1-0 down after 15 minutes, 2-0 after half an hour. Jones booked five minutes later. What a surprise.
How much is a typical League One club worth? Surely someone wants to buy and turn this club around.
Pete Sixsmith sent an e-mail not long before the kick-off. It included the phrase “sorry team for today”. He wasn’t kidding and by half-time he was able send a text with what would become his final verdict on that sorry team:
Mike Dennison, well known to subscribers to the Black Cats e-mail loop, alerts us to a fascinating book of Sunderland reminiscences from the prolific Ian Mole …
Many Sunderland fans will be familiar with Ian Mole’s writing from the informative and amusing Lines From London Reports he has contributed to the website of the fanzine A Love Supreme.
A just-for-fun poll introduces this look at some of the greatest games in Sunderland AFC’s history. Many readers will approve of the choices made by Ben Jones, a sportswriter and ‘massive Sunderland fan’. Others might add the 4-1 defeat of Chelsea in the first of our seventh-top Premier seasons under Peter Reid. Or the first FA Cup 6th Round replay against Manchester United at Roker Park in 1964. Back in 2013, a Roker Report piece on great games over the festive period threw others into the mix: the last-second win against Man City on New Year’s Day, 2012; a 4-1 Boxing Day romp at Bradford in 2000 and two Old Trafford classics (a 5-3 win on Boxing Day 1950 and a 2-1 defeat on New Year’s Day 2003. You decide …
Since Sunderland became the first new team to join the Football League in 1890 and from the earliest seasons, their name has been embroidered prominently in the tapestry of English football history.
John McCormick writes: Brentford – my favouritest club in all of London Town. I’ve seen them play at Griffin Park a few times, but have I seen them play at Roker? Definitely not in 1992, I never returned to the North East that season. 1967? It’s possible, indeed probable. However, I have no memory of any such game. Nothing, nada, zilch. Nowt at all, not even what is surely a memorable scoreline.
Jake: ‘click my image to join the Salut! Sunderland Facebook group’
For his second contribution to the pages of Salut! Sunderland, Martin Crow compares and contrasts – favourably – the Chris Coleman way with words, when talking publicly about Sunderland AFC, with the mix of gibberish, gallows humour, boorishness, beyond-the-pale philosophy and heavy gloom that has gone before …
In Channel Five‘s footy programme on Saturday the presenters made mention of the numbers leaving the SOL with half-an hour to go. People have always left early but when we stood in the Fulwell End all those years ago, with crowds of 50,000 plus, it was never so often, so many and so early. Which begs a couple of questions:
Do you stay to the end or leave early?
Do you applaud the team off the pitch irrespective of the score, or do you boo a loss (irrespective of how well they played)?
Wrinkly Pete has some food for thought for those that do the latter:
Jon Restall, on the left, celebrates promotion with a pal
Monsieur Salut writes: if I cannot actually see Griffin Park from where I write, I could walk it in 15-20 minutes. I have lived in this part of west London for 30+ years. My younger daughter’s first senior game as a player was a 5-5 draw in the red and white stripes of Brentford (she scored though with a scoreline like that, so did a lot of girls). Our Who are You? interviewee Jon Restall* – part of the highly active Brentford fans’ network Beesotted will miss the little old stadium when the club moves to a new home. Jon is a Bees fanatic and gets to loads of games.
He’ll be present in spirit this weekend for the visit of his team to the Stadium of Light – it’s his wife’s birthday and she apparently saw no great attraction in a romantic weekend on Wearside. We hope he misses a defeat for his club – he naturally fancies Brentford to be the latest of this season’s happy visitors to Sunderland …
We have similar stripes. Only ours will be on show on Saturday. Will they prevail?
Wrinkly Pete has given up on his 3-3 predictions and 4-3 didn’t quite happen. Some guessed a Bristol City romp but no one had us down for a 3-3 draw, so no Guess the Score winner last Saturday.
We now turn our attentions to Brentford at home. And wouldn’t it be nice to award a prize to someone predicting a Sunderland win?
Lars Knutsen: ‘still mired in a relegation dogfight but at last showing signs of gelling’
Lars Knutsen knows how to choose them. Back from his USA exile (correcting the earlier reference, he still travels there a lot but family needs prompted him to relocate), he made it to the Bristol City game. Pete Sixsmith has already woven his familiar magic; here is an outstanding account from Lars of his own extraordinary afternoon …
John McCormick writes: There have been few “…and I was there…” games in the last couple of years, after a slew which included Wembley; four, five and six in a row; a win at Chelsea and coming back from 2-0 down at Anfield. But this match, where we played so badly for 45 minutes and returned home with a point after being 3-0 down, must be one of those games.
