George Mulhall

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Team: Charlton Athletic

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League One fans probably don’t know that Pete Sixsmith is a member of the 92 club, or whatever it’s called. In fact, given his proclivity for non-league and his propensity for travel he’s probably a member of the 192 club, and for many seasons he has regaled us with tales from around the country and beyond. Last season he stepped it up and provided an account of recalling the first time he saw every club we played against at home and his first visit to every ground  we were due to play at in the lead up to match.

It was a tremendous series and we didn’t think he’d be able to keep it up. But he reckons he can and here’s the first effort. Charlton fans in particular, League One fans in general, I suggest you bookmark the page. After you’ve read it you’ll appreciate why.

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George Mulhall: an appreciation

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UPDATE: George Mulhall’s son, Neil, has written to Salut! Sunderland: “I would like to thank you for your lovely tribute to my father. It brought tears to my eyes reading it.” Neil and other relatives can be assured our thoughts are with them.

Pete Sixsmith writes: on a day when the SAFC news feed went haywire with talk of a new owner, new investors, new manager, new strip, new badge, new division to play in and new hope for the future (maybe), I would prefer to concentrate on something that happened almost half a century ago.

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Sunderland’s Old Trafford glories: when Suggett, Mulhall and Seb buried Manchester United

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SALUT! Sunderland is very sorry that the site was unavailable yesterday and that it appears to be making only a gradual return towards normality. The servers said “emergency” maintenance was needed but are notoriously bad at keeping people informed. This posting was therefore wasted yesterday so here it is again …

Beating Manchester United on their own ground is not impossible, even for Sunderland.

Some, like a Netherlands-based reader Paul Devine, remember the last-but-one actual victory at Old Trafford very well.

“Against Best, Law, Bobby, Paddy and the rest, no one gave us an earthly … I was there, transported on a Roberts bus (apostrophe or no apostrophe) from Wingate to Stretford.”That was in this game’s Guess the Score competition and Paul went on to predict the same scoreline for Saturday.

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James McClean: Derry City, Sunderland and ‘a language we all understand’

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The quote is adapted from Phil Coulter’s song about Derry and the Troubles, The Town I Love So Well (he also co-wrote Puppet on a String but we bear no grudges). The language supporters of SAFC and Derry City understand is football, played in red and white stripes …

When Steve Bruce brought James McClean from Derry City for the the amount of money top players earn in a fortnight, our own Pete Sixsmith posed the question in an article at Salut! Sunderland: “Is he our new Johnny Crossan?”

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