As a decent FA Cup run beckons for someone, we welcome back Russ Goldman*, a USA-based Fulham diehard adjusting to life without Premier League football and therefore without access to live televised games. Like SAFC, Fulham offer radio coverage – Barnes and Benno are a class act for us – but Russ admits it’s not the same (he should try wrestling with stop-start streams, which make Barnes and Benno an emphatically better option). He sees Sunderland advancing to the 5th round but not without a fight ….
As regulars know, or should know, a rollover stops at two at Salut! Sunderland. We don’t want to annoy our sponsors, Personalised Football Gifts by having them pack threes and fours.
But just in case we do get back to Wembley this season wouldn’t it be nice to have that pair of mugs as souvenirs of the 4th round?
John McCormick writes: Some days, you think “I wish I’d been there”. I don’t think that fits today, judging by the Radio Newcastle commentary which I listened to and the personal letter from the manager to M Salut, which I recently read:
As the FA Cup 3rd round looms, and just for the memories, here are some jottings that have cropped up here in the eight years since Salut! Sunderland was created …
Forty-one years on from our great triumph at Wembley, 77 years after we had last done it and a shorter time, though still too long, since the FA Cup seemed to stop mattering to most, a 3rd round tie would not merit undue attention.
Julian Young is a good friend. The cross he bears is that of being a Leeds United supporter. Not surprisingly, as his club went into steep decline, he put some distance between him and them. For some years, he has been in Paris. It works; as M Salut remembers from his own time there, it can be tough trying to catch live football outside the Premier. But he still cares, and readily agreed to offer his thoughts ahead of the Sunderland vs Leeds cup tie …
No one correctly guessed 3-2 as the score from the Etihad so the latest edition of Guess the Score is a rollover, with two mugs as the prize. READ ON …
Over the years, and perhaps with relatively little else to shout about, Salut! Sunderland has published plenty about the great day in history – social history, too, not just footballing detail – that was May 5 1973.
Many readers are old enough and were lucky enough to be there. Others, Monsiuer Salut among them, have hard-luck stories of broken promises or disappointment in the hunt for tickets. But however we ended up watching the momentous events of that afternoon in north-west London, it was an occasion to be remembered forever.
John McCormick writes:Time will tell whether or not Gus got this one right. I knew he’d make changes. I knew he’d start Scorchio. I expected Fletch to get more time on the clock. But I didn’t expect the Gaffer to say to Catts: “We can’t afford a replay. Even if you get a booking I’m keeping you on the pitch and, if there’s any chance of a draw, I want you to give them a couple of goals”
The headline quotes Gary Bennett’s verdict, not Pete Sixsmith’s, on this shambolic exit from the FA Cup when there was the prospect of another Wembley visit, and surely another after that (we’d have played Sheffield United in the semi).
Sixer’s customary seven-word snap judgement – see below – is hardly more flattering. We can salvage only the hope that the players not only can now concentrate on battling a way to Premier League survival, but will. As for the game, it started badly and got worse, as Benno also observed. The first goal was another of those barely challenged free headers. The next two were presented on a plate by Lee Cattermole errors. David Meyler went down (from a lofty height) in Monsieur Salut’s own estimation with his squalid baiting of the referee to ensure a first-half booking for Cattermole, Ustari deserves credit for saving a harshly awarded penalty and that’s about it.
Gus Poyet’s many changes do not spare the players the shame of having let down the vast travelling support once again – making it three defeats out of three this season against Steve Bruce, with no goals scored and six conceded…
