James BoyesSTOP PRESS: Two Albion supporters have now come forward. Fatboy Slim’s response is awaited, but otherwise we have enough to be going on with! Thanks …
Salut! Sunderland needs a seasider who fits any part of the description in the headline.
Newcastle’s Barton brushes aside Arsenal’s Gervinho in cheating stakes
Mrs Logic in whimsical moodYesterday’s harmless piece of fun had our neighbours foaming at the mouths, most of them spectacularly missing the point that the writer, Pete Sixsmith, was quoting words written by someone else (though amid all the charges of “drivel”, “boring”, “gash” and “*****”, one lad did nobly own up to knowing who Sandy Denny was). But derby week being what it is, the banter must go on …
Even the leader of Newcastle’s care-in-the-community brigade now admits he was wrong to call Gervinho a cheat, however much the Arsenal player made of the contact he received in the United penalty box.
At last: something to unite Sunderland and Newcastle supporters
Courtsey of Yahoo, Salut! Sunderland has been chosen to invite fans from across the two-rivers divide to try their luck in a competition with an unusual prize …
All the silly banter – and yes, it goes both ways – shown in the previous posting cannot disguise the fact that for all our differences, especially with regard to how we see ourselves in the footballing hierarchy, Sunderland and Newcastle supporters have plenty in common.
SAFC v Newcastle United: ‘the planet’s least successful club’
Right, there’s a great Newcastle United “Who Are You?’ on its way and we may even devote a piece to Joey Barton, whose hopes of reinventing himself as a philosophical and well-read reformed thug have suffered recent setbacks. For now, Pete Sixsmith dips into a work of contemporary literature Joey, too busy exploring Song of the Day at Salut! Live, may not yet have reached …
Due to the appalling weather we have had this “summer”, my reading output has increased considerably.
Unlike Joey Barton, I have resisted the temptations of Nietzsche and Orwell and stuck to more humble fare, one of which is an excellent tome by Matthew Norman called You Cannot Be Serious.
The second title is The 101 Most Infuriating Things In Sport and Norman looks at er, 101 things in sport that really annoy him, ranging from Tim Henman’s parents , the Offside Rule in Rugby Union and Alan Green.
No doubt had he been writing it now, Peter Allis (“the Socrates of snug bar philosophy”) would have been relegated from the No 1 spot by the burglar-foiling, Gervinho-pulling Twitter merchant known as Joey B.
The Poll Recount: Liverpool’s penalty, Suarez’s hands, Richardson’s card
Graham Poll offers his thoughts on the weekend controversies in each Monday’s Mail. Sometimes we agree, sometimes not. This occasional column will explore those of his verdicts that find us at odds with our own …
Today, Graham Poll insists Kieran Richardson should have been sent off when Phil Dowd awarded the penalty to Liverpool. He mocks the perfectly plausible argument that Suraez, as Dowd saw it, was heading away from goal and may even have pushed the ball too far to be able to control it. He was emphatically not making a simple tour round Mignolet to tap the ball home, much as he may have wished.
Liverpool Soapbox: from Dowdly benevolence to gradual control
It was a grand day out: I enjoyed watching both sets of supporters applaud a besuited Steven Gerrard as he walked round the touchline, smiling and singing autographs; I enjoyed seeing as many of ours applaud the traditional Gerry & The Pacemakers singalong as booed it, and I enjoyed seeing Liverpool fans applaud the superb touches of Stéphane Sessegnon (one Sunday paper’s rating of 5/10 was laughable). And Pete Sixsmith took enormous heart from a tremendous Sunderland fightback: for once, as he put it to me afterwards, deserving the cliché “very much a game of two halves” …
Another game with the once mighty Reds gets mired in controversy. We’ve had the beach ball, the back pass and the dive, which made it 2-1 to Liverpool on iffy decisions. Our turn this time, as Phil Dowd gave Kieran Richardson a considerable benefit of the doubt and showed him a yellow instead of a red.
Song of the Day on tour: Republica … Ready to Go
For some weeks, Salut! Sunderland‘s music offshoot Salut! Live has been running a Song of the Day feature.
Regular readers will know of the folk and folk-rock passions of M Salut and will therefore be inclined to read no further unless they share them. However, today’s choice – a long way removed from either genre – has impeccable Sunderland AFC credentials. So it gets two platforms today: a slot on each site.
‘SAFC, officially my 2nd team’ – Manchester United fan
Scott the Red came back from the Manchester United website Republik of Mancunia to renew our warm relations and pose some questions about the new season. This was before the highly encouraging draw at Liverpool, but the answer still stand. One of the United fans leaving comments at RoM said: “Sunderland is officially my 2nd favourite team!” …
This, following a similar exercise with The Chelsea Blog, is Scott’s report and the interview:
Newcastle’s Joey Barton, Arsenal’s Gervinho: a marriage made in heaven
It began as a question in our Who Are You? series of pre-match interviews with the fans of opposing clubs, about diving and other forms of cheating.
Then it became the Eduardo Question, in honour of the Brazilian-born Croatian player’s monumental contribution to the art, and finally the Walcott Question as a sincere tribute to Theo for his candid admission – coupled with an apology – that he had dived in an unsuccessful attempt to con a referee.
Bruce’s Banter: a ‘great’ display against Liverpool
In his first e-mail to M Salut of the season, Steve Bruce rightly praises a superb comeback from a start that made us look as if we were heading for a battering. Sess and Brown were outstanding but others put in terrific second-half displays, too, and Larsson’s equaliser was stunning. Many thanks to Stan Simpson, of the Durham branch of the SAFCSA, for magically producing my ticket …