Great series begins at Derby, Bury, Norwich, Sheffield Wednesday, Carlisle, Leeds and Barnsley

Monsieur Salut writes: when Pete Sixsmith suggested a series looking at his first encounters with Sunderland’s opposing teams or their grounds, I had minor doubts. That’s 46 articles plus the cup games – assuming he does each team for home games, each ground for away ties – on top of all else he contributes to Salut! Sunderland.

It’s fair to say the first fruits of Sixer’s latest endeavours are making me eat my thoughts. It is proving a fabulous series, much admired here but also by supporters of the clubs he writes about. Eric Bowers recently described Sixer as a national institution … you decide

 

 

The story so far is enough to persuade me that he should really be talking to book publishers. Here’s a flavour (click the team name to see the full piece in each case):

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Sixer’s Carlisle Soapbox: At least our name’s in the douli for the next round

Malcolm Dawson writes……….Pete Sixsmith made the trip across the Pennines to Brunton Park last night and saw us win our way through to the next round of the competition which I still call the League Cup. We got through but was it a comfortable victory or a fortunate one? Here’s what Pete thinks.

Carlisle United (away) Caraboa Cup

Tomorrow is the day when the English Football League draws the next round of this competition that has been ticking over since the 1960-61 season.

Our first game in it was at Griffin Park, Brentford on the 26th October. We lost 4-3 after having been 3-1 up at half time thanks to goals from Ian Lawther, Willie McPheat and Amby Fogarty. Later that week, the draw for the next round was made at the Football League headquarters in Lytham St Annes, at the posh end of Blackpool and I presume that the Football League panjandrums who drew it included Alan Hardaker, the formidable secretary of the League and Barnsley Chairman Joe Richards who was the President of the League at the time.

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Sixer’s Sevens: Carlisle 1-2 Sunderland. Bill Green honoured, our job done

Jake: ‘it won’t always be pretty’

Beating Carlisle in the league cup, or what is now correctly called the Caraboa Cup (what, you may ask but I looked it up and they produce ‘energy drinks’), has a sting in the tail. We did our bit, winning 2-1. But you have to get up at some idiotic hour on Thursday morning to find out who Sunderland will play in the third  round.

 

The second round took us to Brunton Park, where supporters of both sides joined in one minute of applause for Bill Green, the Newcastle-born former captain of Carlisle United and scorer of their first goal in the 2-0 win at Chelsea that was followed by two more victories putting them briefly top of the First Division (sad to relate, they went down in bottom place!).

Pete Sixsmith drove west for this one. He was not greatly impressed, spotting more missed chances for Carlisle than us and feeling Lynden Gooch’s winner – a finish he described as ‘classy’, to Gooch’s delight (he ‘liked’ the relevant tweet) – effectively ‘got us out of the s***’.

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The First Time Ever I Saw Your Ground (with or without Sunderland): Carlisle United

The newly slimline Sixer …

Brunton Park is the latest stop in Pete Sixsmith‘s series* looking at his own earliest experiences of the teams Sunderland play and the grounds they call or called home. Carlise United can claim a fascinating club history, the remoteness of its location making gloryseeking support for bigger clubs less of a problem than elsewhere. Sixer’s introduction to the ground coincided with the appearance of a Sunderland hero but not a Sunderland team …


Brunton Park is one of the few grounds
that I first went to without seeing Sunderland – although there was a Sunderland connection and that connection was the great Charlie Hurley.

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Carlisle Who are You? ‘when Shankly said ours was football’s greatest achievement’

Mike

Colin Randall writes: our Carlisle United interviewee Mike Booth, a moderator at the Carlisle fans’ forum thecumbrians.net, says most people have a soft spot for Sunderland because watching Newcastle struggle – he’ll have enjoyed their first two results – is such fun. I only just suppressed the temptation to make that the headline.

Mike is too young to remember Carlisle’s season of glory, promoted to the top flight and top of the league after three games (but relegated all the same), but says people still talk about it …


Salut! Sunderland: What were your thoughts when you came out of the hat against us – ‘that’s a great draw ‘ or ‘not them again’?

Mike Booth: yeah I thought it was a good draw. Potential for a good crowd, and I’ve seen Sunderland have quite a few games in a short space of time, so this game might be seen as one where they can rest a few players, which could potentially lead to an upset.

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Carlisle United vs SAFC Guess the Score: a winning bounceback after Leeds?

Jake says: ‘have a go – but no prize this time’:

Monsieur Salut confesses: thank heavens no one went for Sunderland 0-2 Leeds. There are quite enough people who could tell you I already owe them mugs. They will come, I promise.

Pete Sixsmith, Leeds-born but SAFC through and through though he also loves the Rhinos, has written superbly, and without partisan bile, about the disappointing defeat on Saturday evening. See https://safc.blog/2017/08/sixers-leeds-united-soapbox-finish-above-this-lot-and-were-up/ if you have not already.

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Barnes and Benno: eloquence meets passion, football inspires art

All roads lead to the Nick Barnes Matchbook
Nick Barnes and his Matchbook

We have been wanting a chat with Nick Barnes and Gary Bennett for a while. In some ways an unlikely pair, the tweed-loving culture vulture with a passion for the countryside and a former player and manager, fondly remembered for the sheer commitment he gave in red and white, who eschews tweeds in favour of the heart he wears on his sleeve …

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Sixer’s Carlisle Soapbox: the splendour of England, the torpor of friendly football

From the lads at camporetro.com**
From the lads at camporetro.com**

Pete Sixsmith ought to have been a professional football writer, as his priceless accounts at Salut! Sunderland demonstrate season after season. He could have had travel writing as a sideline, as this description of a grand day out on the trains of northern England also shows. Mind, he isn’t a bad teacher by all accounts so society probably feels it is getting the best of all worlds from the sum of his contributions. Back to that day out: there’s always something waiting to spoil life’s pleasures and Pete ran into it at Brunton Park (there’s a clip of the goals at Darlington to make up for it) …

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