Sunderland played Aston Villa at home for the first time as a Football League club on Jan 19 1891, home being the Newcastle Road ground.
All of 6,000 souls turned up to watch a 5-1 win, an occasion commemorated in two of Jake’s images. There had been a heavier victory, 7-2, in a friendly the previous season before Sunderland’s admission to the league.
Most Sunderland supporters would settle this weekend for a win of any kind against the same club. For the sake of morale – theirs as well as the players’ – three points are, quite simply, non-negotiable.
Jake is reduced to memories of seeing the Lads as a nipper
But back to the history. That winning side of Victorians included a Campbell, John not Fraizer with the other difference being that goalscoring came easily to the earlier one (136 in 186 league appearance between 1889 and 1897; three of those goals were scored in the 5-1 defeat of Villa, one of the Hannahs of the era getting the other two).
Jake combines history, art and hope. Click to enlarge
That was the decade of the Team of All Talents, or Team of All the Talents, three times champions between 1892 and 1895. The nickname, which appears on Salut! Sunderland‘s Martin O’Neill mug, derives from a remark by William McGregor, Villa chairman and the league’s founder, who had said of Sunderland after the 7-2 friendly that the team had a talented player in every position. A bit like now.
A roundabout way, you may feel, of introducing thus week’s Guess the Score. Unlike the gloating Boro fan, who posted 0-1 after the final whistle on Tuesday, you should leave a comment here before kickoff telling us the outcome.
No need for patronising truisms about what is needed to lift the team’s overall standards in time to make Saturday a rare winning day. No need for further questions to be raised about the form or commitment of individual players.
Under the temporary rules already outlined on these pages, the first correct entry can either regard it as a moral victory or take possession of not one but two of the aforementioned mugs courtesy of the buy-one, win-one offer.
This may make Guess the Score one of the few competitions in the world in which the winner is asked to dig into his or her pocket. The reason is simple: Salut! Sunderland needs a sponsor to guarantee a weekly prize, and until it obtains one or comes up with a better device, has to reduce the cost of providing one itself. If you think £9.50 is too steep even for two mugs, you may of course enter for fun.
Villa fans are very welcome to join in. If one wins, he or she will be entitled to receive mugs with a suitably modified design reflecting MoN’s connection with both clubs.
Monsieur Salut, just back from France for hibernation and football, narrowly missed the derby, thought too late about a ticket for Stoke and couldn’t get back for Boro. You may feel I didn’t miss much and you’d be right, of course.
But if we believe in keeping the faith, the revival has to start somewhere. It will feel all the better for one of us if that somewhere is the Stadium of Light on Saturday, with M Salut present and only a few places along from the season ticket seat he kept for a decade or more despite living mostly abroad for the last half of it.
Ha’way the Lads.
Monsieur Salut, by Matt
22 thoughts on “SAFC v Aston Villa: the fightback starts here so Guess the Score”
Jeremy, You need to see how bad our defence and midfield is Southampton scored 4 & swindon scored 2….nothing is telling me you lot at home will struggle against that shower.
I think a toddler from Chesterfield would stiffen our ranks.
Its either gonna be a stuffing by you,or a stuffing by us!..Just a feeling. We are both fairly poo at the mo.. so ignoring the likely nil nil,.gonna be loadsa goals a la arse against reading …. however watch out for benteke, pure class..clumsy but a real handful.. also one of your correspondents said this about him…….”Villa signed a child from Chesterfield and a Belgian, seemingly on the basis that every team has a Belgian, so we had better get one.” think whoever wrote that better think again, anyway good luck apart from saturday!
Sunderland 1 – 0 Aston Villa. Predict a tough game, not much between the two sides.
Sunderland 3 – 1 Villa. Please, dear god.
We’re going to score two goals in a single game Jinksy? You need to see the doctor son!
Hello boys remember me? I come in peace…..well i’m a Villa supporter that says it how i see it. This season Villa have been dire the Manager has taken an aweful team and made it worse by filling it with players that have never played at this level? I actually think that long term most of his signings will be good ones but unfortunatly Villa needed some players for now and as i see it only Benteke and Vlaar are cutting the mustard but really need some exoperiance along side them. anyway i predict a home win and relegation for my club i just can’t see how Lambert is going to fill all the holes in our team, give it some width and put some steel into a none existant midfield. Remember fellow villains before you have a go this Villa team got beat 4-1 at Southampton and was on the rack for long periods against 1st division Swindon…1 win this season tells the story which is a contuation of last season a season that should be wiped from our clubs history.
Sunderland 2 Villa 0
Sunderland 0 Villa 1.
Looks like you’ll have to pay for a mug now JR. I’m sure M Salut will be in touch when he gets home and cursing the postage costs!
We lose, Jeremy wins. A moral victory – since you can hardly say it was for fun – or a buy one/win one mug. Over to you J
4-3 thriller. Ever deluded, me.
Postponed due to torrential rain.
2-0.
Here’s an interesting fact, that day in 1891, Sunderland’s team featured a Davy, a Tom, a Hughie and a Ned. And seven, yes SEVEN Johns. Well, quite interesting anyway.
