Salut! week: Birmingham woes, sadness for Fraizer (except in Hull)

This is the weekly digest of what has been going on at Salut! Sunderland for readers in a hurry. It started as most weeks do these days, scratching heads and pointing fingers after one more defeat to add to our growing collection. But there’s been much, more more …

There has not been much to cheer us up of late. So you may wish to skip all the navel-gazing that went on after the 2-0 defeat at St Andrew’s, when we were simply unable to turn our dominance for much of the game into a goal or two.

But there was sparkling reportage on the match from the usual suspect, Pete Sixsmith, who was willing to see the positives – but only just. Read his account by clicking on the sub-heading that follows. The same goes for all other items flagged below …

* The Birmingham Soapbox

Pete Sixsmith summoned the strength to write about another day out watching the Lads get beaten. The readers’ comments, here as on other Birmingham-related posts, made interesting reading, too. Pete accepted that we had been better than of late, but -as this extract shows – was not excessively impressed ..

For all that, it was a defeat and one against a team who are as much in the mire as we are. They are a decent side and appear to have the strength and fortitude to stay in the PL. Johnson and Ridgewell are good players and the midfield works hard. Larsson is the class act there and I wonder if any of our players would have continued to chase the ball as he did for the opener. They weren’t great up front though. Jerome failed to take advantage of Turner’s lack of fitness, while Kevin Phillips looked like a 37 year old in his last Premier League season.

* Relegation odds

Few of us seriously thought it would come to this, another desperate scrap to avoid the drop. That was said, not least by the owner Ellis Short, to be a thing of the past. Some hope. At least we found the bookies on our side.

Here’s a sample, dealing with the mitigation owed to Steve Bruce if Darren Bent was sold against his will …

If Bruce’s hand was forced in any way in that aspect of our season, then the responsibility he bears for the slump is significantly diminished. Someone posted a very pertinent comment here immediately after the Bent transfer to the effect that we could all do with a full chronological account of how it came about. That Salut! Sunderland reader was more concerned at the time with the spat between SAFC and Villa; that now takes secondary importance to an accurate description of Sunderland’s response to Bent’s desire to go and Villa’s wish to buy him.

* Sympathy for Fraizer Campbell

If the news about Craig Gordon – out for four-six months after surgery – was bad enough, we could seriously have done without hearing that Fraizer Campbell’s vaunted recovery from a bad injury had suffered a devastating setback.

The lad seems likely to miss most if not all of next season after twisting the previously injury knee in training. I strayed into the Hull City pages of notnow.com and was taken aback by some of the embittered and deeply unsympathetic comments I found there, all posted by Tiger-supporting fans who resent the manner of Campbell’s departure from their club. Happily, Hull fans who came here were models of decency.

* The Wigan “Who are You?”

Bernard Ramsdale, from the estimable Latics site This Northern Soul, put us on to Kieran Heapy, who rose to the challenge in impressive style with some good responses to all our questions. Well most of them were good; he did predict 2-1 to Wigan, which wasn’t good at all. We also borrowed Bernard’s own piece at This Northern Soul detailing past SAFC v Wigan encounters.

As usual, you’ll find all sorts of other things to read – including another run-out for the YouTube clip of Lotta Schelin’s two clinical finishes for Lyon against Arsenal Ladies, and a moth-eaten old piece about the day Sunderland fans got stuck in the mud on their way back from an FA Cup semi-final (if you remember such things).

At the risk of tempting, fate. Ha’way the Lads at the SoL this afternoon …

Monsieur Salut

4 thoughts on “Salut! week: Birmingham woes, sadness for Fraizer (except in Hull)”

  1. I have to say that Hull fans reacted in this way for one reason the way Campbell celebrated infront of us at the SOL, i and many others lost a lot of respect for him that day. However Michael Turner was the opposite, someone with a bit of class who refused to celebrate infront of us. I wish Turner all the best.

  2. Good posts from true Hull fans. Always had a soft spot for Hull since forming a good friendship with a lad from Beverly at Sheffield University. Hope you make the playoffs and more especially if it is at the expense of dirty Leeds.

  3. I dont know where you have been looking but 8/10 Hull fans are very sympathetic about whats happen to Frazier, and the two who aren’t supportive must just be glory supporters from when we were in the Premier League. Frazier was one of the most important players in Hull’s history and we thank him ! Good luck Frazier hope you have a speedy recovery, AND UP THE TIGERRRSSSS !! + good luck Sunderland in your battle to survive in the Premier League.. you should be fine !

  4. As a Hull City fan I would like to wish Fraizer a full and speedy recovery and would still love to see him return to play for us one day.Without Fraizer’s goals and performances our club would not have reached the Premier League.At the end of his loan from Man Utd he owed us nothing and had every right to seek whatever deal he wanted whether this was a financial or footballing decision,or both.
    Fraizer was a credit to himself and our club throughout his loan spell and any Tigers fan who cannot respect him for this is a no nowt meff.
    Good Luck to Fraizer hope he returns as quickly as possible.

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