Pete Sixsmith’s phone was busy from the off, with texts announcing not one, not two, but three goals for Sunderland in the first half hour.
Then came the second half, and another two texts, and with half an hour to go I was thinking, “No more texts, Pete, no more”. Fortunately, when one did come it was a good’n.
Then came the final, post whistle seven-worder that promises a must-read match report tomorrow:
John McCormick writes: there’s no formal division of labour at Salut HQ. It usually works out that M Salut himself does the “Who are you?” and “Guess the score” pieces, along with sundry items that come his way, I do the “First time ever I saw your ground/team” series and also “Sixer’s Sevens” if Malcolm’s at the match, and Malcolm does match reports on Sunday morning, especially if he was there and can provide his well-informed introductions. Other writers chip in from time to time, Jake embellishes all of our efforts and Pete Sixsmith, of course, provides an axle round which our efforts can spin. However, like our players, we can and do swap roles.
And, like the team on the pitch, we don’t all have to be there for it to work.
Pete Sixsmith once again dips into his magic memory to bring you a trip to the land of contrasts: bashed metal and heavy metal: old canals and new motorways: Aston Villa with their football league glory and a historic stadium and erm, Walsall who, literally, are in a different league.
Nowt wrong with that, though, as Pete makes abundantly clear.
Monsieur Salut writes (and guess how easy it is to write Monsieur Slut by mistake): I knew some games would be a struggle for Who are You? and Walsall away this Saturday was already proving a challenge before we were duly drawn against them in the FA Cup for a week later. Richard Hall*, located by the usual online searches, agreed to have a go. So why not get him to do both games; why not go back to him for the return league game?
So Richard’s answers on the League One match, and revelations about his cultural tastes (Shostakovich fifth, the works of an American ‘Marxist humanist’ Raya Dunayevskaya and even a spot of Michael Jackson washed down with old world wine) will be followed next week by his FA Cup thoughts. It amounts to another great read in this series. And Richard knows the North East well, having worked in Middlesbrough, lived in Darlington and joined a friend for games at the SoL. But we’ll try to spare him a third set of questions …
Jake, our illustrator based out in Spain, has some news of his own. Watch this space
According to our Walsall “Who are You?” candidate, whose thoughts have just landed and will be published on Thursday, we will either be thrashed 4-1 “because we love being the underdogs”, or Sunderland will romp to victory “because sometimes the wheels really do come off”. Nothing in between.
And for the FA Cup game a week later, he reckons we will batter them for most of the game but lose 1-0.
Most of that is emphatically not what it says in the script, writes Monsieur Salut. After missing an open-goal chance to go top by beating Wycombe Wanderers, we must regain our former momentum. Barnsley, next up after this game, are looking good again and breathing loudly down our necks.
Pete Sixsmith texted at half time that there wasn’t much happening and Wycombe looked comfortable. Half an hour later he was texting to say that we had much to do.
Did we do it?yes and no – enough to keep our unbeaten at home record, not enough to keep another clean sheet and not enough to win.
And his final seven word text suggests that’s fair enough:
Click the image to pre-order your copy (in case you don’t win Guess the Score or have a Christmas gift in mind)
Our thanks to Tales From Publishing, the people behind the Tales From the Red and Whites series on books about Sunderland AFC, for donating this week’s Guess the Score prize …
Stand by, until tomorrow, for a serious contender for the end-of-season awards for the best of the 2018/19 Who are You? features.
We may be struggling to find opposing fans for every match but the Wycombe Wanderers volunteer, Jon Dickinson, has produced some cracking responses – and a great photo showing the Chairboys’ former manager and former playing hero Gareth Ainsworth in, shall we say, more musical that footballing mode.
Anyone who remembers the glory days of amateur football, in which Wanderers played an important part as did North-Eastern sides led by Bishop Auckland, will also find it a great read. Come back tomorrow for a treat. But for now, there’s important business ahead so Guess the Score.
John McCormick writes……..the last time I wrote about Morecambe was about 18 months ago when I ventured the suggestion that their off-field troubles may have been ending. I think I was right as the intervening months have seen wholesale changes at the club, which are continuing (their chairman has just stepped down). The one exception is their manager, Jim Bentley, who has been in post since 2011 and I think he’s the longest serving manager in the top 4 divisions now that Arsene has gone.
But by the time he took over Pete Sixsmith had already been there:
Jake: ‘Stop press: Sixer stepped off the Soapbox and it’s John Marshall in his place’
Monsieur Salut writes: John Marshall can always be relied upon to step in as an admirable substitute on occasions when Pete Sixsmith is absent from a Sunderland game. Sixer did see a SAFC win – Shildon’s ‘best performance of the season’, according the manager, to beat Barton Town 2-0 away in the second round of the Buildbase FA Vase – but arranged for John to provide both the Seven and the Soapbox report on a terrific result that took us to five wins on the trot and a place in the top two …
Pete Sixsmith’s phone was busy from the off, with texts announcing not one, not two, but three goals for Sunderland in the first half hour.I was intending to avoid puns about turning the power off but I thought of one that seemed OK, so there it is in the headline.
Pete Sixsmith once again dips into his magic memory to bring you a trip to the land of contrasts: bashed metal and heavy metal: old canals and new motorways: Aston Villa with their football league glory and a historic stadium and erm, Walsall who, literally, are in a different league.
