Read Pete Sixsmith’s verdict on Sunderland v Birmingham at Salut! Sunderland tomorrow – and stand by for a special Who are You? treat ahead of SAFC v Wolves

Colin Randall‘s shopping list from Hull City (h), Burnley (a) and Wolves (h), nine or at the very least seven points from three Premier games on the trot against supposedly inferior opposition, has already been torn up. A woeful second half at Burnley saw to that. Now, with lots of changes likely, Sunderland have the chance to advance in the Carling Cup. Don’t blow this one, too, Lads …

So the Birmingham City version of Kevin Ball confesses that he doesn’t give a stuff about the Carling Cup.

I’d have said the same last season and the season before, when it was clear all along that we’d be struggling for survival. This season, we have to look at the league cup as just the sort of trophy that is within our reach, given the mixture of ambivalence and contempt with which so many clubs approach it.

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It wasn’t that we’d forgotten about the Carling Cup. But tomorrow’s game at home to Birmingham City has crept up on us, and the scurry for a Bluenose to answer a few questions began only this morning. Stepping forward to spare Salut! Sunderland some red faces is none other than Kevin Ball*. Er, no, not our Kevin Ball but the owner of the BCFC fan site Joys and Sorrows – a name Sunderland fans would recognise as summing up their own supporting experience …

Salut! Sunderland: SuperKev. What does he mean to Birmingham fans? Give or take those who accused him of lack of commitment in his last season with us, most Mackems still cherish him

Kevin: He scored really important goals for us last season, including the winner to take us up. I don’t think you’ll hear a Blues fan say a bad thing against him. Having said that, he is no more than a squad player this season. Mind you I wouldn’t bet against him scoring eight or nine goals!

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His verdict for The Observer was succinct and spot-on. But that shabby second half at Turf Moor left Pete Sixsmith with plenty more to say …

Standing in the away end at Turf Moor at half time, I received a text from a Burnley supporting mate, sat in the Bob Lord Stand to the right of the Wearside hordes. “I’ll settle for a point,” was the message. Full of optimism, (and probably cockiness), I texted back “I won’t.” Hubris strikes!!

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Once again, Salut! Sunderland’s Pete Sixsmith was asked to sum up the match for The Observer. Why couldn’t he have had something cheerful to say? Abject, dismal, appalling – those are the words that spring to mind for many Sunderland fans when contemplating our second-half descent into unnecessary defeat at Burnley. Here is Pete’s more considered view …

The word for that is “disappointing”. It was a meek surrender. There was no fight. The defending was awful, it was a stupid penalty and the marking for the second goal was poor.

Owen Coyle out-thought Steve Bruce today – I though Chris Eagles was the difference when he came on, He ran at McCartney and gave us problems. Our sub, Jones, couldn’t get into the game. Bruce is still developing our team and he would have learnt some important things about the players today.

And Pete’s – surprisingly generous – ratings:

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The last time I saw Sunderland play at Turf Moor in the top division was 40 years ago. I had just left school, to the delight of Messrs McConnell, Reed , Kilminster and Weatherley and was waiting to go to college. I had been working at Aycliffe Hospital as an orderly and the money I earned was all wasted on football, football and more football.

The game was a disaster; we ended up losing 3-0 and on the way back, the first thoughts of relegation began to stir in what was then an optimistic brain.

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Burnley, “little Burnley”. The dark, satanic north-west as captured by Andreas Andrews.
Also, a force in English football in the early 1960s, but a narrow escape from relegation from the Football League in the 1980s. Burnley fans have known thin times and only the older ones can have first-hand memories of a more glorious era. Tony Scholes, editor of the Clarets Mad fan site, is old enough to recall the last promotion to the top flight: clinched with a 2-0 victory over Sunderland just before we won the FA Cup final in 1973. Buoyed by home wins against Man Utd and Everton, he’s confident of seeing us off on Saturday lunchtime …

Salut! Sunderland: The playoff final: best day of your life or just the best day as a fan?

Tony: It was certainly up there with my best days as a Burnley fan, no doubt about that. It was an amazing day right from the moment we set off from Burnley early that morning. I’ve seen us win at the old Wembley but this one was far more important and frankly for a team the size of Burnley to reach the Premier League is something very special.

It was just a simply incredible day and like most Burnley fans I’ve not got my feet back on the ground just yet. It’s the second time I’ve seen Burnley win promotion to the top division. The last time we did it was as champions and the promotion clincher was a 2-0 home win against Sunderland in April 1973. Our current chief exec Paul Fletcher scored both goals that night.

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What a week, weather wise. After a thoroughly depressing August, September gives us four beautiful days in succession, to make the wretched summer seem even more wretched. I judge the quality of a summer by the number of times I can have an al fresco breakfast in the extensive grounds of Sixsmith Towers, basking in the sun, pecking at croissants and kedgeree. Number of times in Barbeque Summer 2009; a big fat zero!

A good week for Durham cricketers who wrapped up the Championship for the second successive season, with the only blot on the horizon being the news that the Countys Chief Executive is a Mag – and a grinning one at that. Remind me to cancel my membership.

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