EFL League One

Blackpool vs Sunderland Guess the Score: seaside frolics?

by
Jake: ‘forget the hangovers – roar the Lads to victory’ at the seaside’

New Year’s day is part of a great English football tradition. Games are played on January 1 just as they take place on Boxing Day, so much better than the wimpish French trêve (it also means truce but here denotes a widwinter sporting break).

And Sunderland, accompanied by 7-8,000 supporters, are at Blackpool. A special Who are You?, to be published on Sunday afternoon, will combine answers from the Lancashire club’s mascot, the Bloomfield Bear, and another look at the smashing interview gven to us a few years ago by the Blackpool and BBC legend Jimmy Armfield, who died in January 2018.

Read more

Blackpool vs Sunderland Who are You?: Bloomfield Bear helps us remember Jimmy Armfield

by
Click on the Bloomfield Bear to see the archive of Who are You?s so far in a vintage season for the series

Monsieur Salut writes: which of the Newcombes, father Gary or son Kieran, a) appears in the photo and b) answered our questions? Not sure about the photo but we can take it Gary answered the questions since the responses suggest a longer stint as a Blackpool fan than that of his lad. Kieran’s lips are sealed beyond saying ‘they’re the bear’s answers’ so here, before the exceptional treat of another look at replies the late Jimmy Armfield once gave us, is the Bloomfield Bear, complete with a succinct reference to the afternoon at Wembley that brought a fairytale season back in the top flight after 40 years, if one with no happy ending.

And then he can work out how to entertain home fans PLUS 8,000 Sunderland supporters on New Year’s day …

Read more

North Eastern Programme Club: the year SAFC picked the right people

by
John McCormick at work

SAFC fans who buy the matchday programme will know that Salut! Sunderland writers regularly contribute. For the Shrewsbury edition, our associate editor John McCormick looked back over a tumultuous year for the club and its supporters. Here is his article (NB: there may have been a couple of edits before publication) …

Read more

Shrewsbury Who are You? Which SAFC man is so passionate he’s ‘absolutely mental’?

by
Click on Ollie Warner’s photo to see the full list of Who are You? interviews so far this season

Read on for the answer to the question posed in the headline. Ollie Warner, co-presenter of the Shrewsbury Town podcast Salopcast, came up trumps with great replies to our questions ahead of Saturday’s game. He’ll be there, looking forward to seeing a new ground, and feels Sunderland will have to buy in January or settle for the playoffs …

Read more

Sunderland vs Shrewsbury Guess the Score: make it two in a row

by

At a busy period for Sunderland and therefore Salut! Sunderland, postings may appear out of natural sequence.

Pete Sixsmith’s full report on the 1-0 win over Bradford City, including his thoughts on the disallowed City “equaliser”, will be published later.

For now, premature as it may seem, let us get on with other business by inviting entries for the latest Guess the Score competition: Shrewsbury at home on Saturday.

Read more

Sixer’s Sevens: dodgy line call helps SAFC beat Bradford City

by
Jake (mopping brow): ‘phew.’

Pete Sixsmith, Santa duties over for another year, was among the bumper Boxing Day crowd of 46,039 for the important match against Bradford City. Portsmouth losing at Gillingham in the early game provided a great opportunity to make up lost ground – and we did it, if only just.

Monsieur Salut could not be among those packed inside the SoL – a quite extraordinary statistic for the third tier of English football – and could only listen to Barnes and Benno and will the Lads to victory. Sixer saw it all, including the Bradford ‘goal’ – McLaughlin fumbling and appearing to recover only after the ball had crossed the line. We often enough find themselves on the wrong end of bad decisions but seem to have got away with this one.

This is just his instant, seven-word verdict. His fuller report will make interesting reading …

Read more

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Team: Bradford City

by
The man himself

John McCormick writes: This is the second time I’ve set up this post. I spent hours working round the site problems and embedding files from a remote server so I could do Pete Sixsmith’s effort justice and then it disappeared, presumably never to return.  But as my  granny may have said, if a thing’s worth doing it’s worth doing well, and Pete’s stuff is certainly worth the effort.  So here we go again.

I’ve scheduled this to launch a bit earlier than normal for the series so if there are more issues – the site’s still undergoing rebuilding – I’ll have a chance to put up a third copy before Boxing Day.

Read more

Portsmouth vs SAFC prize Guess the Score: our cup final or theirs?

by
There IS a prize and for once it’s not a book

Monsieur Salut has a ticket. The ongoing bore of train strikes – who is the more obstinate, South West Railways or the RMT? – means a car journey down to Fratton Park …

It’s certainly a big game. But is it our game of the season given that they are five points ahead of us at the top of League One, or theirs since victory for us would cut that to two and we have two games in hand?

Monsieur Salut, for once (well twice) will be there to learn the answer to that question. He’s experienced good, bad and average days at Fratton Park over the years.

Read more

Sixer’s Sevens: heavy weather against Bristol Rovers

by
Ho ho howay the lads

Pete Sixsmith remains busy on the Saturdays before Christmas so it’s a substitute performance over the weekend. Our deputy editor Malcolm Dawson was there to brave rotten weather conditions and at times rotten play, it seems, happy enough that a game that didn’t go as expected still finished well enough. He sent alternative seven-word verdicts to replace John McCormick’s contingency offering ‘Maja ups the price on his head’. Both evoke the Rovers nickname and the second was sent immediately after the away side threatened to snatch a draw with a spot of late pressure …

Read more

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Team: Bristol Rovers

by
The man himself

John McCormick writes: I won’t be in the North East for the home game but I have my eye on the away fixture at Bristol this season. It would be another club and ground on my list, not that I’m collecting. If I was, however, it would be some years before I could approach the number racked up by Pete Sixsmith, who has been here, there and everywhere, despite giving his time to other seasonal pursuits.
And here he is again with the next instalment of his adventures, his first sighting of Bristol Rovers at Roker Park:

Read more