Everyone except John McCormick has been too busy to write for Salut! Sunderland and no one has even had time to post John’s piece (that will be rectified tomorrow).
For now you will have to make do with – and treat as an excuse for posting comments on anything Sunderland-related under the sun – this extract from Monsieur Salut’s latest offering to ESPN, which can be viewed here in full:
With Pete Sixsmith otherwise engaged on family matters, once again Supersub Robert Chapman steps up to the plate with his thoughts on the game at Bolton. It’s fair to say that he wouldn’t have been the only Sunderland fan in a good mood as kick off loomed, as the not unexpected news from Brighton got the afternoon off to a fine start. Certainly the BBC Newcastle team were in upbeat mood about the Black Cats’ cahances as the teams were announced but as Nick Barnes warned, potential banana skins await the overconfident.
And so it proved, as once again the Sunderland team put its supporters through the gamut of emotions with relief and renewed expectation of a 40th anniversary FA Cup run as the final whistle blew. Mind you had we known in advance the identity of our potential 4th round opponents there may have been a little less confidence. Still bogey teams are there to be beaten but first there’s still a tricky replay to negotiate.
For the first time in three games, Martin O’Neill had something to smile about at the final whistle. A decent second-half recovery saved the day after Bolton doubled their early lead. Sunderland live to fight on – we’ll know tomorrow what the reward would be if the replay saw us progressing to the next round …
Pete Sixsmith was playing truant again today, for the unusual – for him – reason of a family commitment, a relative’s 90th birthday if Monsieur Salut remembers correctly. What he missed at the Reebok, and Bob Chapman saw in his place, was a familiar tale: worrying injuries (Rose and Cuellar) and a self-inflicted mountain to climb, two down on 48 minutes. It was done, keeping us in the FA Cup 40 years after we last won it, with what the BBC calls the substitute Connor Wickham close range strike and a “stunning 20-yard drive” from Craig Gardner. We live to fight again, which is more than Newcastle United can say …
Here’s a very quick posting of the last of Pete Sixsmith‘s New Year trilogy … plus excuses for absence from the Reebok ..
This is a posting that could not decide whether to be one of those occasional Salut! Sunderland reviews of the week just gone, a simple Guess the Score competition or a second bite at the “Who are You?” cherry.
Monsieur Salut thought of rolling them all into one but finally accepted the rebuke of Terry McLoughlin who, while boldly offering a scoreline forecast of Liverpool 1 SAFC 2, questioned the device of mixing up Guess the Score and further debate on the Tottenham Hotspur post-Olympics diving squad. “Too much talk, too few predictions,” Terry thundered.
In Yorkshire near Rotherham, goes the great little traditional song Spencer the Rover***. Well our Spencer’s in Lancashire, near or even in Bolton, and is accordingly a Wanderer. Maybe Monsieur Salut and Spencer Rathbone* should be meeting for a veteran versus upstart game of badminton (BBC Radio Newcastle’s Martin Emmerson may remember what happened when he took the upstart’s role a few years ago) before having an old hack/aspiring hack chat about journalism and watching the FA Cup third round tie together.
I am not sure what to make of the claim I came cross online that Wanderers fans sing a song just for Spencer – but will assume it to be a compliment to either his Wanderers fan site or his drinking habits. As for us, we just need to move on from the disappointments of recent days. A 40th anniversary cup run would help …
Peter Sixsmith began his New Year footy fix with a trip to Whitby where he saw the home side come …
Martin O’Neill
The transfer window opens and two players leave the club with no replacements coming in. No doubt there are some lined up and we shall see some new names on the Sunderland roster but Martin O’Neill in his post-match e-mail to M Salut highlights the smallness of the squad and for once, has little to temper the disappointment of the result.
Pete Sixsmith has witnessed some embarrassing Sunderland performances over the decades. This must be down there with the worst of them, a five or six-goal thrashing dressed up as a mere 3-0 romp. Yet we missed two or three chances, too. The quote in the headline comes from Gary Bennett, summarising on BBC Radio Newcastle; Martin O’Neill must have been tempted to send him on. And only the boss knows where we go from here …