Monsieur Salut says: when I said Salut! Sunderland had perhaps been too kind to Ellis Short in the past, I should have made it clear there has been no collectively unanimous view. Malcolm Dawson, the deputy editor, has been much more critical. His comment deserves to be read as a self-contained piece …
Monsieur Salut writes: having used up virtually the entire Boro-supporting side of my family (my sister has lived there throughout her adult life, for some years just around the corner from Ayresome Park), I scoured Twitter for a fresh pair of eyes. There I found Chris Blackwood*, a York-based lifelong Boro fan. He readily agree to share his thoughts with us. He rates Chris Coleman highly, thinks he might just pull us one or two places clear of the drop but clearly sees the necessary Sunderland points coming from a tough-looking run-in since he sees yet aother Stadium of Light home defeat looming for this weekend …
Without needing to try too hard, we can place Sunderland vs Middlesbrough and a handful of other games between now and Saturday firmly in the context of Championship ups and downs.
If Boro had three more points than their current total of 51, they would be in the top six. The playoffs would once again seem attainable. And they would stay there provided neither Bristol City tonight (home to fifth-top Fulham) and Sheffield Utd on Friday (at Hull City) could do more than draw.
Now where would those three Boro points be most likely to come from? Surely we are not thinking of Fortress Stadium of Light where proud, committed men of the calibre of Jack Rodwell ply their trade.
The latest defeat in a sorry season does not, of course, send us down again just yet. It does put us bottom as Burton won and it does make relegation even more probable than it was. Sunderland appear from messages seen from the Macron stadium to have put in plenty of bustle but with the usual lack of skill and penetration, Fletcher missing and missing badly with the chance that fell to him.
Pete Sixsmith met our associate editor John McCormick for the visit to Bolton, a longer trip for Sixer than Liverpool-based John. And what a long trip home it will seem …
Scroll down for a Bolton Q+A session – Gabe John from the Burnden Aces fan site seeking answers from Monsieur Salut – ahead of tonight’s game. But first a little history about our long-running feature in which opposing supporters talk about forthcoming games against Sunderland and anything else that takes their fancy …
Salut! Sunderland‘s “Who are You? series drew its first breath 10 years ago.
The site was a year old and constantly on the look-out for new features. Interviewing fans of Sunderland’s next opponents ahead of each game was hardly an original idea but we did come up with one refinement: they were invited to write pieces of their own, with questions following.
The first Who are You? – we called it “Who are They?” back then, in January 2008 – was from a Spurs fan ( a pal of mine, David Sapsted) – and the series instantly became a regular, in time changing to a purely Q+A format though interviewees who want to write articles are welcome to do so.
Michael Gething is the chairman of London Whites, the London branch of the Bolton Wanderers supporters’ club. He knows people involved with the SAFCSA equivalent, is friendly through work in the music business with our one-word ratings man Rob Hutchison and fondly remembers better times for train travel when the two branches could pool resources and get their members to different games.
He’s as down-to-earth as you might expect, a true fan of his club who appreciates the company of true fans of other clubs. He has a good idea of one of the reasons we’re in such a pickle just now (see headline, scroll down for his response to the ‘did you see Sunderland’s catastrophe coming?’ question) and, sadly for us, he expects a Bolton win on Tuesday …
We went early with the latest of Pete Sixsmith’s chronicles of doom from the Stadium of Light. He’s off to watch Rugby League today so sent his piece just as Channel Five’s Championship programme prepared to delight Brentford fans and horrify Sunderland supporters with what are laughingly called the highlights of another calamitous afternoon.
Now, we turn our attentions to Bolton Wanderers and Tuesday night. About the only saving graces on Saturday were that they lost, Birmingham lost, Burton failed to beat Nottingham Forest (which would have dumped us back in bottom place) and neither Barnsley nor Hull had games.
Pete Sixsmith will be on his way tomorrow to watch his beloved rugby league. It rarely fails to put a smile on his face. We have seen, on a handful of occasions this season, how a good Sunderland performance can have the same effect. At most games, however, he witnesses a shambles of a team that would turn the man who is depressive into one who is suicidal. Brentford fans turned out in force and rightly enjoyed their day out (and how they must have loved Sixer’s Bees edition of his fabulous series The First Time Ever I Saw Your Team
Where on earth we, Sunderland, go from here should be anyone’s guess but isn’t – we’re bound for another taste of third division football unless something happens and quickly ….
For his second contribution to the pages of Salut! Sunderland, Martin Crow compares and contrasts – favourably – the Chris Coleman way with words, when talking publicly about Sunderland AFC, with the mix of gibberish, gallows humour, boorishness, beyond-the-pale philosophy and heavy gloom that has gone before …
Monsieur Salut writes: if I cannot actually see Griffin Park from where I write, I could walk it in 15-20 minutes. I have lived in this part of west London for 30+ years. My younger daughter’s first senior game as a player was a 5-5 draw in the red and white stripes of Brentford (she scored though with a scoreline like that, so did a lot of girls). Our Who are You? interviewee Jon Restall* – part of the highly active Brentford fans’ network Beesotted will miss the little old stadium when the club moves to a new home. Jon is a Bees fanatic and gets to loads of games.
He’ll be present in spirit this weekend for the visit of his team to the Stadium of Light – it’s his wife’s birthday and she apparently saw no great attraction in a romantic weekend on Wearside. We hope he misses a defeat for his club – he naturally fancies Brentford to be the latest of this season’s happy visitors to Sunderland …