Stephen Goldsmith made a rod for his own back when he devised a Predictions League. Bright idea but these things have a habit of needing to be maintained. He’ll learn. In the meantime, here’s how last weekend’s three selected games affected the table …
This is the news so many of us have been waiting for. But how many dreaded the next announcement about Stéphane Sessegnon would be altogether different?
Whatever it took, from pay rises and cuddles to first-class Eurostar tickets, Martin O’Neill has persuaded Sess to stay. A contract extension keeps him at the club, or massively enhances his already high market value, until 2015.
No winner on Tuesday night so here we go again with Guess the Score. Be the first to post the correct scoreline here – NB before kickoff – and win a Martin O’Neill mug.
OK, the headline has been reported to Lord Justice Leveson as wholly misleading. The prize will change the winner’s life only to the extent that he or she will have a new mug to swill tea or coffee from.
Observant readers will recall the excellent report, from a Swansea viewpoint, of last season’s 2-0 win for Sunderland against his team. The writer was Peter Thomas* and the piece was reproduced from his site Pierre91 in a Day. So it seemed natural to invite him into the “Who are You?” chair ahead of our visit to the Liberty Stadium. Peter, “a Clause 4 Socialist who gets angrier and more radical by the year”, talks about the Swans’ outstanding start to the season, the Sunderland player he’d take “in a heartbeat” and Michael Laudrup’s “stellar” signings …
Pete Sixsmith reports from our satisfactory win over Morecambe and discusses Martin O’Neill’s options for the trip to freescoring Swansea on Saturday …
A comfortable victory in the Capital One Cup left Martin O’Neill in good spirits as he gathered his thoughts for the post-match e-mail sent exclusively to Salut! Sunderland (and a few thousand others) …
This started out as a contribution to Salut! Sunderland‘s new presence on the FC Network corner of the ESPN site. Click here to see what has already appeared. A few hours passed without the piece appearing and Joey Barton himself then let it be known the loan deal with Marseille was now unlikely to go ahead. Now it looks back on again (he is in Marseilles this afternoon, Wednesday) so let us look at what he and this vibrant French city have to offer each other …
A win!
Pete Sixsmith got away with opting for the Rugby League Challenge Cup final on Saturday thanks to our drain brain drain. So Morecambe in the Capital One Cup took the place of Reading in the Premier as our SoL opener – and Pete’s. He saw comprehensive Sunderland dominance lead to a comfortable victory, James McClean scoring both goals and going close to a hat trick.
Sixer’s Sevens is intended to capture the glory and shame, hope and despair, excitement and ennui of the Sunderland matchday experience. The full archive – see link below – sums up what all Sunderland supporters feel, from darkest gloom to sublime elation, in the words of one who is usually there. On those rare occasions when he is not, or when his own verdict is delayed, the seven-word assessment is preceded by an asterisk to denote his absence.
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With a spot of luck, Sunderland fans will put aside any lingering embarrassment over Saturday’s postponement and see class prevail over Morecambe tonight to get a run started in the Capital One Cup.
This is, of course, the league cup, the same one from which we departed without a whimper – indeed without a true striker in the starting line-up – at Brighton and Hove Albion last season.
So Pete Sixsmith got away with his act of desertion, truanting from the first home game of the season to watch an oval ball at Wembley, and still has the treat of Reading at home to come. Here he offers thoughts on the more than slightly embarrassing postponement – and Warrington’s comfortable victory over Leeds in t’other game …