Sixer’s Sevens: SAFC 0-0 Leicester City. Still a point from safety

    Jake pins Sixer to the wall
    Jake pins Sixer to the wall

    Monsieur Salut writes: Pete Sixsmith, not alone among Salut! Sunderland folk in feeling nervous today, was philosophical at half time – ‘strong on effort but weak on quality’. He wasn’t much happier with the standard of play at the end of a ‘truly awful’ goalless draw, but accepted that the defeats of Newcastle and Hull made it a little easier to digest. So we enter the final two, horrendously difficult away games at Arsenal and Chelsea needing a point or either of the following – Hull failing to beat Man Utd at home or us not conceding so many in London that the Mags would need only to draw at home to West Ham to finish above us. Not really complicated; just the likelihood of a nervy end to the season. Sixer’s full assessment of the game, amplifying the seven-word verdict you see below, will appear in due course …

    Jake: 'hanging on ...'
    Jake: ‘hanging on …’

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Sunderland vs Leicester ‘Guess the Score’: when Claudio eased jingle-jangling nerves

Jake: 'this is the Biggie, me bonny Lads'
Jake: ‘this is the massive one, me bonny Lads’

Not for the first time, but we hope for the last this season, we approach a game of momentous importance.

As every schoolboy ought to know, a win on Saturday for Sunderland and a defeat or draw for Hull City would ensure our survival. After a season in which we have truly earned very little, we at last deserve the result we need on the strength of recent performances.

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Leicester Who are You?: ‘Foxes are good, SAFC dull as Hull’

Jake: 'any win will do'
Jake: ‘any win will do – again’

So we reach what Jake, our illustrator, rightly calls The Biggie. Win and we’re safe unless Hull win both their games, starting at Spurs on Saturday, and we lose both the remaining ones next Wednesday and on May 24. Lose and we must rely on others – or our own ability to produce a magical result from the Emirates or Stamford Bridge. Anything can happen. James Bennett*, another of Monsieur Salut’s former Abu Dhabi colleagues, is a diehard Leicester fan, somewhat uncomplimentary about the way Sunderland play as opposed to how we support them (so are we from time to time) and yearning for a chance for his club to build on their achievements this season. Since answering our questions, James – who at least admits Leicester were poor in the first game – has accused us of being lucky in both the Southampton and Everton games …

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And now we’re five: Villa, Leicester, Hull, True Geordie`s Newcastle and us


So Burnley departed the Premier with great grace, leaving a gift for the other strugglers by dumping Hull right in it. QPR capitulated at the Etihad and there`s just one relegation place left …

Let’s start with controversy. I don’t really want Newcastle United to go down, except if it’s instead of us. And I’ll be hoping for Boro to progress on Friday to the playoff final, followed by victory at Wembley.

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The Sunderland vs Southampton Guess the Score after Hull pile on pressure

Jake's caption says it all
Jake’s caption says it all


Who approached Tuesday night
thinking “we can rely on old Brucie to mess it up and do us a favour?”,Elmo will have the sort of stinker he played for us and Jordan Henderson will lead Liverpool to victory for our sake as well as theirs?

I thought my phone screen was frozen when it kept saying 1-0 every time I looked. Bruce had got his result, Elmo providing the cross from which Dawson scored the winner, and Hendo could do no more than huff and puff with the rest of a misfiring Liverpool side.

So the night ended with Hull a lot closer to safety than us. Heaven knows what Leicester will do to Chelsea tonight to make us even glummer.

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Salut! Sunderland’s Week: bravado ahead of Chelsea, Greatest Escape memories, Rodwell comeback

Jake captures the theme
Jake captures the theme

Standard practice around here is that an admirable band of stalwarts call by every day or so to see what Salut! Sunderland has been up to.

Hundreds more, and sometimes thousands, visit the site only when something new appears on newsnow.co.uk’s SAFC pages or a kind soul drops a link at Ready to Go or elsewhere.

The trick, when trying to avoid descent into insanity as a fan site editor, is to take it all in the stride. Must Not Fret about readership figures should be the mantra; let us be the low-circulation site for the thinking supporter and stop worrying about tabloid-level hits.

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Sixer’s Leicester Soapbox – at least the beer was good

Pete Sixsmith: what'll it be?
Pete Sixsmith: what’ll it be?

John McCormick writes:
It’s a long time since I’ve been to Leicester and I wasn’t there yesterday. Will I feel the need to go next season? Possibly not as we could be in different leagues. Or possibly yes, as we could be in the same League, just not this one. At least I think that’s what Pete Sixsmith‘s saying in his report from the King Power Stadium:

The Swan and Rushes courtesy of Pete Sixsmith - he's not a bitter man after Leicester
The Swan In Rushes courtesy of Pete Sixsmith – he’s not a bitter man after Leicester

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Hutch’s Patch: Sunderland ratings vs Leicester. Guess who got 10/10

Jake: 'opinions - everyone has 'em'
Jake: ‘opinions – everyone has ’em’

So a Leicester-supporting pal says his lot were the better side but adds that it’s difficult to tell which of the two will go down. M Salut thought aloud at ESPN – http://www.espnfc.com/club/sunderland/366/blog/post/2158151/black-cats-fail-to-shine-at-leicester – neither side could grumble at the outcome. Here, with young Keir Bradwell absent on family duties, is what the older Rob Hutchison made of it, one word for each player, plus a tweet I couldn’t resist repeating about the Fletcher yellow card …

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