After Saturday’s dismal display against Fulham, opinion among the fans is divided, but only on the question of how dire a situation we have landed ourselves in. Pete Sixsmith is in the glum camp

As I sat in the East Stand watching the late afternoon sun sink over Southwick I thought I saw four ghostly figures hovering over the stadium.

I looked from face to face and they metamorphosed into Steve Caldwell, Kelvin Davies, Christian Bassila and Andy Gray. One of the spectres caught my eye and I am sure he mouthed the words: “You know, they’re no better than we were.”

Nodding in agreement, I watched them fade away into the ether, shaking their heads in disbelief at another error by the back four..

Jimmy Oakley: a look that suggests the kind of grit we need now
Picture: ylind ypind*

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Sunderland mosaic
Picture: Jon Hall*

What was it I said? A draw would not be enough? And that’s all we got. Does the fact that we did it with 10 men, with defeat staring us in the face, make it reasonable to reach a softer conclusion?

No, sadly, it does not.

Overlook the spirited finish, once Greg Halford had seen red for the second time in a season that been a personal catastrophe, and the reality is that this was an abysmal performance against a not very good team of the sort we have to beat if we are to stay up, let alone attain mid-table comfort.

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The joy of giving. That seems as good a theme as any at a time when supporters of Sunderland AFC, deprived of much of substance to cheer about in recent weeks, are in dire need of presents from the team.

Click on the picture and you’ll see what the poor woman in my faded old birthday card had to settle for. We don’t ask for much more; points on the board will do nicely.

Which brings us to Fulham at home. You don’t need a brain the size of a planet to see that we could hardly have a better opportunity to put an end to the worrying run of losing games. So if any of the Lads happen to be eavesdropping, the none too subtle hint is: deliver on Saturday.

A draw will not, I am afraid, be enough. Anything less than three points and even my heroic attempts to respond optimistically to the West Ham defeat, praising a second half performance that should have brought a first away win, will begin to look nonsensical.

I still think our squad, though in urgent need of strengthening, is much better than what we had during the last three relegation seasons. We are in better managerial hands (which does not make me a Peter Reid detractor; I just recognise that his value to SAFC evaporated after our second seventh top Premiership finish).

But as other fans have pointed out, this is beginning to resemble the Sunderland of Old, the relegation seasons where, match after match, we were losing despite playing reasonably well.

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Kenwyne in the wrong R&W stripes
Picture: Darren Sumner

Salut! Sunderland is in turmoil. After all I said at the Blackcats forum about us being desperately unlucky at West Ham, Pete Sixsmith weighs in with a completely different view

Disappointed…yes. Frustrated…definitely. Unlucky? Absolutely not.

Looking like a Premiership side at times. But heading back to the Championship, possibly, if we continue to waste opportunities like this.

Make no mistake, West Ham were there to be beaten. They were low on confidence, their fans are muted after last seasons shenanigans and they have resorted to signing ex-Mags who, as they always do, came back to haunt us.

I am loath to criticise Roy in case he comes to my house and stares at me in an even more intimidating way than Yosser Hughes. I don’t envisage Roy ever having to say “Gissa a job” but I do think he got his tactics and selection wrong on Sunday. There I’ve said it.

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If this picture* – no prizes for guessing when it was taken – captured our only moment of joy at West Ham, there would be no reason NOT to despair.

Losing 3-1 to a very average team at this stage of the season, with so few points chalked up, would normally inspire deep misgivings about the months to come.

But we know, and this is a view that must be shared by all neutrals in the watching world, that the game ought to have ended with not one but three points to Sunderland. If West Ham continue to enjoy the sort of luck they had on Sunday, they can look forward to qualifying for European competition.

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Michael Chopra – overdue a goal
Picture: Peadar O’Sullivan

Maybe it’s just that I’ve seen us play them so often. But games against West Ham always bring a stream of memories to mind.

