Pete Sixsmith wasn’t there tonight, having chosen to watch Durham City play Ryhope CW and leave the Sunderland game to Bob Chapman, but he did forward Bob’s half time message, which was to the effect that we had hardly been in the game and Birmingham deserved their lead.
There was a second message at full time. We’ve come to expect seven words; unfortunately, we’ve also come to expect what they say:
Pete Sixsmith’s legendary journey around the years continues with a trip to England’s second city and 1976. That was the year the queen went to Birmingham to open the National Exhibition Centre but she doesn’t post anything on this site (at least, not under her own name) so we won’t be getting her reminiscences.
As if we needed them. Cue the chant…
“Aye aye aye aye, Sixsmith is better than Lizzie……”
Here’s a brief chance to give your view now that the transfer window has closed. The site will be busy soon, we’ll have views from Lars and Pete, plus Pete looking forward to Ipswich tomorrow, so this will only be around for the rest of today.
John McCormick asks: Did you go to bed, or perhaps wake up, singing “The young ones”? Or maybe Bob and Marcia sprang to mind with “Young, gifted and black”. The old rockers among you might have thought of the Who and “The kids are alright” but not, I venture, “Happy Jack”.
I don’t know if Pete Sixsmith was singing at any point but here he is waxing lyrical, and isn’t it good to read:
Pete Sixsmith’s seven word text, fresh from the Stadium of Light, makes it clear that this was not just a team effort but also that our manager’s choice of young players, indeed his whole ethos, is the way to go.
The fans probably won’t be singing a Cliff Richard song as they stream out of the Stadium of Light. However, as Sixer pays tribute to an oldie as well as the young ones why shouldn’t I do the same, and I bet I have some of you singing it later tonight:
John McCormick writes: I’ve never been to the KC stadium but I have been to Boothferry Park, more than once. I’ve seen us play Hull City there, I’ve even seen Hull City play other clubs there. However, I have no memory of ever seeing us play Hull at home. Not so Pete Sixsmith. He’s been there and here, old grounds and new, serious and not so serious games; and Hull City, home and away, are yet another team in his long list of memories:
John McCormick writes: It’s appropriate as we look towards Hull, well known Capital of Culture, that we get into the spirit with a contribution of our own. And who better to provide it than Wrinkly Pete.
Pete, via the Bard, poses an interesting question:
Has the loan system served us well, or not?
What do you think? Did Danny Rose get more from us than we got from him? What about Johnny Evans (got us up, kept us up)? And what of all of those others, up to and including Grabban? Or perhaps you might be thinking of loans out – Borini, Khazri and Lens spring to mind.
Pete’s not a fan of the loan system. In this post he makes his case and then we open the floor with a poll which gives you a chance to give us your opinion, after which you’re welcome to leave a comment. So without much ado,
“with mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”*
Pete Sixsmith didn’t quite take the day off but the trip he made was a short one, only over the border to the next county.
It was Bob Chapman who crossed the border into another country.
Meanwhile, Sunderland appear to have only one place to go.
Here’s Bob’s report.
John McCormick writes: I didn’t think Cardiff City were anything special yet they brushed us aside. So what does that make us?
Bob Chapman, standing in for Pete Sixsmith sent us his immediate post-match text and in just seven words, gives us something of an answer. An answer we didn’t want:
John McCormick writes: after 1971-2 it was another 30 years before I returned to Cardiff. This time I drove there and stayed in decent hotels (you know, the kind with heating and showers). Cardiff had changed from the solemn, somnolent city I remembered. Now it was full of partygoers engaging in drunkenness and sin.
But it wasn’t all improvement. There were yuppies, and Ninian Park, despite refurbishment, was showing its age.
It took another few years for City to get their new venue, as Pete Sixsmith relates in part two of Cardiff’s “first time ever I saw your ground…”