Before introducing Guess the Score, Monsieur Salut has some words to add on the Max Power issue. They are not the words I originally wrote to accompany the article …
What I felt and many others felt was the rank stupidity of Max Power, a gifted player enough suspected of possessing the suicidal tendencies often if wrongly attributed to lemmings, dumped Sunderland into deep trouble with his 23rd minute red card, number three of the season, at Walsall.
John McCormick writes: there’s no formal division of labour at Salut HQ. It usually works out that M Salut himself does the “Who are you?” and “Guess the score” pieces, along with sundry items that come his way, I do the “First time ever I saw your ground/team” series and also “Sixer’s Sevens” if Malcolm’s at the match, and Malcolm does match reports on Sunday morning, especially if he was there and can provide his well-informed introductions. Other writers chip in from time to time, Jake embellishes all of our efforts and Pete Sixsmith, of course, provides an axle round which our efforts can spin. However, like our players, we can and do swap roles.
And, like the team on the pitch, we don’t all have to be there for it to work.
Pete Sixsmith once again dips into his magic memory to bring you a trip to the land of contrasts: bashed metal and heavy metal: old canals and new motorways: Aston Villa with their football league glory and a historic stadium and erm, Walsall who, literally, are in a different league.
Nowt wrong with that, though, as Pete makes abundantly clear.
Monsieur Salut writes (and guess how easy it is to write Monsieur Slut by mistake): I knew some games would be a struggle for Who are You? and Walsall away this Saturday was already proving a challenge before we were duly drawn against them in the FA Cup for a week later. Richard Hall*, located by the usual online searches, agreed to have a go. So why not get him to do both games; why not go back to him for the return league game?
So Richard’s answers on the League One match, and revelations about his cultural tastes (Shostakovich fifth, the works of an American ‘Marxist humanist’ Raya Dunayevskaya and even a spot of Michael Jackson washed down with old world wine) will be followed next week by his FA Cup thoughts. It amounts to another great read in this series. And Richard knows the North East well, having worked in Middlesbrough, lived in Darlington and joined a friend for games at the SoL. But we’ll try to spare him a third set of questions …
Salut! Sunderland readers know him as Jake. At Facebook, he lengthens the nom-de-plume to Jake Lark. But it is time for John Clark, illustrator and – late in life – musician to step out of the shadows of anonymity.
John, a retired railway engineer who has maintained his lifelong support for Sunderland from his Spanish exile, is one member of a trio, Murder Valley, that is on the brink of an impressive breakthrough.
Jake, our illustrator based out in Spain, has some news of his own. Watch this space
According to our Walsall “Who are You?” candidate, whose thoughts have just landed and will be published on Thursday, we will either be thrashed 4-1 “because we love being the underdogs”, or Sunderland will romp to victory “because sometimes the wheels really do come off”. Nothing in between.
And for the FA Cup game a week later, he reckons we will batter them for most of the game but lose 1-0.
Most of that is emphatically not what it says in the script, writes Monsieur Salut. After missing an open-goal chance to go top by beating Wycombe Wanderers, we must regain our former momentum. Barnsley, next up after this game, are looking good again and breathing loudly down our necks.
Monsieur Salut welcomes plans to rename one of the Stadium of Light stands …
Maybe Bradley Lowery, which would have been my choice, is a name for one of the other three stands.
But SAFC have made a decent first response to popular will, announcing that the loudest of the four, the south stand, will become one of these: The Roker End, The Wearside End, The Colliery End and The Raich Carter End. A fans’ vote will decide the matter.
My own preference, just ahead of Raich Carter, would be The Roker End, geographically sound and evoking the old place when older fans spent every other Saturday, savouring the glories of the Roker Pie Shop or munching “tanner a bag” peanuts. My vote is already cast.
Raich should get the West stand since from there you can – I think – point in the direction of the Hendon of his boyhood (never forget that his son, also Raich, donated his HAWAY award – for best “Who are You?” interview of the 2013-14 season – to the sports centre there).
Pete Sixsmith texted at half time that there wasn’t much happening and Wycombe looked comfortable. Half an hour later he was texting to say that we had much to do.
Did we do it?yes and no – enough to keep our unbeaten at home record, not enough to keep another clean sheet and not enough to win.
And his final seven word text suggests that’s fair enough:
I was intending to avoid puns about turning the power off but I thought of one that seemed OK, so there it is in the headline.
Pete Sixsmith once again dips into his magic memory to bring you a trip to the land of contrasts: bashed metal and heavy metal: old canals and new motorways: Aston Villa with their football league glory and a historic stadium and erm, Walsall who, literally, are in a different league.
