Week in week out, supporters from the teams Sunderland are next due to play rise to the occasion and take part in our ”Who are You?” series.
And once a year, we return the favour and come up with awards for the best sets of replies.
In the end I am really quite neutral on the question of the Premier League title.
Yes, Man City have gone out with Abu Dhabi money and bought the trophy. But Man Utd have been doing the same, minus the UAE connection, for years.
Almost to rival the series of end-of-season reviews just begun – and to which others are free to contribute – Luke Harvey, having described the impact of our signing of the season, James McClean, gives special attention to another specific aspect of the football he saw at the Stadium of Light. Step forward Everton, Luke’s opponents of the season …
It seems somehow fitting that the Radio Newcastle commentary team, Nick Barnes and Gary Bennett, whose excellent work costs fans money to hear if they’re away from the North East and listen via the SAFC website, had to keep track of events at the Etihad via the reaction of the two sets of supporters at the Stadium of Light. Have the BBC’s cuts bitten that deep? Pete Sixsmith’s masterly summary of the match itself, and what little part Sunderland actually played in it, ought to be read aloud by Messrs Short and O’Neill to the few players they may wish to keep after another fairly hopeless performances confirmed the lacklustre, relegation-form end to the season …
Last game of the season so Martin O’Neill’s last post-match e-mail to Salut! Sunderland (and a few others). As I awaited its arrival, I thought about what I’d like to find in it: relief that the season’s over, unbridled optimism for the next one, a hint of contrition? Would we have settled for 13th top when Steve Bruce left us in something closely resembling a shambles last November? Maybe. But the MON-inspired revival raised hopes, admittedly too high given what he inherited and had to make do with, and it is difficult for this Sunderland fan – who, incidentally, feels a little sympathy for the United fans, though this rare experience of failure may prove character building – to escape the flattest of feelings tonight. Then the e-mail dropped and this is what the boss had to say …
The flat end of season many of us feared, while outwardly hoping for something special, seemed assured when Wayne Rooney put Manchester United ahead and the only first-half chance for Sunderland was squandered. Would the second half bring that special ingredient, especially with United players knowing Man City were ahead?
Well it got better for us – we pushed forward a little and not only avoided a demoralisingly heavy defeat but might even have snatched an equaliser. And it got initially an awful lot better for United as City contrived to forfeit their lead against 10 men, but then excruciatingly worse as City came back to snatch the title out of their hands. Not the final flourish we craved, nor the humiliation too many of us thought possible after a dismal run. And heartbreak for the winners.
Pete Sixsmith briefly describes the high point of a radio show that resembles, for those old enough to remember, the Brains Trust. I may offer a prize mug (as well as being one), but only if the replies include a team Pete thinks would beat his. And since summer is a-coming, even UTD111 is invited to participate (the mug would be modified for a Newcastle winner provided he or she didn’t dream aloud that repeating a snippet from the wireless amounted to evidence of obsession; it’s just a spot of end-of-season fun for non-neanderthals) …
Jake steps from behind his New Age easel and describes in words the season he has been drawing so cleverly for these pages. It doesn’t matter that the season is not quite over; win, lose or draw in the final challenge, v Man Utd tomorrow, it has been ( as Jake, anonymous in his exile in north-western Spain, says) a season of three thirds. Before knocking his command of the blindingly obvious, read on to see what he means. More contributors’ assessments will follow in the coming days …
Pete Sixsmith has cast the fnal votes in judging for the 2012 ‘Who are You?’ awards and it can be revealed that they have made all the difference. That, however, is for later; this is his last preview of a Sunderland match this season and it takes in another important game, West Auckland Town versus Dunston UTS at a location Pete decided was only the next best thing to the SoL on Sunday …
This is a very special edition of Salut! Sunderland’s Week, timed to go a day early and devoted to the story of Old Time SAFC and the mighty hearts of so many of the people who follow football …