Salut!’s week: eaten by Wolves, impressed by O’Neill, hailing Ryan Noble

Image: Kartun Malaysia

Salut! Sunderland present a quick digest of the week’s action, from another gloomy matchday to the bright hope that young Ryan Noble represents for our future …

Martin O’Neill (caricature courtesy of Kartun Malaysia) probably guessed what was likely to happen at Molineux – a nervy lead, soon allowed to evaporate – and chose to be nowhere near the dugout.

Like him, our own poor and long-suffering Pete Sixsmith watched from the stands. Pete was seen on TV screens the world over shaking his head in dismay as the team went unto auto-crumble. As soon as Larsson’s missed the penalty his outrageous dive had won, Pete was convinced we would end up losing another winnable game.

Read his account of the match by clicking on the following link:

“Wolves Soapbox: O’Neill will be under no illusions”.

But bad news was followed by good, or at least better, as Sunderland supporters were given a chance to nod in approval at O’Neill’s comments during his first press conference as SAFC manager: “Martin’s Musings: O’Neill speaks and a column is born” in which he confirmed his boyhood allegiance to our club but admitted this would win him no favours unless he also delivered results. Martin’s Musings? The name for the column that will feature selected words of our manager.

Monsieur Salut dealt dismissively with online witterings about Nicklas Bendtner’s supposedly disrespectful conduct during the Molineux applause for Gary Speed. Read “No Case to Answer”. As one reader pointed out, the case he does need to answer concerns his commitment and contribution to the Sunderland cause after a good start to his loan spell.

Pete Sixsmith again, this time looking back on a time when MON played for Forest (just the once at Roker Park) and wondered whether to buy the for-sale Roker Pie Shop; he has decided against. Click on “Pies, passion and when Martin O’Neill played for Nottingham Forest at Roker”.

And he went along to the Reserves’ match against Manchester United in which a four-goal burst from Ryan Noble, in a 6-3 win, had us all wondering whether the club might have unearthered a SuperKev-style goalscoring gem. Check out Nobler times: Reserves hammer Manchester United and the wind doth blow.

Then we had Mike Delap back after two years to serve honourably as our guest Blackburn Rovers fan ahead of tomorrow’s game – I avoided the obvious temptation to call it must-win. Mike reminded us of his Geordie parental connection, and his own dislike of Newcastle. Read the Rovers “Who are You” by clicking here.

There was much more, of course, including a little about our own news: the makeover, still a work in progress but already a tribute to the skills and endeavour of Sam Haseltine, owner of golbox.com. Feedback has been mostly good and it is our fervent hope that the site will continue to improve, in look and in content. Thanks for your support and Ha’way the Lads against Blackburn Rovers.