Strange, isn’t it? I spend Monday evening idly browsing the MLS (aka Major League Soccer) website trying to work out how it (the league, not the website) operates and then along comes David Millward with a piece about a football convention in the USA. I wonder if the fans he mixed with can get their heads around relegation and promotion better than I can handle the subtleties of the MLS.
We thought it was all over. It will be now, or once this has been published. Pete Sixsmith had presented one last look back over opening games selected from his half century of Sunderland support, and it had promptly been overlooked. Here, then, is his recollection of one he missed – which was perhaps just as well. See the rest of the series at https://safc.blog/category/fifty-years-before-the-red-and-white-mast-2/
This post is about relegation, something never far from our minds, and who this season’s three might be. Over the summer I looked over a little bit of history and generated some numbers in order to bring you more of my dodgy predictions. Enjoy them or argue with them as you will. Just don’t nick the family allowance and run off to the bookies.
Never one to miss the opportunity to combine two of his favourite pastimes, real ale and watching footy, Pete Sixsmith …
A long run of defeats with a draw or two as pathetic consolation. Ring a bell? For my ESPN preview of the Swansea game – which I headlined ‘Sunderland need the spirit of ’77 – but a different outcome’ – I couldn’t resist allusion to the 1976-77 season.
Pete Sixsmith needs his football fix like a chocoholic needs a Bounty before breakfast. Still smiling from the hammering of …
Rarely have I felt such mixed feelings about the fate of two clubs whose relegations have been confirmed on the same day. Sad for Pompey, elated at Coventry’s descent.
(‘The stripes help’: Image by Yellow Book)
Which football teams you have a soft spot for, and which you would cheerfully consign to oblivion, is not driven by rocket science. It could be as simple as a long remembered favour or slight. Ask John McCormick*: he should know …
There really is no need for a review of the week today.
All the busy reader of Salut! Sunderland, who gets here only once in a while, needs to do is visit the home page – www.salutsunderland.com – and take a look at the six most recent articles all displayed there and available for further scrutiny.
Pete Sixsmith is all heart. All but Sent to Coventry yesterday when Sky Blues fans – angered by his long memory, short beard and unkind thoughts – formed queues longer than ever seen outside the away end for SAFC v City games to have a go, he manfully accepted his punishment: a cold night out with the Reserves. And was rewarded with a goal feast …