The Fulham Who are You?: ‘a bad time to play us’

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A Fulham supporter whose photos have graced these pages was all lined up, then went AWOL. Just when we thought we’d have to run the spoof Lily Allen interview all over again, Sean Collins popped up – courtesy of the Fulhamfc site, to which huge thanks for indulging a Mackem in despair – with these instant, and therefore all the more appreciated, responses. We could, however, have done without his score forecast …

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

A bad time in my opinion for Sunderland, due to a mixture of your unfortunate injuries and our players that have come back from injury looking sharper, the likes of Zamora, and especially Simon Davies who was exceptional last night.

What, then, is the legacy of Roy Hodgson, the Fulham view of him now and the verdict on Mark Hughes so far?

The legacy of Roy will always stay as it was, a stand-out period in the club’s history and done with honest hard work and genuine team spirit. Mark Hughes took a while to grow into the job, a task made harder by injuries to key players, but he now seems to be stamping his own authority on the side and a top 10 finish would be respectable.

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Player of the season: Phil Bardsley or Phil Bardsley?

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Across at the official club site, it’s already that time of year.

Who, safc.com wants to know, do fans make their player of the season and young player of the season, and what were the goal, save and team performance of the season?

Voting closes on May 11 – which I hope does not mean no one will be trying to pull off the goal, save or team display of the season on May 14 against Wolves or at West ham on May 22 – and each vote is entered into a prize draw with a pair of tickets to the May 18 awards dinner at the Stadium of Light as the prize.

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French Fancies: sing your heart out for a ban

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Here’s an adventure in fantasy football:

Imagine we’ve just beaten someone, not Newcastle but a team like Bolton or West Brom, in the League Cup final. Yes, that’s quite a leap of faith given how modestly we proceed in cup competition these days, but bear with me ….

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Steve Bruce: no time for tantrums

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Thanks to Bernard Platt, Wigan Athletic AFC & This Northern Soul


We’ll take a long time getting round to it, but the question is simple enough: what possible interest was served by Steve Bruce refusing, if the reports are correct, to attend the post-match press conference? …

Salut! Sunderland supports Sunderland AFC with absolute passion. It was created by a journalist who started his career in the North East and later moved to Fleet Street (though he has also spent thousands of pounds and devoted countless hours to following the club since boyhood).

None of that will ever stop this site criticising SAFC when criticism seems merited, or criticising the press when that is merited, too.

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The Wigan Soapbox: winning, whisky and a Villa wind-up

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Slump is over, but at what cost? That is another of Pete Sixsmith‘s seven-word verdicts, one he reached after reflecting on the immensely gratifying win over Wigan, three of our four goals coming after the club’s roster of fit senior strikers had finally reached zero. The injury list lengthens but the darks clouds are beginning to disperse. And where do Aston Villa come into this? Nowhere in truth; Pete just feels they need bringing down a peg or two after all the Bent-came-to-us-because-we’re-a-bigger club bragging …

I would imagine that 39,000 fans and the entire workforce at the Stadium of Light had a warm and rosy glow about them on Saturday night. I certainly did, thanks to the much needed and richly deserved 4-2 win and a couple of snifters of Baillie Nichol Jarvie, just about the finest blended Scotch I have ever come across. I wholeheartedly recommend both the win and the whisky.

The BNJ (as we Scotch aficionados call it) is a light coloured drink, with a sweet taste – but you’re not really interested in that are you? You want a rundown of the day the magic carpet ride got back on the rails don’t you. So, here goes and I promise not to mix my metaphors as crudely as in the previous sentence.

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A win at last: the Wigan game in quotes

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Sunday’s a day of rest, especially after you’ve won for the first time since Jan 22. Pete Sixsmith‘s analysis will appear tomorrow. Please feel free to add your own quotes to these …

Steve Bruce:

“I have to say a big thank you to the supporters. They were magnificent and played their part from the first whistle to the last.”

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SAFC (0) 4 Wigan Athletic (0) 2: wounded warriors triumph

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Steve Bruce has bleated so much about injuries that some of us have tired of just one more excuse. Today, he had reason to raise his eyes to the heavens and ask whether someone up there has it in for him: three injuries that might have knocked the stuffing out of any team. Ours responded magnificently and ran out clear winners to make it extremely unlikely that we’ll be worried about relegation come the last week or two of the season …

It looked bad when Phil Bardsley, a strong candidate for the player of a flat season, was carried off on a stretcher. It got worse when Danny Welbeck suffered a recurrence of the hamstring injury, raising questions about how quickly he had been brought back after the last one.

Then Wigan scored. A goal from nowhere but leaving us fearing the worst.

Luckily, by the time Asamoah Gyan did his hamstring too, he’d equalised.

And what happened next was the stuff of dreams.

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