John McCormick writes: if you want to know the origin of the headline you’ll have to read on to the middle of this piece, where Malcolm, our esteemed deputy editor, has reworked a version of the old Fulwell End favourite “Monty is better than Yashin” following a recent barrage of voting from the Sky Blue bit of the West Midlands.
I have to say I found that barrage a bit strange. After all, when a blog adopts a title which includes the phrase “dodgy numbers”, and then ends with a disclaimer which states “the arithmetic’s correct, it’s just the rest could be a bit wonky” it’s best not to take it too seriously.
And when it says “unless new voter(s) decide to cast vote(s) for only one team and to throw rationality to the winds – and why not, it’s what football’s all about”, which is what I wrote in my last post, you might get some idea that we welcome other clubs’ fans and enjoy hearing from them.
Barnsley
Burton, Scunthorpe or Peterborough – who’ll join Sunderland, Barnsley, Charlton and Portsmouth?
UPDATE: we saw the poll had grown, improbably, to 11,000+ votes with Coventry way out in front on 26 per cent. Couldn’t blame Jimmy Hill this time but something was clearly up. For the culprits, go to the Coventry site Sky Blues Talk … but don’t get too cross as our lot would gladly have done the same to them. The poll, unsurprisingly, is suspended …
After Colin reposted our “who’s going up?” poll (on the left, below) in one of the Question and Answer sessions with our owners there was brief flurry of voting, as you might have expected given the number of visitors we had. And then things slowed down until, by the weekend, things were at a trickle, although votes were and are still coming in. Again, this was to be expected as the eyes of the football world were on Russia, where eight or nine ex-Sunderland players were taking part in the World’s most prestigious competition outside the Third Division. We now have over 800 votes cast, which is enough to be going on with, although Colin in his gut feeling poll, had almost as many when only one vote was allowed per person.
Barnsley drop, Burton and Posh replace Luton and Scunthorpe, Walsall get off the bottom in our promotion poll.
When I first put this poll up
, a mere week ago, I wrote
“this is predominantly a Sunderland site and we aren’t claiming results are totally unbiased… …Nevertheless, I think it’s fair to say that SAFC fans have not been blindly optimistic.”
After only a week I would not able to add a lot to this statement, were it not for two things. The first is that the poll was tagged to promote it to all League One fans for over 24 hours before it was promoted on our facebook page and then on Colin’s subsequent posts on this site. This gave us a small (very small, as it happens) hint of what the whole of the League One fanbase might think. The second was that Colin’s own poll closed, with some findings we can bring to bear on this one.
The bookies say Sunderland, Barnsley, Charlton, Portsmouth, Luton and Scunthorpe. What about you?
And so we have it: the fixtures are out. You’ll be getting your fill of dates, and conjecture from all over, no doubt, and enjoying the pre-season buzz of anticipation that it brings.
But when you’re tucked up under the sheets, reading Charles Buchan’s “Football Monthly” with a torch and reality bites, do you think you’ll win League One?
Or even get promoted?
If you do, please let us know. If you don’t, let us know who you think will make the grade.
A champion Championship series: the first time Sixer saw your ground or your team
Most weeks, readers of Salut! Sunderland drop by on Friday morning to catch the latest instalment in Pete Sixsmith’s twin series, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Ground (if the game in question is away), Team (if it’s at the Stadium of Light).
This week, the Millwall edition was posted earlier than usual – namely at this link.
Sixer’s Barnsley Soapbox: a lack of New Year’s resolution at the Stadium of Light
Malcolm Dawson writes…….I made a decision at the end of last season that going to watch Sunderland was becoming too painful. Physically painful because of the arthritis in my knees and the back pain I was experiencing on the walk from car to ground and back. Psychologically painful because of the poor football on show, constant disappointment not only at results but at poor performances and a lack of entertainment. Economically painful in the knowledge that, with two and a half years to go before I get my state pension, the cost of a season card represented five per cent of my annual income and I could think of better ways to spend my time and money. But most of all (and I know there are some, though a dwindling number, who disagree with me) I could see the club going only one way under the current ownership. I decided enough was enough. Call me disloyal, call me a fair weather supporter but I felt I had suffered enough over the years and there comes a time when cold logic finally overtakes blind emotion.
But with a new healthy eating regime and a substantial weight loss, the walking has become easier and with Pete Sixsmith otherwise engaged over advent, I got along to the three home games prior to Christmas. Reading was a shambles, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I had enjoyed the Fulham and Birmingham games. So much so that despite the despondent reports from those who had been to Bramall Lane, those two games plus the win at Forest and the fact there were no Northern League games on New Year’s Day had got me thinking that maybe I should go to see the Coleman revival continue against Barnsley. But I am nothing if not stubborn and decided around midday, that I would settle for Barnes and Benno, the Guardian crossword and a snooze on the sofa. Sounds like I made a good decision.
Pete was back in his usual seat but if this most despondent of reports is anything to go by, he would rather have stayed home listening to Nicholas Parsons and Paul Merton recalling the 50 years of Just a Minute as he recaps yesterday’s experience without hesitation, deviation but for those of you who read his report of the Sheffield United game more than a little repetition …
BARNSLEY
Sixer’s sevens. Sunderland 0 Barnsley 1. Get your wallet out, Ellis
John McCormick writes: with about ten minutes to go I was just about to write a headline in when Pete Sixsmith sent a seven-word text. Did it make me change what I was going to put? Not at all.
You can read what Pete wrote below and I bet you agree with both him and myself.
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Team: Barnsley
John McCormick writes: Pete Sixsmith takes me into new territory with this trip down memory lane. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Barnsley play, neither at home nor away. There’s no reason for that, apart from the fact that I was seven or eight the first time they came to Roker, and had been living away from the area for a good few years the next time they turned up. And now, here they are again and I’m still not there …
The SAFC vs Barnsley Who are You? and prize Guess the Score combined
Monsieur Salut writes: a very happy new year to all Salut! Sunderland readers, editors, contributors and advertisers/sponsors. As well as featuring the thoughts of a Barnsley supporter, this is the place for entries in Guess the Score. There’ll be a prize as usual – a book or mug, to be sent to a UK delivery address – and Barnsley supporters are very welcome to have a go.
Thank heavens – though not always – for Twitter. It is, or at least can be, a fruitful place to find supporters of other teams. I was fearing a blank Sunderland -Barnsley ‘Who are You?’ until I found Craig Robinson*.
Craig’s replies, like those of the fan who sat in the same hot seat for the game at their game at Oakwell, are realistic and to the point …
Sunderland opponents and their grounds: Sixer’s series as good as it gets
Put it this way. Pete Sixsmith gives a lot more to the football-supporting public than he gets back. …