Sunderland vs West Ham ‘Guess the Score’ PLUS Champions League final comp

Guess the Score – absent without leave prior to Liverpool vs SAFC – returns along with news of a great competition where the prize will be tickets, travel and accommodation for two for the Champions League final in Lisbon …

Maybe I was to blame. Before the Norwich game I wrote at ESPN that with “any combination of results yielding no more than three points from the three fixtures (Norwich, Liverpool, West Ham), the chances are that even Poyet may begin, if he has not already, to question his preference for seeing the glass as half full”.

Luckily for Sunderland, no one else picked up a point on the day we caved in to Norwich. If we leave aside the fact that this was the last away game that could logically be deemed winnable, it is as if the day never existed.

Losing at Anfield was expected and did not happen in the crushing manner many of us feared. That’s one of the games in hand gone but survival remains, mathematically, in our hands – though it will not do so for much longer if we do not start picking up points.

So let us try to approach Monday night with our own glasses half full. I haven’t the slightest idea how it will go, but then in reality I rarely do before any game. That is the nature of supporting Sunderland.

I will dig – not too deep, it must be said – for a Salut! Sunderland mug for the first reader to post the correct scoreline, before kickoff of course. A West Ham winner would receive a mug with a suitably modified design.

Our friends at Campo Retro, in partnership with the event management people AEJIS, are digging a bit deeper. They will send you and a relative or pal to Lisbon for the Champions League final on May 24 if you win their #BLOGTOLISBON competition.

Write something that fits their description below – it should be about your greatest moment watching football – and send it to Salut! Sunderland at salutsunderland@gmail.com. Once it has been published here, you should send the link as requested in the details below to competitions@camposports.com. Win and it’ll be just like watching Sunderland.

Here is how Campo Retro describe the competition:

The draw for the quarter finals has been made and now here’s your chance to attend one of the biggest matches in the football calendar, the Champions League Final. Lisbon will play host to the UCL showpiece and you can ‘blog’ your way there, courtesy of Campo Retro & AEJIS – UK leaders in event management & corporate hospitality.

All you have to do is blog about your greatest moment watching the beautiful game… and you could win two match tickets, flights, airport transfers and accommodation to Portugal.

If you’re a football fan who knows their European Cup history, you’ll know about the ‘Lisbon Lions’ – the Celtic team who became Britain’s first ever European Champions. Well now you have an opportunity to create some ‘Lisbon Lines’ and write your way to a dream trip to the Portuguese capital, to watch Europe’s finest on Saturday, May 24.

It promises to be an illuminating experience in Benfica’s magnificent Estadio da Luz –Stadium of Light – and we want you to enlighten us with your fondest football memories.

Whether it’s the first game you ever attended, a last minute winner for your team, lifting a cup or just a moment of sheer brilliance, as long as your blog highlights your passion for football and is relevant to the range of shirts at www.camporetro.com you’re in with a chance of winning.

Once published send your entry to competitions@camposports.com with the link to your blog and you will be automatically entered into the competition.

Tweet us using the hashtag #BLOGTOLISBON and keep up to speed with other entries and developments. The lucky winner will be selected on April 30 by Campo Retro & AEJIS.

Good luck #BLOGTOLISBON

And finally, while we’re on, Campo Retro have these retro England tops for sale, £25 each from
http://www.camporetro.com/Score-Draw/England

* The England 1966 Bobby Moore shirt

AND

** the England 1982 home shirt