One match at Upton Park that I didn’t see, I am relieved to say, was the one that finished West Ham 8 Sunderland 0, Geoff Hurst scoring six. If you are 39 today, you are just two days short of sharing your birthdate with the occasion of that slightly uneven contest. Correct me on that if you have historical records showing we were a shade unlucky.

At least they don’t make ’em like that any more, do they?

Just looked at Hammers Mad, an unofficial site, and totted up the predictions streaming in from their supporters.

You don’t expect massive objectivity on partisan sites – Salut! Sunderland apart, of course – but before we get to the noble, dissenting voice of HappyHammers4Eva, let me tell you that on a quiet day off in Abu Dhabi, I counted 16 Hammers plumping for 2-0, 15 for 2-1, 11 for 3-1, nine for 1-0, four for 3-0, three for 4-1 and one for 3-2. No, they aren’t away wins.

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You cannot spend all your free time in the glitzy shopping malls. There’s football to watch, too. But how often in my Abu Dhabi exile will I have to watch Luton v Northampton?

It may just be my bad luck, but every time I surf the TV stations in my hotel, or pop into a bar showing sports channels, I end up watching that game. I mean, there may have been five goals but PLEASE no more Hatters and Cobblers, whether the commentary comes in Arabic or English.

Needless to say, I have been ignoring England’s latest sporting setback and exploring the options for catching our game at Upton Park live on Sunday. Sunday is a working day in the Emirates but the three-hour time difference means I should be away in time to see it live.

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World Cup glory, Durham style

So what do you do on a blank Saturday? Pete Sixsmith reminisced about boyhood and “real Rugby”, then soaked up the spirit of the FA Cup.

Another week off for international games and another week without the fix of an SAFC game.

Some of us (me and Colin) are old enough to remember the days when you had to have at least three players involved in internationals before you could apply to the FA for a postponement.

If Martin Harvey, John Parke and Johnny Crossan were playing for Northern Ireland we got a Saturday off. On the other hand, if none of those was selected, but Neil Martin was picked for Scotland we had to play. The opposition had probably lost at least one as well so you got a decent game.

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Ha’way the Lasses
Picture: BCLFC photographer Jaskirt Dhaliwal

…..while proper football – except for the great SAFC v Mags scoreline you’ll see if you read on – takes a break.

No, I know it isn’t really a football-free weekend. And yes, I do want England to win (both games). I just don’t want it anything like as badly as I want Sunderland to best West Ham and Fulham and the rest.

I cannot work out why this is, because I have always disliked Leeds, but I want them to beat Orient, too.

It must have something to do with loving great football turnarounds. Ours last season wasn’t a bad example, come to think of it, and who else remembers the glorious failure of that relegation season when, after not scoring for weeks and weeks, we suddenly started walloping everyone in sight for a while? I’ll resolve this love-hate relationship by praying for Leeds to get within sight of automatic promotion only to stumble in the last few games and not quite make the playoffs.

Pete Sixsmith doesn’t care much for internationals either though, thanks to birthplace, his thoughts on Leeds may be a little more complex. But he’ll be at a match today – West Auckland versus someone or other – and you’ll hear all about it one day soon.

Me? Not sure who Abu Dhabi, my destination tomorrow, are playing this weekend but I suspect I’ll arrive too late anyway. But I’ll remember with some pleasure this scoreline………..

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In the first of his new series of articles for Salut! Sunderland – under the working title of Sixer’s Soapbox (let me know if you come up with something better) – Pete Sixsmith draws huge encouragement from a gutsy Sunderland performance, while finding the Emirates well-mannered but soulless

Getting up at 2.45 on a Sunday morning is not, I think, a particularly good idea.

At 12.20pm it seemed to be the worst idea since Mr Punch put his head down the crocodile’s mouth to attempt to retrieve the sausages. I was all for making my way back to the Wetherspoons on Holloway Road.

By 13.10, all thoughts of leaving had gone and rising that early didn’t seem too bad after all. And even though things went downhill at 13.40, the six-hour trip back was tolerable due to the fact that I had seen a Sunderland side compete in the Premiership for the first time since Boxing Day 2002 at Blackburn.

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