He kept us up. Anyone who achieved that, given the state we were in under the man we desperately wanted …
Just before we get on to the business of inviting score predictions for the monumental game at Villa Park on Monday, there’s a spot of housekeeping to announce.
Well, it had to change.
The departure of Martin O’Neill came at an unexpected time and his image has continued to appear at the top of each page of Salut! Sunderland as part of Jake’s montage of Sunderland-related illustrations.
Salut! Sunderland readers have been served another feast of comment, analysis and trivia in the past week.
Jake steps from behind his New Age easel and describes in words the season he has been drawing so cleverly for these pages. It doesn’t matter that the season is not quite over; win, lose or draw in the final challenge, v Man Utd tomorrow, it has been ( as Jake, anonymous in his exile in north-western Spain, says) a season of three thirds. Before knocking his command of the blindingly obvious, read on to see what he means. More contributors’ assessments will follow in the coming days …
It feels like close season.
Yet we have two games to play, a top 10 finish to fight for.
It has been a good week to be a Sunderland supporter, unlike the week before which began well with a win over QPR but was ruined by defeat in the FA Cup quarter finals against Everton, on what should have been a night of glory.
What is the first chant you remember hearing at Roker Park, or which early chant or song has lingered longest in the memory? The Fulwell singing along to the chorus of the Monkees’ I’m a Believer doesn’t count.
Tonight’s the night. Sunderland try to go one better than in that battling Goodison display and win a place in the Wembley semi-finals and, who knows, the final after that.
Salut! Sunderland brings happy news of a new addition to the family of our star artist, known here only as Jake though his graphics wizardry has transformed these pages.