It has been a frantic day, with lots of updates. This report has been superseded by the following posting. Click …
THIS REPORT NOW SUPERSEDED: CLICK HERE
Today, I am away from Gary Bennett and Nick Barnes, always a sound matchday listen on BBC Radio N**cas**e, and from all those dodgy internet streams, because work requires me to interview the French band Moussu T e lei Jovents in Marseille.
Pete Sixsmith will, as usual, be at the game and will send his Sixer’s Sevens verdict soon after the final whistle.
It was from the judge I mentioned yesterday that I first heard the expression “up and down like a harlot’s drawers”. It was a reference to his football team’s yo-yo existence and I suppose there are County Durham variations of the phrase I have known and forgotten. Anyway, it also applies to Salut! Sunderland. Ever since our pals at footballunited.com announced a new server, it’s been hit-and-miss as to whether anyone out there can actually come here and see what we’re up to. The site has been up and, with frustrating frequency, down. I desperately hope the techie wizards are right to say we are nearing the end of this frustrating period – it always seems to happen just after something especially interesting has been posted – though the past week has seen continuing problems.One result of was that out in the Mid West of the USA, Ed* – short for editor, of the Liverpool Offside fan site – was unable for long periods to see how we’d handled his responses to the Who Are They? questionnaire (he was a welcome contributor after one Gerry Marsden and his manager
ignoredoverlooked polite, even grovelling approaches). So here, for a matchday audience and with fingers tightly crossed, is a repeat of Ed’s analysis of events at Anfield, offered before Liverpool’s plucky Carling Cup exit. And I am sure that if Titus Bramble plays, Liverpool fans will keep our judge happy by ensuring their chants faithfully observe the Contempt of Court Act …
Ah, to be a Liverpool fan. Memories of standing on the Kop as a lad, that overpowering emotion stirred by the first words of You’ll Never Walk Alone with every home fan raising scarf aloft, a pint or two in the Ship & Mitre after the match. Ed* – our latest contributor to seek semi-anonymity (good reason) – can only take our word for it. He’s a keen enough supporter but lives on the other side of the Atlantic, has never set foot in Liverpool and knows nothing of the Anfield experience at first hand. Ed offers his thoughts on the Reds’ slow start to the season, the Liverpool hero who has been known to cheat and the corporate chaos engulfing his adopted club …
In view of technical problems affecting this, the original posting, a slightly modified matchday version now appears as Liverpool v SAFC: the voice of America
Ah, to be a Liverpool fan. Memories of standing on the Kop as a lad, that overpowering emotion as Gerry Marsden sings the first words of You’ll Never Walk Alone with every home fan raising scarf aloft, a pint or two in the Ship & Mitre after the match. Ed* – our latest “Who Are You?” contributor to seek semi-anonymity (good reason) – can only take our word for it. He’s a keen supporter and edits the fan site, Liverpool Offside, but lives on the other side of the Atlantic, has never set foot in Liverpool and knows nothing of the Anfield experience at first hand. From the American Mid West, he offers his thoughts on the Reds’ slow start to the season, the Anfield hero who has been known to cheat and the corporate chaos engulfing his adopted club. Maybe just as a well he did so before last night’s load of old Cobblers … …
Nathalie, as I have said before, has failed me as a daughter.
Knowing full well, Fulwell even, how important Sunderland are in my life, she only went and chose to support Liverpool. Something to do with fancying John Barnes, I always reckoned.
Who are you? The winners, that is, in Salut! Sunderland‘s grand Who Are You? competition. Could it be Fatima al Shamsi (pictured with reading matter prescribed by us to cure her of supporting Arsenal)? Or the others shown below? The results won’t be known until the season ends. Read on to see if your contribution – or your club if you don’t support Sunderland – made our awards shortlist …
Judging has now begun. The famously half-decent football magazine When Saturday Comes is on board among prize donors. And some time soon, just after the end of the Premier League season, we will announce who has been chosen in first, second and third places for the wit, warmth or wisdom of their replies to the questionnaires we present to at least one opposing fan before each Sunderland game.
Yes, we are underdogs for Sunday. No, we do not deserve to be treated as if incidental to the natural order. On paper, it’s an away win but on a big day for reputations to be reinforced, an outstanding Sunderland display could bring a result.Pete Sixmsith reports …
So we approach the penultimate weekend of the Premier League season. There are two games left until the curtain closes on an interesting, if non vintage season.
Last year it was all about who goes down (Newcastle – hee, hee) while this year, according to the media the entire Premier League season will be decided at Anfield, where Chelsea need to win to go into the last weekend and a home game against Wigan to take their third PL Championship.
However, if Chelsea lose at Anfield, the title will go to United as they will obviously win their final two games against Premier League makeweights like Sunderland and Stoke City – that’s if the entire Stoke side haven’t had a mass fight in a field in the Potteries, watched over by bullet headed men with straining at the leash Staffys.
One awayday, many broken dreams. We persuaded ourselves we were on a roll, over the hump, climbing the table, good enough to win at Anfield. Pete Sixsmith witnessed the shambles that returned us to reality …
The two questions I asked myself on the long journey home were simple ones. How good were Liverpool? How poor were we?
Answers: very and pretty.
The mini-run is over, for now. Maybe we did get carried away with a couple of wins and a few draws. Liverpool not only brought us down to earth with that thud. They hammered us …
This was not a good weekend to come up against top four sides in decent form, as Villa, Bolton and Pompey discovered yesterday and we had rammed home to us today.
It’s not exactly that Luke Harvey‘s heart is torn by two footballing passions – Sunderland, of course (otherwise he probably wouldn’t be here), and Carlisle, his home town. He is red-and-white daft, but feels a sense of local duty and will tomorrow be trying his best to urge on both his teams – one in person, the other in spirit – to famous victories …
If the four unbeaten home games in a row, where we – Sunderland – finally snapped our no-win streak, wasn’t the turning corner, then surely a point at Villa Park was. The question is whether we can now move on from that encouraging display to show sufficient strength and quality to get something out of the visit to Anfield tomorrow.
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