Sixer’s Sevens: WBA 1-0 Sunderland. Urgently required: a safe keeper

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Jake: catch Sixer's instant seven-word verdicts throughout the season
Jake: Sixer went AWOL so for once it is Bob Chapman’s knee that’s jerking


Monsieur Salut writes: What can a manager do about the sort of error Costel Pantilimon made against West Brom, spilling a cross to give Saido Berahino a gift of a tap-in? Big Sam was as powerless as Dick Advocaat had been when Pants made an equally schoolboyish mistake to give West Ham an equaliser in the last match.

After a decent first half, that lead early in the second half was decisive and Sunderland lacked the guile or strength to get back into the game. A draw seemed a minimum requirement against another team in the bottom six. Pete Sixsmith was not there and the seven-word verdict, concentrating on the Hawthorns catering, is from his supersub Bob Chapman. James McClean proved again that he really is a bit of a prat, stupidly and provocatively going to the Sunderland support at the final whistle to wave a triumphant fist at them. Clearly he is not going to grow up any time soon …

BUT DO SAY SO if you feel I am being harsh on Pants and believe he was fouled…

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Tell us the team Big Sam should send out at West Bromwich Albion

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Jake: 'time to start winning but, above all, to stop losing'
Jake: ‘time to start winning but, above all, to stop losing’


It is pointless to say this is the Big One. Every game Sunderland play, probably for the rest of the season, threatens to be a big one unless we find ourselves in an irredeemable position – or, and now I am dreaming, safe in midtable after an extraordinary winning run – early in the new year.

Let’s just say WBA away is or could be a defining moment in the reign of Sam Allardyce. SAFC are in a mess and there is only so much time left to extricate us from it if relegation is not to become the foregone conclusion most pundits – and increasingly our Who are You? interviewees – think it is.

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The West Bromwich Abion Who are You?: thumbs down Pulis, and Sunderland

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Nathan Carr
Nathan Carr

Salut! Sunderland feels as if it is tracking the developing career of our young WBA interviewee Nathan Carr, owner of the popular @BaggiesGalore fan site. In his visits to these shores, he has risen from ‘aspiring sports journalist’ to ‘aspiring sports journalist with a growing media presence’. See the imprssive list of people he writes for below*. Nathan is always welcome here, even when he comes laden with gloomy thoughts about Sunderland, ahead of Saturday’s game at the Hawthorns, albeit expressed before Big Sam’s appointment …

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West Bromwich Albion vs SAFC Guess the Score: the latest adventure begins

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Jake: 'do it for Sam, do it for yourselves and do it for us, Lads'
Jake: ‘do it for Sam, do it for yourselves and do it for us, Lads’
To cries of “fix”, Joan Dawson walks off with the prize mug in the Name Sam’s Column competition.

The doom-laden entrants, at Facebook and Twitter in particular, just didn’t get Monsieur Salut’s ruling that unduly pessimistic titles would clash with the spirit of Salut! Sunderland. Of course we’ll criticise and grow despondent if things do not work out; for now, though, Sam Allardyce is our manager and he deserves, as of right, our support.

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Big Sam – and Sixer – assess Sunderland’s return to Europe as Borussia Monchengladbach held

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A sneak preview of the Jake image that will accompany Big Sam's post-match missives: see
A sneak preview of the Jake image that will accompany Big Sam’s post-match missives: see https://safc.blog/2015/10/big-sams-salut-sunderland-column-named-winner-sees-her-life-change/

Back when he was a rookie teacher learning how to negotiate safe passage through what was those days called the blackboard jungle, Pete Sixsmith watched our FA Cup Final heroes of 1973 doing battle with Vasas Budapest and Sporting Lisbon in the European Cup Winners’ Cup, winning both home legs and then again in Hungary before going out on aggregate in the second round in Portugal. The Premier International Cup is not the Champions League or even the Europa League, but the Stadium of Light offered a grander stage than the Under 21s’ Hetton stamping ground and Sixer savoured Sunderland’s return to competitive continental football …

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Big Sam’s Salut! Sunderland column named. Winner sees her life change

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salut new

Someone had to win and the rest of us had to lose. The competition to find a name for Sam Allardyce’s post-match thoughts, or those sent out by the press office with his signature, has run its course.

Sam Allardyce’s e-mail after each win, defeat and draw will assume the title SA’s Essay – or maybe it should be SA’s Essays – with many thanks to Joan Dawson, whose declared yearning for a Salut! Sunderland mug drove her to offer several options.

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Name Big Sam’s column for Salut! Sunderland and win, er, a mug

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The classic 'dressing room' mug from Guess the Score sponsors www.personalisedfootballgifts.co.uk
The classic ‘dressing room’ mug from Guess the Score sponsors www.personalisedfootballgifts.co.uk


Every so often, Salut! Sunderland digs into its own pockets and forks out for a prize-winning mug. You will receive the your personalised version (ie your name at No 12) of the above, from our Guess the Score sponsors Personalised Football Gifts, but at Monsieur Salut’s expense, if you come up with a great name for the slot we will devote, as with all managers, to that post-match e-mail from the boss (or his ghost writer).

We’ve had Bruce’s Banter, Martin’s Musings, Paolo’s Pow-wow (then Le Parole di Paolo), Pure Poyetry/Poyetry in Motion and the brilliant Advochaat, coined by our illustrator Jake.

What shall we call the thought of Big Sam after each win, defeat or draw? Nothing I have so far seen, of thought up myself, comes close to seeming right. Play It Again Sam might work for defeats, Telegram Sam was another suggestion and there’s always a plan Sam Speaks. Over to you, remembering the only two rules: M Salut’s decision is final and the winner must have a UK delivery address.

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Welcome back to Sunderland, Big Sam

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Jake: 'so we didn't get Messi after all?'
Jake: ‘play it again, Sam (that keeping ’em up trick of yours’


Sam Allardyce is our new manager. He therefore starts with Salut! Sunderland‘s complete support. Welcome back, Sam, the runaway favourite among the touted names
when we ran our little poll asking who should be Dick Advocaat’s successor.

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