Branch Lines: calling all SAFCSA branches. Don’t miss your connection

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Well said, Jake

For those Sunderland supporters who take the trouble to visit these pages regularly, it will come as no surprise that we are currently running a series called Branch Lines.

Its purpose is to introduce readers to the many branches of the Sunderland AFC Supporters’ Association (SAFCSA) that have been created, but also – where applicable – to the more informal groups of SAFC fans that may also exist.

And our chosen way of approaching the task has been to ask individuals concerned with those branches to do the introductions rather than just have them written about by Monsieur Salut or his colleagues at Salut! Sunderland.

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Sunderland vs Rochdale prize Guess the Score. Keep Henderson quiet, Lads

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Hail the return of Guess the Score in prize format – Monsieur Salut is in a slightly better mood this week despite the defeat at Burton Albion – and all readers, Rochdale fans included, are invited to take part.

A Sunderland-supporting winner, that is to say a SAFC fan correctly predicting the result of Saturday’s game, will receive a mug that looks a little like this …

The SAFC dressing room mug

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Sixer’s Sevens: Sunderland ailing at Burton Albion

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Pete Sixsmith was looking forward to the weekend, not just because of the prospect of a decent game but also because of the prospect of a visit to one or two well-liked pubs.

I’m not sure if those pubs were all pre-match or if he was expecting to take one in afterwards. And I’m not sure if he’d want to do that now because, from the seven word text he sent immediately on the whistle, it wasn’t just the result that wrecked his weekend, it was the whole game:

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The First Time Ever I Saw Your Ground: Burton Albion and the Pirelli Stadium

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John McCormick writes: I wondered how Pete Sixsmith would approach this one, given that it’s less than a year since we were at Burton. Not much could have changed in under a year, surely.

Well, maybe, maybe not. We have new owners, a new manager and a host of new players while Burton just have a host of new players, so some things are different.

However, the pubs and the beer are still good and Pete’s writing is as fine as ever:

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The Burton Albion Who are You?: ‘don’t expect a doddle, Sunderland’

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Dave with another of his celebrity interviewees

Monsieur Salut writes: Dave Child*, an expert on football stadium pies as well as doing his bit for local radio, is a fine ambassador for his club, Burton Albion, the town itself and its celebrated beer. Last season, he rose twice to the ‘Who are You?’ occasion, attending both games (we won there; they sent us down by taking revenge at the Stadium of Light) but also giving seriously good pre-match interviews to Salut! Sunderland. So it felt no hardship to return to Dave after he was proved right in his prediction that we’d go down together …

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One Papy too many: adieu Monsieur Djilobodji

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Papy before his grandfatherly fall from fitness…

Charlatan or downtrodden victim: what, asks Monsieur Salut, are we to make of Papy Djilobodji, effectively sacked today by SAFC?

As a supporter of Sunderland AFC for more than half a century, I have reacted to a stream of under-performing players with a weary sense of resignation, blaming the club for acquiring them more than the players for being so useless. Provided, that is, that the player/s in question at least tried as best they could to justify inclusion in the squad.

If a player is not only way below par but also demonstrates an attitude betraying greed, unprofessionalism and stupidity, my finger of blame starts to pop in the other direction.

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Burton Albion vs Sunderland Guess the Score: Scrooge hopes for repeat of last season’s win

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Jake back in action, willing the Lads on from Spain

UPDATE: the good news for readers waiting for prize mugs is that all those known to Monsieur Salut, and having provided delivery addresses and the names of players they wish to appear on the dressing room image, have had theirs ordered today. They should arrive soon. Anyone feeling left out, having been promised a mug and not received it, should let me know, using the contact form or simply by leaving a comment.

First things first, says Monsieur Salut. I have a backlog of mugs to send out to winning Guess the Score entrants and am struggling to persuade a wretched advertiser to pay for a sponsored post published almost two months ago. He faces a significant risk of being “outed” on these pages, as a warning to others, if the money does not show up sharpish.

We get the odd proper advertisement, and businesses from the North East, like the one you see to the right of the page, are warmly welcome.

Some of the content supplied by way of sponsored posts is of a reasonable quality and I do my best to make the others at least presentable. Out and out stinkers are rejected.

But it’s a process that may be seen as a necessary evil that helps such a site as Salut! Sunderland pay its way. And that includes the cost of competition prizes, for which we no longer have a sponsor.

So for this week at least, we revert to a just-for-fun edition of Guess the Score for the first time this season.

That’s my Scrooge moment out of the way.

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