Ian Todd, founder of the London and Southern England branch of the SAFC Supporters’ Association and as knowledgeable about the club as most, raised questions about Ellis Short, the Irish-American who has taken a majority stake in the club, in a comment attached to a recent piece by Pete Sixsmith. Pete offers a few more of his own thoughts……

As usual, Ian Todd, in his response to what I wrote last week regarding the investment from the USA, makes a number of cogent points.

I have conflicting views about anything from the USA. Many years ago I was part of a teacher exchange programme, jointly funded by HM Govt, the US Govt and the Fulbright Foundation. I spent four months living and working in Northern Virginia, just inside the Beltway that separates the Nation’s Capital from the real people who make up the population of this huge country.

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All in all, it was a decent day out. Pete Sixsmith enjoyed the pleasures of Lichfield – pork scratchings and Pedigree – and the sunshine of the Midlands in late summer. Even the disappointment of defeat at Villa Park failed to usher in clouds of despair. It was a good performance against a team on the rise…….

Aston Villa are clearly flavour of the month as far as the national media are concerned. They are seen as a possible contender for the top four, have a manager who is good copy and are within two hours of London.

That might explain why everything I have read in the national press and seen and heard on TV and radio has been geared towards Villa and how effective they were and how Young, Agbonlahor and Davies should be in Capello’s next squad for the games against Kazakhstan and Belarus.

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…in which Pete Sixsmith acknowledges that not only do policemen seem to look younger these days, so do football club proprietors. Pete knows little about our American majority shareholder, but a lot more about his home town….

Interesting to read that Drumaville’s majority share holder is an American Investment mogul called Ellis Short. Seems we are now flying under a joint UK/Ireland/USA flag and are looking likely to become another of the Premier League’s foreign-owned clubs.

There’s not much known about him. He is based in Dallas and runs an investment firm called Lone Star Funds. It’s not been the best of times for investment funds in the USA so here’s hoping that he has been smart enough to get rid of some dodgy investments – maybe Sports Direct have bought some.

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Most supporters who have followed Salut! Sunderland’s occasional links to the Blackcats forum will have been impressed by the level of debate the site attracts on all manner of SAFC-related issues, and a few extra-curriculum topics besides.

Many will have been unaware that the site was very much the work of Dave Hillam, who combined his passion for the club with an enviable command of IT, a fine memory and a fondness for statistics.

On Aug 27, Dave suffered a massive stroke as he worked at his computer, apparently on the Wear Down South site of the London and Southern England branch of the SAFC Supporters’ Association. He died the following day. He was just 53.

I knew of and admired Dave’s work without having known him personally. But a glance at the Blackcats discussion his death inspired offers striking testimony to his qualities.

One of the most moving tributes came from Paul Days, himself an authority (and published author) on Sunderland AFC, who joined the forum on hearing the news specifically to leave the following message:

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Michael Chopra: our hero last Saturday and at Villa Park last season
Picture: Peadar O’Sullivan

Will our escape from humiliation in the Carling Cup against Northampton soon feel like nothing worse than a bad dream? Villa Park is a tough old place to go and show ourselves once more to be a decent Premier League side. What’s more, leaving aside an unexpected exit from the same competition against the cash-fuelled, embryonic nastiness of QPR, Villa are currently super-confident. Give them the sniff of success and their fans suddenly play hard to get. Last season, we had them coming out of our ears to write previews…this year it was a close run thing whether we’d get even one. At one point, it seemed Salut! Sunderland might have to invent something on behalf of the Villa support. Then Tom Vickers, the editor of the AstonVilla-MAD.co.uk website stepped in. First came the answers to our questions, then – in the nick of time – some bullish introductory thoughts about his team’s great start to the season, plus downbeat verdicts on Tommy Sorensen and Gavin McCann and a qualified prediction that Villa will avenge last season’s defeat (a crucial win for us, of course). It remains to be seen whether he’ll now supply the third chunk: a potted history of his Villa support and a photograph – but come what may, his preview is appreciated and is now returning to the top of the site for a while (we’ve had our rant, they’re probably having theirs as I type and I’ve just watched a heartening re-run of the Mags v Spurs)…

Villa will be sensing the sweet taste of revenge as they take on Sunderland at Villa Park on Saturday.

The Mackems defeated the Claret and Blue by a solitary Michael Chopra goal in the corresponding fixture last season and the home fans expect a better outcome this time round.

Villa are in fine form coming into the game after winning 2-1 at both West Brom and Spurs in the space of one victorious week.

The winning feeling is circulating the Pride of the Midlands and Roy Keane and Co must beware.

Having said that, it would be typical Villa to do the hard work on the road and become wasteful on their own turf.

Defeats against Wigan and Sunderland during the last campaign illustrated that point and at times it gets particularly frustrating.

But, after ending a long home hoodoo against Man City on the opening day and performing impressively against Liverpool, Villa will be confident of creating a fortress at Villa Park.

