Lars Knutsen makes a welcome return to these pages with his view of the season so far, a quick take on the Charlton game that adds a new dimension to Colin’s report and a perspective that I suspect very very of us will have taken as we watch the “will he, won’t he stay” saga unfold in the context of some very real team and fan bonding. It’s well worth a read …
SUNDERLAND AFC v NEWCASTLE U21s This was the tie few people wanted. Certainly not Northumbria Police, who will have to …
Regular readers will know that the Salut team make occasional appearances in the official matchday programme. Recent visitors will know that my last contribution came at the end of 2018, when I wrote about my take on the year before the Shrewsbury game.
However, that piece only came about after Sunderland had to fit in an extra cup game following our draw at Walsall.
I was originally asked to do something for the Bristol Rovers programme, with a focus on League One’s promotion challengers over the Christmas/New Year period. The extra game forced a change to the timetable and then other events took over, with the result that the piece I duly sent off never made it into print.
Monsieur Salut writes: my thanks to Dave Suddick, from our Facebook group, for the shot of SAFC’s marvellous travelling support as seen from his seat with a Charlton friend. I felt for an unexpectedly absent Pete Sixsmith, recuperating after surgery but in remarkably good spirits before and after, as I joined my pal and former colleague Kevin Maguire, and his pals from the Jarrow branch of the SAFCSA, at the Valley. Dave’s photo reminds me of Kevin’s own memories of Roker Park; he was a Fulwell Ender but once went into the Roker End just to see what the Fulwell looked like.
We were in for decent value for our £24 tickets though the entertaining nature of the game could not overcome Sunderland supporters’ disappointment that having weathered a Charlton storm after their fortunate equaliser, we could not take chances that would have lifted us to second place ….
Pete Sixsmith had a ticket for today’s game and a seat booked on the coach down from the North …
Josh Maja seems more or less blameless in the series of events that led to today’s astonishing development.
If Sunderland AFC is telling the truth, Maja told Jack Ross yesterday he wanted to stay and would today sign a generous new contract (did someone say at seven times his current salary, precisely as demanded by his agent?). Instead his agent told not SAFC, but Sky, he would not be signing.
John McCormick writes. Like Blackpool, this one was on the itinerary I compiled early in the summer. Like Blackpool, it didn’t survive my first scrutiny of the fixture list, which is a pity as I’ve never been to the Valley and I was looking forward to it.
Pete Sixsmith has, of course, so here he is setting the scene for our second away trip of 2019 and, as he says, it’s a cracker
At one stage Monsieur Salut thought that he might not find a Charlton fan to keep our Who Are You series up to date but thanks to the wonders of social media – and especially the Charlton fan site Into the Valley – the Addicks came up trumps and long term supporter Richard Justham took up the challenge and provided us with a comprehensive set of responses to our questions.
Malcolm Dawson writes…..you expect the roads to be quiet on a Bank Holiday and they were. I drive to Lytham …
This started as something resembling a blind edition of Guess the Score
Monsieur Salut has faith in Sunderland AFC but, as work began on this, was about to leave for France for the new year.
As a result, he needed to prepare the regular features in advance, so far in advance that he did not know the outcomes of either Shrewsbury at home or Blackpool away. Well, we discovered in time that the Shrewsbury match ended disappointingly at 1-1 – but Blackpool was still to come.
As a quick update, I was able to follow events from Blackpool thanks to Barnes and Benno so am as delighted as any other supporter with the win – and share their worries about the immediate future of our classy but in-demand goalscorer Josh Maja.
