Malcolm Dawson writes….Pete Sixsmith’s half time text read “marginally less than inspiring”. I wasn’t there but Gus was and he …
Peter Sixsmith reflects on an ultimately comfortable passage through to the next round of the FA Cup – and looks forward to a comfortable-lookimg draw for the next one …
John McCormick writes: Our manager must be the master of substitutions, this time it’s Watmore and Ba who made the difference at the SOL. Gus gives them a special mention them in his e-mail to M salut and for once he’s happy, so maybe there’s hope for the future:
So, the 12th day of Christmas – and of Pete Sixsmith‘s look back at memorable games played over the Christmas/New Year period – can be said to have arrived. They think it’s all over. Ah, but Pete has a Baker’s Dozen in mind …
See the full series here: https://safc.blog/category/sixers-sentiments/sunderlands-twelve-days-of-christmas/
After Sunderland’s decent Christmas, no one guessing the score versus Aston Villa saw what happened coming.
The losers were not only SAFC. The dispiriting performance was at odds with the optimistic predictions so donations promised by readers to Help the Heroes, the British Heart Foundation or Water Aid came to nought.
I am sure Eric Bowers, donor of his latest Guess the Score prize mug, would want the idea to continue until someone wins and hands over a little dosh to his or her chosen cause.
So have a go – whoever you support – at guessing the score in Sunday’s FA Cup game at home to Carlisle United.
Mark Nicholson*, located at Twitter, is a diehard Carlisle supporter who will join a sizeable army crossing west to east for Sunday’s FA Cup tie. What sort of Sunderland team he will see, with the leaue cup semis only two days later and a relegation battle to wage, is open to question. He’s a great admirer of the Sunderland old boy Graham Kavanagh, first as a player and now as manager of Carlise. All the same, he expects our class to make itself felt in the last 20 minutes …
Pete Sixsmith needs his football fix like a chocoholic needs a Bounty before breakfast. Still smiling from the hammering of …
The story of Isaac Moore (“Ike”) McGorian, who played for Sunderland AFC in the 1920s, first appeared here earlier this month under the headline Isaac ‘Jack’ McGorian: echoes of Bardsley from the Roaring Twenties
Salut! Sunderland’s article drew a heartwarming response from members of his family, who also provided the photographs and much of the detail that enabled me to prepare it. Bill Richardson, a Sunderland supporter long exiled in Africa, was the spur: his comment on an e-mail forum had set the ball rolling.
But Bill also has something to answer for: what bemused his colleague, Lilian Martin, the player’s younger daughter, about my report was the use of Jack as her father’s nickname. He had never been known as such, she said. A daughter, you may well say, ought to know.
Indeed, the reference book mentioned in my report confirms this, giving the name as Isaac Moore (“Ike”) McGorian. his later career included stints at Notts County – whose supporters might find this item on Les Bradd of interest, too – and Carlisle United (their fans will most certainly wish to avoid this story).
So this is an attempt both to set the record straight and bring to wider attention the responses received to the original posting, which now follows …
Luke Harvey, another of our regular writers, offers a hardcore enthusiast’s welcome to the return – gormless rioters permitting – of the football season …
You’ll have heard the rumours: football is back.
It doesn’t feel like very long since the season ended. For Manchester United fans I’m sure the defeat at the hands of Barcelona is still providing a dull ache somewhere within, despite the FA Community Shield victory over Man City.
But the football league is definitely back, and it will surely provide the thrills and spills as well as plenty of other assorted clichés along the way.
It’s not exactly that Luke Harvey‘s heart is torn by two footballing passions – Sunderland, of course (otherwise he probably wouldn’t be here), and Carlisle, his home town. He is red-and-white daft, but feels a sense of local duty and will tomorrow be trying his best to urge on both his teams – one in person, the other in spirit – to famous victories …
If the four unbeaten home games in a row, where we – Sunderland – finally snapped our no-win streak, wasn’t the turning corner, then surely a point at Villa Park was. The question is whether we can now move on from that encouraging display to show sufficient strength and quality to get something out of the visit to Anfield tomorrow.