Dwight Yorke will again be welcomed back to the Midlands and his return will undoubtedly add fire to the fixture.

Villa will be aware of recent Sunderland signings Steed Malbranque and Djibril Cisse as they look to close the counter attacking door on the away side.

A win is expected but personally I never write off any side in the Premiership as it’s very much dog eat dog.

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Sunderland 2 Northampton 2, the Lads making it to the next round of the Carling Cup on penalties. Stories abound of the Cobblers stringing 30 or more passes together without Sunderland touching the ball, of derisive taunts from the travelling fans, of Murphy’s appalling judgement or greed in failing to complete a sweet extra time move with a pass to the better placed Richardson.
Roy Keane* described it as one of his worst and longest nights in football career. Asked whether the players may at least have learnt something from the experience, he reportedly replied: “I couldn’t care less.” He also had a go at the crowd. If there was abuse aimed at him, the abusers should stop and remember what the man has done for the club. In mitigation, the crowd – not many of them well-heeled – had paid good money to watch footballers – all of them comfortably off – turn what should have been a midweek party into a nightmarish endurance test. Pete Sixsmith wishes he’d stayed in…

Had I stayed in on Tuesday night, I could have watched Griff Rhys Jones presenting a programme about how not to get angry. I didn’t and instead sat at the Stadium of Light and watched a model lesson in how to get angry as we turned in a performance of such staggering ineptitude that I thought my brain was going to burst.

The fact that we managed to squeeze through does nothing to divert attention from the quality of performance – or more precisely, the lack of quality – shown by too many highly paid professionals.

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On a day when four of Sunderland’s most venerable players from an earlier generation were honoured on the pitch, Pete Sixsmith – who is of that generation – reports on how it took the current crop of old boys to claim our first home win of the season….

At half time, after a performance that was described by a friend as “like a light bulb being switched on and off”, three of the players that Colin and I grew up with came onto the pitch.

Cec Irwin and Len Ashurst were established full backs when we started going in the early 60s and Monty, who introduced them, had just broken into the first team. Jimmy McNab’s grandson joined this illustrious trio to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Cec, Len and Granda Jimmy’s debuts in 1958. All four of them went on to have outstanding careers at Roker Park – and you can be sure that we will be pushed to see many current players staying with one club for the length of time that they did.

Still, it was the Old Guard (relatively speaking) who won the game for us on Saturday. The starting line up consisted of two players who were here when Keane arrived, two that he brought in last season and seven players new to the club this year.

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After the sublime late, late show that saw off Boro (about which more later), what next? Northampton. Not exactly a footballing hotbed. Until, of course, Marco went there. Towards the end of his career he may have been, but he was still sharp enough for Danny Brothers**, Cobblers fan extraordinaire. “Never lost his touch” – a touch I heard described by a gobby policeman in the away end at Charlton v Sunderland, eve of Marco’s transfer to Crystal Palace, as “the touch of a walrus” – “one of the best I’ve seen in a Cobblers shirt”. And what about Sammo, another former Sunderland man, now a Northampton cult hero? Both eclipsed in Danny’s eyes by a certain Martin Smith, whom he regards as the most talented footballer he has seen in his team’s colours. Danny (on the left in the picture below), an aspiring writer who runs the website A Load of Cobblers, tells all as he previews Tuesday night’s Carling Cup clash between our clubs…….

One man looking forward to the Cobblers’ trip to Sunderland more than most is Town’s assistant manager, Ian Sampson. “Sammo” made 13 league appearances for the Black Cats before moving to Northampton initially on loan in 1993. After signing permanantly in 1994, Sammo went on to achieve cult status at the club, helping us to Wembley in 1997 for the Division Three (League Two) playoff final, as we saw off Swansea with an injury time free kick from John Frain.

A year later and Sammo was at Wembley again as he helped the Cobblers to the Division Two (League One) playoff final but this time it ended in disappointment. Grimsby Town edged us out and the following year we were relegated, but Sammo remained at the heart of the defence.

After an incredible 499 games, the defender retired in 2004 following another unsuccessful playoff campaign as we lost out in the League Two semi-finals, denying him the chance to make it 500 appearances in the final.

Throughout the second half of the nineties and early naughties, Ian Sampson has been Northampton Town. Remaining at the club first as youth team boss and now assistant manager, Sammo has Claret and White running through his blood and we can only thank Sunderland for letting him go and giving us the most loyal, hard working and committed players ever to pull on the Cobblers shirt.

Sammo watched on as the Cobblers saw off Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium in Round Two as Adebayo Akinfenwa struck twice to see off the Trotters and the cause the shock of the round, propelling us into a rare week of media spotlight. The draw wasn’t what we hoped for I must admit with another long mid-week trip but the Stadium of Light visit gives our fans another chance to taste life of a Premier League team.

We’d be silly to think that the Bolton result can happen again but you never know in football. One thing we would love to have behind us is 11 Ian Sampsons on the pitch. You certainly wouldn’t bet against us if we had eleven men like him on the pitch.

And now to your questions…

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