Some of those who listened to the latest Salut! Sunderland podcast will recognise Matt Turvey, from the Aston Villa Life site, as the Villan roped in to join the chat ahead of tonight’s important game. This is the conversation that followed when Matt turned the tables and interviewed our own Stephen Goldsmith, the man (with Gareth Barker) behind the podcasts_ …
Salut! Sunderland is, of course, a gloat-free zone. We recognise that no mature Newcastle United supporter ever mocked Sunderland after the 7-1 defeat at Everton, 7-2 at Chelsea or indeed 5-1 at St James’ Park.
So, not least in the knowledge that bad results lie ahead for us as well as them given the nature of football, there is no specific intention to rub salt in the wounds of yesterday’s mauling by Jordan Henderson and Liverpool of the Mags.
On a Friday, while the boss watches “Gardner’s world”, I usually plug into the Salut podcast and browse the SAFC world in general. But recently I’ve been keeping my spreadsheet skills up to date by practising inserting formulas so I thought I’d share this with you. It turned out to be a bit fiddly as I had to copy the spreadsheet formulae and then paste the lot into an HTML editor, which wasn’t as easy as it sounds, but it should work. If not I’m sure M. Salut will remove the post when he returns to duty.
To use the reckoner copy the table and paste it into the top left corner of an excel spreadsheet (starting the paste from square A1 should keep the formulae correct). Then type in the points gained for each game by clicking on the relevant cell and entering 1, 3 or zero. Go from the top downwards. It’s important to start from the top as some of the lower cells have formulae already entered and you don’t want to type over them. These formula will autocomplete some of the remaining cells, so e.g filling in the top cell for the Reading v QPR match (i.e. QPR’s points) will autocomplete the square for Reading’s points for the same game. Some of the squares are blank because these games only include one of the bottom teams. If you do find a formula comes up in the formula bar when you click on a cell in the spreadsheet then I suggest you leave it and move on to one which is empty. Generally speaking, the cells with a formula in will have a 3 in them at the start
(This has now been changed and will show a zero if you tweak the italics, see the comments below) .
This will change to reflect the actual points gained when you complete the complementary cell
You can add points as games progress or try predicting results. Have fun
This is without doubt a big one for both clubs. Villa seriously need a win, we can pretty much secure survival and aim for a storming finish if only the right Sunderland can turn up. We’re fortunate to have a thoroughly level-headed Villa Park view from Kevin Hughes*, Monsieur Salut’s fellow-contributor at ESPN, with fascinating thoughts on Martin O’Neill and Darren Bent – I think he identifies two DBs and at least two MoNs – as well as on cheating, those “my club’s bigger than yours” squabbles and much more besides. Kevin predicts a draw …
Well aren’t we a happy bunch? Two wins against the two sides we normally fail to beat has given everyone …
Another bit of impudent posturing in our occasional series of daring to intrude on the private grief of others …
No Liverpool supporter or official has yet, so far as I am aware, suggested that Luis Suarez’s strange habits with his teeth confirm not a weakness for all manner of foul play, or an interest in cannibalism, but a misunderstood soul whose culture is lost on Europeans.
In other words, we are not being asked to accept that Uruguayans would see being bitten as a gesture of affection in exactly the same way they would, if black, being called a negro.
Just before we get on to the business of inviting score predictions for the monumental game at Villa Park on Monday, there’s a spot of housekeeping to announce.
Lars Knutsen and Monsieur Salut disagree on one matter – whether Sunderland AFC’s handling of the Paolo Di Canio appointment was exemplary or poor – but that is an honest disagreement which will be familiar to many other supporters. Where we can probably all agree is that the appointment itself has so far, on purely footballing grounds, been thoroughly vindicated. PDC has given the club a spark just when it desperately needed it …
The headline, untouched by M Salut’s hand, is noteworthy for the absence of Sunderland from the list of contenders for the last of the bottom three slots. We must all (save for visiting supporters of the other affected clubs) take comfort from John McCormick‘s scholarly ways, sincerely hope he knows what he’s doing and be assured he is not tempting fate … it is the latest of his studies of how fluctuating goal differences may affect the outcome of the pressing Premier issue that remains to be resolved following Man Utd’s confirmation of the title
Gareth Barker imagines what an onlooker from his own parallel universe might have made of the dismal display against Manchester United that was quickly followed by MoN’s exit, looks back on Paolo Di Canio’s mostly winning start and gets reacquainted with enjoying life …