“And seven, yes SEVEN Johns.”
That, in American parlance, does not bear thinking about!
Were the “ladies” kept in the changing room for half time “refreshment”.
Regarding:
1) The Villa game, I think 2-0 to us (I’m not joking)
and
2) If M Salut would like to check again I said I would, probably, have gone for a 0-1, against the Boro’ (before kick off) IF there had been a mug up for grabs, instead of a 2-0, for fun, forecast.
MoN and the Lads to surprise us, reward me for coming all the way back from the south of France to see them and win 3-0. I’m next on the appointments list of Malcolm’s nurse (see above)
Has 1-0 to us written all over it. Gis that mug!
2-1 to us. Has to happen sooner or later.
Sunderland 5 Villa 0 – can’t elaborate …. the nurse is due back at any minute.
it will be a draw sunderland 1 aston villa 1
Most Villa fans would take 0-0 right now! However, I’m a glass half full type of fan and I have this feeling that this will be one of those (very) few games this season – Swansea, Newcastle and Man City, when our young inexperenced team came good. Therefore I’m going for a 3-1 win to the Villa!!
Sorry lad and lasses as I do have a soft spot for Sundeland if not MO’N.
‘Villa simply caught my attention more than others, as well as my heart. Claret and Blue may not be the colors for everyone, but they’re my colors’. Read a stonking, Given-adoring, Bent-loving, Hurricane-defying Villa ‘Who are You?’ from across the pond … https://safc.blog/2012/10/safc-v-aston-villa-a-villain-from-the-teeth-of-hurricane-sandy/
Jeremy, You need to see how bad our defence and midfield is Southampton scored 4 & swindon scored 2….nothing is telling me you lot at home will struggle against that shower.
I think a toddler from Chesterfield would stiffen our ranks.
Its either gonna be a stuffing by you,or a stuffing by us!..Just a feeling. We are both fairly poo at the mo.. so ignoring the likely nil nil,.gonna be loadsa goals a la arse against reading …. however watch out for benteke, pure class..clumsy but a real handful.. also one of your correspondents said this about him…….”Villa signed a child from Chesterfield and a Belgian, seemingly on the basis that every team has a Belgian, so we had better get one.” think whoever wrote that better think again, anyway good luck apart from saturday!
Sunderland 1 – 0 Aston Villa. Predict a tough game, not much between the two sides.
Sunderland 3 – 1 Villa. Please, dear god.
We’re going to score two goals in a single game Jinksy? You need to see the doctor son!
Hello boys remember me? I come in peace…..well i’m a Villa supporter that says it how i see it. This season Villa have been dire the Manager has taken an aweful team and made it worse by filling it with players that have never played at this level? I actually think that long term most of his signings will be good ones but unfortunatly Villa needed some players for now and as i see it only Benteke and Vlaar are cutting the mustard but really need some exoperiance along side them. anyway i predict a home win and relegation for my club i just can’t see how Lambert is going to fill all the holes in our team, give it some width and put some steel into a none existant midfield. Remember fellow villains before you have a go this Villa team got beat 4-1 at Southampton and was on the rack for long periods against 1st division Swindon…1 win this season tells the story which is a contuation of last season a season that should be wiped from our clubs history.
Sunderland 2 Villa 0
Sunderland 0 Villa 1.
Looks like you’ll have to pay for a mug now JR. I’m sure M Salut will be in touch when he gets home and cursing the postage costs!
We lose, Jeremy wins. A moral victory – since you can hardly say it was for fun – or a buy one/win one mug. Over to you J
4-3 thriller. Ever deluded, me.
Postponed due to torrential rain.
2-0.
Here’s an interesting fact, that day in 1891, Sunderland’s team featured a Davy, a Tom, a Hughie and a Ned. And seven, yes SEVEN Johns. Well, quite interesting anyway.
“And seven, yes SEVEN Johns.”
That, in American parlance, does not bear thinking about!
Were the “ladies” kept in the changing room for half time “refreshment”.
Regarding:
1) The Villa game, I think 2-0 to us (I’m not joking)
and
2) If M Salut would like to check again I said I would, probably, have gone for a 0-1, against the Boro’ (before kick off) IF there had been a mug up for grabs, instead of a 2-0, for fun, forecast.
MoN and the Lads to surprise us, reward me for coming all the way back from the south of France to see them and win 3-0. I’m next on the appointments list of Malcolm’s nurse (see above)
Has 1-0 to us written all over it. Gis that mug!
2-1 to us. Has to happen sooner or later.
Sunderland 5 Villa 0 – can’t elaborate …. the nurse is due back at any minute.
it will be a draw sunderland 1 aston villa 1
Most Villa fans would take 0-0 right now! However, I’m a glass half full type of fan and I have this feeling that this will be one of those (very) few games this season – Swansea, Newcastle and Man City, when our young inexperenced team came good. Therefore I’m going for a 3-1 win to the Villa!!
Sorry lad and lasses as I do have a soft spot for Sundeland if not MO’N.
Good luck for the rest of the season
I’ll go for a 0-0; always the optimist||