Jake: catch Sixer’s instant seven-word verdicts throughout the season
Monsieur Salut writes: For starters, Newcastle’s win was probably good for us as Bournemouth are more likely than the Mags to drop heavily into the bottom three. But with performances as limp as the one that deservedly failed to avoid defeat against Southampton, it may not matter in the end. Pete Sixsmith was deeply unimpressed by our play and by the reckless stupidity of Yann M’Vila’s challenge that gave the Saints their penalty winner. It was a pretty depressing show and Sam Allardyce will have to accept that playing ugly is all very well for a team in trouble if you are still able to get something from the game. As Gary Bennett said in the BBC radio commentary we are just not good enough to sit back and defend, hoping to snatch a result ..
Connor Armstrong* passionately supports Southampton but, as his surname might suggest, has North-Eastern family roots. An uncle supports SAFC and his father is also from County Durham though he appears to have become a Saints man whatever his footballing allegiance in earlier life. Connor, a football writer who also dabbles in media duties for Southend United (catch him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ConnorArmstrong), was convinced SAFC were heading for relegation until a couple of weeks ago and still wonders whether it might be the best outcome even for us. It’s a fascinating set of replies. Read on …
Colin Randall writes: it is not just Sunderland AFC that knows the meaning of struggle. Salut! Sunderland has its moments, too. I am talking readership levels. Victory – and defeats for those who remember them – in the Wear-Tyne derbies always boost numbers, though not as much as they once did. So do John McCormick’s statistical epics on relegation prospects among the bottom eight (or so) clubs. When Monsieur Salut, John or deputy editor Malcolm Dawson come up with a catchy headline, the effect can be the same because of the way website aggregators work. The common denominator, I am sad to say, is other clubs. We often draw big hits when the content, and therefore the headlines, mention them. Purely Sunderland-themed articles do not, with honourable exceptions, have the same effect.
This suggests we are not quite getting it right for SAFC supporters. Our Facebook group has more than 500 members but there are some days when we do not attract even that number of visitors to the site. Here, after John McCormick has set the scene, is your chance to tell us what it is we are doing wrong, what we should be more or better, what we should not be doing at all …
Jake: ‘make us forget the Halloween horror at Everton, Lads’
This is your chance – whoever you support – to Guess the Score in SAFC vs Saints, be first to get it right and win a prize …
It was already a massive test. Southampton are seventh for a reason just as there is no mystery as to why Sunderland are second bottom.
Our Saints “Who are You?” interviewee* wonders whether Sunderland actually need to go down “to gut the squad and have a decent crack at rebuilding … a risky game, as many can testify”.
The best response is the one Big Sam has been appointed to deliver. And we know from experience that a rotten result is not necessarily followed by another (though we can usually predict one with some accuracy after a derby win).
Roberto Martinez is an admirable manager who appears to be doing an excellent job with Everton.
Everton, if their more high-minded supporters can bear to hear this, are a club Sunderland fans can identify with. And their club walloped ours on Sunday after we had flattered to deceive only to crumble in a manner with which we are all too familiar.
Public transport will get me to or from Goodison in well under an hour, even on Sundays, so there’s no mileage (ha!) in giving you the story of my journey, as I did last week. I could recount a convivial hour spent in the company of Pete Sixsmith, but he has already done that. I could tell you about the atmosphere generated by the Evertonians inside Goodison but the only atmosphere came from the lower Bullens, where our ever faithful fans had gathered, as they always do.
The lower Bullens Road Stand. Full of fans, full of noise
Monsieur Salut writes: You don’t lose 6-2 by bad luck. Yes, we had some – two shots against the same post before Everton scored, a viable shout for a first-half pen – but this game was thrown away by defending as inept as you will see in the Premier or, dare I say, Ryhope Over 40s, League. After hauling ourselves back into the game, Defoe and Fletch cancelling out Everton’s two-goal lead and another chance going begging when we might have gone 3-2 up, we imploded. Every home attack seemed likely to result in a goal. Of course it will have entertained neutrals but we are not neutrals. Bring back boring football it stops attackers ripping our defence to shreds at will. Pete Sixsmith‘s options for his seven-word verdict tell their own story …
Salut! Sunderland settled back for another quietly inactive Saturday, the lull before tomorrow’s Goodison storm. So why, suddenly, were people coming to the site? We have ‘HarrogateMackem’ to thank, for drawing renewed attention at Ready To Go’s Pure Football forum.
SAFC fans who are otherwise rarely seen here flocked to the link and have posted some rightly admiring comments at RTG. So it seems fitting to bring back to a life at Salut! Sunderland one of the finest pieces of writing* to grace these pages. Apologies to those who have seen it all before (unless, like Monsieur Salut and quite a few others, they feel it lends itself to re-reading at least once a year: see the comments posted by our own readers in 2011 at https://safc.blog/2011/10/jonathan-wilson-the-candystripe-passions-of-grandfather-father-and-son/), when the article was headline ‘Jonathan Wilson: the candystripe passions of grandfather, father and son’. But Jonathan Wilson is a wonderful writer as well as supporting Sunderland and he proves both parts of that statement here …
