One point in 27: Birmingham setback Observed

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Pity poor Pete Sixsmth. Another early start for a long awayday, another bitter disappointment. Once again, The Observer asked for his verdict. We start with the Birmingham fan …

KYM YPRES-SMITH, SmallHeathAlliance.com

We’ve been worried for weeks, especially after dipping into the bottom three, but this win means we can breathe again – we just need a few more points to be sure. I think 2-0 was a fair reflection of the game. Our first goal was bizarre but just reward for Larsson – he was our man of the match today, Bowyer also played well. We’ve still got a lot of injuries but team spirit got us through today.

Player ratings
Foster 8; Carr 8, Johnson 9, Ridgewell 8, Parnaby 7; Larsson 9 (Fahey n/a), Ferguson 8, Gardner 8, Bowyer 8; Jerome 7 (Derbyshire 90 n/a), Phillips 6 (Hleb 63 7)

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Birmingham City 2 SAFC 0: Mignolet nightmare but where was our punch?

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This was another result we feared, but it should never have happened.

Better team in the first half, miles better at the start of the second and you can guess the rest: goalkeeping error before halftime puts us one down, then City’s first good move in an hour doubles their lead – Mignolet again arguably at fault – to leave Niall Quinn looking as glum as we feel.

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Salut’s week: red rags to 13,000 Arsenal fans, and WBA blues

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Here’s a quick digest of the week now drawing to a close, aimed at any reader who hasn’t time to visit Salut! Sunderland every day …

Years ago, I was told about the annoying habit of a man who was last but one in the job I then held. Each time he was praised for a notable piece of work, he would say “yes but what was wrong with it?” or “I know there’s a but coming”. Arsenal supporters remind me of him.

Not everyone admires Arsène Wenger or the teams he assembles. I do and have said so many times. But each mention of Arsenal at Salut! Sunderland prompts such an ill-humoured outpouring of anger, irritation and general sourness that it makes you wonder what they have to be so touchy about.

Monty and Rupert sounded such jovial characters when their names were broadcast over the Emirates PA system a couple of seasons ago that it seems a shame they’re probably miserable old codgers who spend the evening moaning into their Pimms and pink gins about having to make do with Champions’ League football and a top two Premier place. They should try supporting a team that manages one point in 24.

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Lyon outclass Arsenal, Barnet beat Sunderland: just a man’s game?

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That’s the Sunderland Women’s Football team you can see. Their exploits deserve more publicity (as well as a fairer deal from the FA). French media, on the other hand, gave good coverage to the Lyon women’s team which beat Arsenal Ladies 2-0 in the first leg of the Champions’ League semi-final with two excellent finishes by Lotta Schelin (*see footnote for clip). More than 20,000 turned up at OL’s Stade de Gerland; let us see whether the Gunnerettes can overturn the lead in tomorrow’s return game in London. To Rob Hutchison, the notion that women can actually play quite well is relatively recent. But he’s a convert …

For years, I’d scoffed at the thought of girls, yes girls, playing football.

They ain’t strong enough, they can’t tackle, they can’t kick a ball properly, they can’t head it, they’re too soft. All are comments so often heard when “blerks” talk about women’s football. But gradually the profile is rising, with more internationals on free-to-air TV and more and more media coverage.

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Birmingham City v SAFC: Bruce out, Villa down, says our Bluenose

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Since Steve Bruce writes to us so often, he must be a regular reader and have seen the odd bit of praise and support as well as the brickbats. This one, though, is not for him: John Baker*, who runs a USA-based photographic tours company, is a Birmingham City fan with his own unflattering analysis of our manager, once theirs. He also reckons SuperKev will score against us on Saturday, but allows for the possibility of Sunderland getting three in reply …


A few weeks ago, this fixture would have had a different look, you warding off relegation worries, us looking towards Europe. What now: a home banker?

I’d like to think so, but it depends on which McLeish and Bruce team shows up on the day. Brum appear to have pulled away from their post League Cup doldrums, while Sunderland, although free-falling right now, have managed some results without the valuable services of one Darren Bent, I wish you’d have kept him as the Villa would have been all but relegated without him by now!

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SuperKev menace looms as Soapbox sees Sunderland win at last

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Now we know it: Kevin Phillips will be starting on Saturday* intent on heaping more woe on Steve Bruce and Sunderland supporters: “You look at the teams we have got left at home – Sunderland, Wolves and Fulham – and it’s no disrespect to those teams but they are games we feel we can win.” Pete Sixsmith, though, has broken our collective duck: he’s actually witnessed a win, and over money-coming-out-of-our-ears Manchester City at that. You know what’s coming next …

A Sunderland win at last! I was hoping to use that header after Saturday’s trip to St. Andrews, but the Reserves beat me to it with a well deserved 2-0 win over Manchester City at Eppleton/Hetton last night.

Goals from Craig Lynch in the first half and Ryan Noble after the break, sealed the points in the last game of the regular season and possibly the last game to be played under the current reserve set up.

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Remember Chamakh? The joke’s on Bordeaux now

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Forgiven: a Bordeaux fan M Salut hammers at badminton

Those of you with hair have torn it out, the milk is well and truly spilt or even spilled Over at non-football Salut!, I wondered aloud whether watching Sunderland could, like smoking, seriously damage your health. It has been a week in which a supporter of West Brom, of all clubs, cockily dismissed Sunderland in his “fan’s view” for the Daily Mail as “physical, determined but limited”. And that was just the first-half, when we were ahead. So let’s change tack. Here, before we start fretting about Birmingham away, is another episode in our French Fancies series …

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Yes. I really should get out more. The time to end the ridiculous feud with Les Girondins de Bordeaux has surely past. Who cares if the club president Jean-Louis Triaud and his then manager, Laurent Blanc, insulted Sunderland AFC?

But every time I feel Salut! Sunderland should move on, bury the hatchet, find someone else to taunt, along comes an excuse to reopen hostilities with the self-important Ligue 1 underachievers who declared that Sunderland AFC were altogether too small a club to be allowed to buy Marouane Chamakh (now at Arsenal, where he scores a little and dives a lot).

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