It’s The Hope They Couldn’t Stand: that elusive Kevin Ball epic

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Nic Wiseman
Nic Wiseman

Our own Nic Wiseman, who has been helping out on editing for a few months, was co-editor of one of those fanzines that deserved to prosper but didn’t. Salut! Sunderland reproduced highlights in a half-decent series, but one key item was missing – a piece about Kevin Ball that initially had the man himself feeling rather cross before peace was made. Nic has located that article. Let him introduce and then reproduce it, as well as plugging a new site all Sunderland fans should visit: https://ithics1.wordpress.com/ …

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Sixer’s Stoke City Soapbox: Wembley dreaming over ’til the New Year

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Malcolm Dawson writes….the atmosphere on the journey home last night was decidely downbeat. Pete Sixsmith was fuming at what he saw as another inept performance whilst I adopted the taciturn approach which I always seem to do having witnessed yet another disappointing result at the Stadium of Light. At least I didn’t have to get up early next day to teach Year 9s about rubber production in 1950s Malaya or some such. Peter did which is why his version of the latest League Cup debacle is later than normal. Shildon at home to Whickham in the Northern League Cup this evening explains its brevity.

I didn’t think we played all that badly last night…up to a point and the point was about 25 minutes into the game. We had started brightly, taken the lead and then failed to put the game to bed. We let Stoke back into it and they made us pay. Some decent runs in behind their defence but an inability to find the net, misplaced passes and slack defending all allowed The Potters the opportunity to progress.

Here’s how Pete saw it.….

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Pure Poyetry: ‘Stoke didn’t deserve to beat us,’ says the boss

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Jake captures the Bard, with thanks to Owen Lennox
Jake captures the Bard, with thanks to Owen Lennox

Gus Poyet writes to Monsieur Salut after every game. It’s not the most exclusive of communications, going to thousands of other Sunderland fans, too. This is what he made of our exit from the Capital One Cup, robbing us of one of our chances of another trip to Wembley. Sixer’s Sevens spent the night with no access to the Comments section. This was not intentional – the site’s system was playing up, also preventing uploading of Jake’s images – but, as Salut! Sunderland’s deputy editor, Malcolm Dawson, said, this was perhaps no bad thing. Gus was more upbeat …

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Sixer’s Sevens: Sunderland 1 Stoke City 2. Just not good enough

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Jake: 'Sixer does it in seven words, no more, no less - unless he miscounts'
Jake: ‘Sixer does it in seven words, no more, no less – unless he miscounts’

Few Sunderland games pass without Pete Sixsmith registering his seven-word summary. After tonight’s exit from the league cup, he offered a number of versions: ‘Lacked pace, tempo and imagination. Otherwise fine’ … ‘keeper beaten twice at his near post’ … ‘disillusionment setting in already. A poor squad’ and an ineligible longer one ‘a very poor performance which does not augur well for the annual relegation battle’. Monsieur Salut has chosen another of his seven-worders and wonders whether we should react to this defeat with anger, relief or indifference …

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Sixer Says: SAFC young ‘uns earn their spurs against Tottenham

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Jake invites support
Jake invites support

Vote for Salut! Sunderland in the Football Blogging Awards: see https://safc.blog/2014/09/football-blogging-awards-make-your-yes-vote-count-for-salut-sunderland/for details

Unlike our 13-year-old pundit Keir Bradwell, Pete Sixsmith is not a contender for Young Blogger in the Football Blogging Awards. While he awaits a suitable category for long-in-the-tooth stalwarts, he’ll settle for votes for the site. But Sixer’s passion for the game at all levels takes him to the occasional Under 21 game. This is what he saw when SAFC’s youth took on Spurs last night …

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The great Guess the Score rollover: SAFC v Stoke – Wembley-bound again?

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Jake's new Guess the Score image, with the usual insolent caption
Jake’s new Guess the Score image, with the usual insolent caption
Guess the Score produced no winner at Turf Moor.

No one, it seemed, had a dour enough disposition to suggest we’d be reduced to a wretched 0-0 draw. As Jeremy Robson has pointed out on these pages, that’s now two visits to promoted sides without a goal and with no more than a point.

Even before Eric Bowers popped up to say I must have overlooked a clearly invalid 0-0 entry from Cyprus, Monsieur Salut had decided in his headlong rush toward Queer Street to turn disappointment to virtue.

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