This week, Monsieur Salut has been granted time off from the ‘Who are You’ feature. Our Liverpool-based associate editor, John McCormick, found and interviewed an Evertonian and the fascinating result of their exchange will appear here tomorrow.
That leaves Guess the Score. David Miller won the Personalised Football Gifts mug as the first – and only – reader to plonk for 3-1 to us at Crystal Palace. So no rollover, just the one mug and you must have it delivered to a UK address.
There are games that leave some of us wondering whether we’ve gone completely mad just by attending. But there are fans who cannot get enough. Pete Sixsmith was in that latter category until he finally joined the Club of 92. Now he’s done it all. Where does he go from there? …
Jay Crame was our guest in last week’s ‘Who are You?’. A Palace fan since the mid-1980s, he is the founder and editor of a fan site, The Eagles Beak.
I have no doubt he will be perfectly happy to see his post-match thoughts reproduced here. They add up to a good, honest and measured match report*:
Monsieur Salut: writes: Opinions. We’ve all got them. Nic Wiseman and I have been debating at twitter on the Palace goal. Was it a world-class save by Pantilimon undone by the rebound off Wes Brown, as he believes, or two-thirds of a great save which ended with a fumble, as I wrote – on the strength of a single view from the stand – at ESPN? Rob Hutchison was there, too, and among his one-word, pre-Keir snap judgements, our big Romanian scored 7. I’d have made that a 6 and Brown a 7 but otherwise concur with Rob …
Pete Sixsmith declined the option of a bleak night out at a poky little ground with abysmal catering in the middle of South London nowhere, preceded by a country-length trek. He watched it at home. The Soapbox fitted neatly onto Pete Horan’s sofa …
Colin Randall writes: Gus Poyet welcomes a hugely important win just when one was sorely needed. It was not pretty – see my report at ESPN – http://www.espnfc.com/club/sunderland/366/blog/post/2126481/premier-league-sunderland-hit-reset-on-the-record-books-in-a-3-1-win-over-crystal-palace – but the goals were good and there were some encouraging individual displays …
Pete Sixsmith is no lover of Selhurst Park and tonight he chose not to go. So once again it’s substitute Malcolm Dawson who steps up to the plate with his seven word summary of this evening’s performance.
Pete Sixsmith is a worried man and he knows other worried men. It is up to Gus and the Lads to ease his concerns, starting at Selhurst Park …
We all accept that Monday night brings a crucial game for both Sunderland and Crystal Palace. Win it and we rise above Palace, Leicester City and a plummeting Aston Villa and we will be on the same points as Hull City.
A draw keeps us in the bottom three but halts the mini-slump that has hit us in the latter days of October.
Lose and Palace will be four points ahead of us and Neil Warnock will be gloating – and we don’t want that do we, boys and girls.
At least the headline doesn’t tell the whole story of the season so far.
But that is my record to date. Perhaps Ellis Short should be paying me to stay away.
The Eagles Beak* is a fine Crystal Palace fan site, not infallible on apostrophes as you can see but a place accommodating enough to allow Pete Sixsmith to ramble on about why he dislikes Palace. It was created and is edited by Jay Crame*, who joins us now for the latest edition of ‘Who are You?’. He tries to make us feel better about that mauling at St Mary’s..