Happy man: Gary Clark at the playoff final at Wembley, April 2014
For the second part of Gary Clark‘s* epic replies to Salut! Sunderland‘s questions – in fact not always replies but speeches, so don’t be surprised if the response does not always seem to correspond to the question – we take a long look at the wretched relations between ownership and club. We whinge about Ellis Short; for Hull City supporters, the problems may be deeper. But Gary also has time – lots of it – to exorcise a grudge against Arsenal and Mike Riley …
Malcolm Dawson writes……..here in the latest instalment of his series in which, prior to an away game, he recalls the first visit he made to the home(s) of our upcoming opponents, strong PeteSixsmith looks back on previous outings to the UK City of Culture that is Kingston upon Hull.
TFTEISYG HULL CITY.
One of the big disappointments of Hull City’s first promotion to the Premier League was that they were no longer the answer to the question “Which is the biggest city in England never to have had a team in the top division?” although they are the answer to the question “Which is the only club in the 92 where you cannot colour in any of the letters!?”
Jake: ‘you may have seen this one before – M Salut just deleted the date’
So we are on a run of four successive defeats. The alarm bells are not so much ringing as cracking into many pieces due to the sheer volume of their sound.
And Hull? Hammered at Derby, beaten in midweek at Fulham, their own dip in form undoing the relatively good work of earlier in what is still early in the season. When I set the Who are You? questions to Hull City fan and author Gary Clark – stand by for answers stretching to War and Peace length – the Tigers were just behind the top six. Now they’re 16th, just four places above us.
For the second time in recent games we had more possession than our opponents, yet were beaten. I said the first time that the defeat had to be a message, for our players, for our manager and, above all, for our owner. They don’t appear to have understood, so Sheffield United obligingly repeated it.
If that’s not enough Pete Sixsmith’s seven word text, sent immediately after the final whistle, puts it simply:
John McCormick writes: it’s getting near to the point where I’ll be getting to a game or two. My Preston ticket’s already sorted and now we have Everton in that carathingy cup, whatever it’s called. You know, the one where draws take place on another part of the planet, and over a timespan that a geologist might recognise.
But do I want to go after yesterday’s shambles? Like you, I’ll have to read Pete Sixsmith’s match report to see if there’s anything to salvage.
For the first time in ages – especially away – we had more possession than our opponents, yet we were hammered. There has to be a message in that, for our players, for our manager and, above all, for our owner.
But it’s still early days yet and perhaps the next week will see changes. Paul Summerside, over on our facebook page, doesn’t think we’ll get new players but, according to Pete Sixsmith’s seven word summary, drastic action is needed, and quickly.
After the worst campaign in recent memory for Sunderland fans, the rebuilding job has begun at the Stadium of Light this season as they dip into the Championship for the first time in just over a decade.
Simon Grayson picked up his first win of the season with a 3-1 win at Norwich after an opening weekend draw with promotion tipped Gary Rowett and his Derby County side, but have yet to win since. The last time the Black Cats dropped to the second tier it was an instant return to the top flight, winning the Championship with a stunning 17 game unbeaten run after the turn of the year.
John McCormick writes: Pete Sixsmith has finally made it home from seat U2 in the Carrow Road football stadium (hence the reference in the introduction to Saturday’s Sevens). He probably has just enough time to grab some rest before he heads off to Sheffield. But before he gets his head down here he is with the heads up on a game more than a few of us expected to be difficult.
As ever, it’s a fine piece of writing. The bonus is that this time it’s about an excellent Sunderland performance:
Pete Sixsmith took his time in getting to Norwich, so we can look forward to an account of his ground-hopping as well as a match report from U2 at Carrow Road, where the seats have no name. (and perhaps Pete will include an explanation of what this means with his report**).
For now, though, we’ll have to make do with the instant, seven word verdict that he sends to M Salut immediately after the final whistle, and doesn’t it make a nice change from what he was sending last season? …
As foretold, the poll we’ve been running slipped down the front page and then off it so, although it remained – indeed remains – live, it no-one has visited recently. Before it disappeared from view we’d had over 7,000 votes cast, with well over 1,200 people taking part, from all parts of the UK and beyond.
That’s enough to provide me with a guide as to which clubs we’ll report on as we try to get an idea of who’s heading out of the Championship in the right direction.
As the headline says, Sunderland’s in the mix, probably only because of the loyalty of diehard fans.
Has that loyalty been strained too much by recent events? Or did they, perhaps, inject a dose of realism? The poll’s still open, perhaps Norwich will make that jump from seventh before the season starts.
TFTEISYG HULL CITY.
John McCormick writes: it’s getting near to the point where I’ll be getting to a game or two. My Preston ticket’s already sorted and now we have Everton in that carathingy cup, whatever it’s called. You know, the one where draws take place on another part of the planet, and over a timespan that a geologist might recognise.
