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Sunderland v Watford Guess the Score: can Big Sam grab that fourth win?

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Jake: 'ha'way Lads, let's have a fourth win for Big Sam'
Jake: ‘ha’way Lads, let’s have a fourth win for Big Sam’

Now is the time for Sunderland to get both parts of the package right: play well and win rather settling for gallant loser status.

After all the praise heaped on the team for a performance that deserved so much better than a 3-1 defeat, Ian Todd, a name synonymous with the London branch of the SAFC Supporters’ Association, brought us down to earth a little with this tweet …

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Arsenal-Sunderland Soapbox. Guess who made better passes than Ozil

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A grand stadium with 60,000 beds to fill
‘Silence please.’ A grand stadium with 60,000 beds to fill

Sixer was otherwise engaged so Monsieur Salut offers some thoughts from the Emirates …

When Pete Sixsmith leaves County Durham (or Tyne and Wear) to watch Sunderland, his post-match reports turn into witty travelogues, with tales of splendid pints of real ale quaffed in wonderful old pubs, combined with incisive analysis of the football. Henry Winter and Louise Taylor, writers I admire, generally do without the first part – and do the second no better than Sixer.

So if I announce now that my afternoon started at a contender for worst pub in England, and continued with a match that had me wondering “who did that?” if the action took place at the other end from Sunderland’s K block of the Emirates, you’ll have an idea of what is coming or, rather, not coming. This will be no match for a classic Pete Soapbox.

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