Soapbox: we’re safe – Blackpool, West Ham and Wigan doomed

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There’s a big maybe, or series of maybes. First of all, Tangerine dreamers, Hammers and Latics straying this way should take comfort: Pete Sixmith‘s specialist subject is geography not maths. But he’s done the calculations using the BBC predictor page (see footnote*) and very much wanted the headline to read: “It’s official – we’re safe.” To M Salut, that sounded too much like tempting fate …


Whiling away an hour at work this morning, as my Year 11 group negotiated a tricky Media Studies assignment by comparing the online version of Bliss magazine with the printed one (cutting edge of academic education at Ferryhill – we annotated in Latin!), I turned to the BBC predictor page and worked out the rest of the season’s results.

And the good news is we will not go down. Indeed, we will finish with the princely total of 42 points, a real tribute to the effort and determination shown since January.

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Birflatt Boy: can we have Stoke City’s squad back again?

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Steve Bruce has been around football long enough to realise why people are calling for his head today. Some have been questioning his survival as manager for a little while. It goes without saying that anyone who disagrees- Martin in Canada? – should contact Salut! Sunderland, which will find room for the opposing view. But our shadily cantakerous Birflatt Boy is no mood to grant a reprieve. It is hard-hitting, maybe harsh stuff and M Salut would take issue here and there. But these are parlous times for SAFC; supporters now seeing yet another the season unravel can hardly be blamed for feeling aggrieved …

How many more nails to close this coffin?

Football managers can make some horrible decisions. Selling or buying players in transfer deals that should never have seen the light of day, dropping key men in vital games, getting tactics hopelessly wrong (if they ever had any tactics at all) and usually ringing up a series of poor results.

In our case, this combination of shortcomings and blunders has led to relegation on more occasions than people of a certain age can remember without wincing.

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The Fulham Soapbox: crushed by the Cottagers

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M Salut’s prediction that Marseille, having gone top, would stay there lasted all of a few days. Interesting, but no one here really cares about that. What we do care about is what has happened to Sunderland. Pete Sixsmith puts up with a lot in the name of supporting SAFC and reporting so compellingly for Salut! Sunderland. Much more of this, though, and he may well take up matchday trainspotting …

A week on from the win over Wigan that looked as if it had given us a base to build on for the fag end of the season, we are back to where we were after Manchester City, West Brom etc.

Make no mistake (as the manager is fond of saying), this was a shocker. The second half brought to mind the likes of Breen, Lawrence and Davies as we crumbled against a neat and tidy, but hardly world beating Fulham side.

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Dear Steve Bruce: this is how it feels …

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Bob Stokoe's handMrs Logic seeks a helping hand


Apologies to supporters in Crook, Norway and elsewhere who had to wait to see their comments appear – M Salut was away all day yesterday – and also to those who cannot bear to read another word about Sunderland 0 Fulham 3. Sorry, but there’s an awful lot to say. Salut! Sunderland readers include Steve Bruce champions, even in these straitened times but Mick Goulding is not among them, His depressing but incisive and heartfelt thoughts were first expressed at the Blackcats list, but could serve to perfection – with a couple of change, making Bruce read “you” – as a response to the manager’s post-match e-mail …

Dear Steve,

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Steve Bruce: awful … ‘but nothing we can do’

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Steve Bruce’s customary post-match e-mail should, for some beleaguered supporters who have already expressed their thoughts, have included the words “I resign”. Such a gesture would, of course, do us no good of any kind with just three games to play this season. But while Bruce has had to grapple with appalling injury problems, this was a dire display …

Dear Colin,

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Sixer’s Sevens: SAFC 0 Fulham 3. A soft thrashing

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pete2

Starting with a dreary return to general incompetence at home to Fulham – OK, we have no fit strikers, but does that stop us defending too? – these are the most recent of Pete Sixsmith‘s incisive seven-word verdicts capturing the essence of just about every game. When, rarely, Pete is absent, a supersub does it for him.

All horrendously flat today; some good first-half approach work brought no reward, Fulham took an undeserved lead before reaching a scoreline that suggested a romp but really just reflected our own capitulation. There will be no immediate post-match report tonight, though Pete’s full analysis will appear within the next couple of days.

The full Sixer’s Sevens archive – see link below – encapsulates the matchday experiences, from darkest gloom to sublime elation, of a fan who is usually there …

April 30 2011 SAFC (0) 0 Fulham (1) 3 No forwards, creaky defence, hurry up summer

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Soapbox in Chester: more interesting than a royal wedding

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You know Pete Sixsmith. It takes only an FA Cup Final, wall-to-wall Rugby Union or an England international to drive him on to the road to satisfy his immense appetite for the more obscure corners of football. A royal wedding was just the prompt he needed …

Oliver Cromwell was a great Englishman, of that there is no doubt. Under the rule of the Commonwealth, there would have been no royal weddings or any of the page-after-page reporting that goes with it; good as that is for Samson’s litter tray, it is not great for the brain.

Unfortunately, Olly had a bit of a downer on football and ale, so maybe I would not have been as pleased by old Ironside as I originally made out. As well as his his highly visible and undisguised wart, he also had other imperfections.

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Salut!’s week: beating Wigan, annoying Villa, welcoming Fulham, advising Kate

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No one suspected for a second that beating Wigan Athletic 4-2 at home amounted to a revival. It is not, by itself, even a mini-revival, though another win, at home to Fulham today, would represent one of those.

But it came as a mighty relief nonetheless, perhaps ending any relegation fears.

For a look at what has been happening at Salut! Sunderland, in case you missed any of it, here’s a snapshot of the week. Click on any sub-heading to read more …

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SAFC v Fulham: ‘let’s hear it for Johnny Haynes’

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Especially for those outraged by our lapse from republican values, to the extent of running a spoof wedding vows item, it’s straight back to normal business. Late, almost too late, came this gem: a second Fulham “Who are You?”, this time from David Lloyd, editor of the fan site There’s Only One F In Fulham …

Salut! Sunderland: You drew against one relegation struggler at the weekend, we finally won against another. A good time or bad time for us to have you up at the Stadium of Light?

We played well at Wolves but were suckered by them scoring with their first attack of note (after 20 minutes) and needed a late leveller having had several chances. Against Bolton in midweek we should have scored five or six (we won 3-0) and were brilliant going forward. If we play to that tempo you could be in trouble!

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