Malcolm Dawson writes….. Since the advent of advent, Peter Sixsmith has been distributing gifts to the not so poor and …
Rob Hutchison is a glass half-full kind of man. But he struggled to find much reason to applaud what he saw from the Sunderland side’s uneven contest with the aristos of Man City. Lee Cattermole got closest to a good rating but even his 6/10 reflects a display way short of what he’d produced against Chelsea …
When you are beaten as comprehensively as at the Stadium of Light last night, there is no point in looking for excuses. Man City were much, much too good for us. Gus Poyet saw that and knows his job is to avoid demoralisation affecting the approach to another tough task, Liverpool away on Saturday. Here’s his post-match e-mail to Monsieur Salut and thousands more …
Pete Sixsmith was less happy at half time than he had been on Saturday evening. For ‘more of the same, please, Lads’, it became a blunt admission that Sunderland were making costly errors at both ends. It was to continue in similar vein, especially at the end it mattered – ours – and, if truth be told, we were outclassed and walloped …
Dec 3 SAFC (1) 1 Manchester City (2) 4 City’s hoodoo ended, aided by poor defending
Colin Randall
writes: Alex Sargent* will have been a happy man after his beloved Manchester City went to St Mary’s and made the gap between our respective results at Southampton a whacking 11 goals. We could counter with Schalke (0-5 Chelsea) followed by Sunderland (0-0, Chelsea arguably riding their luck). But Wednesday brings a new game, a new challenge. Can we keep up the frankly astonishing sequence of 1-0, 1-0, 1-0 and 1-0? Can we carry on where we left off last April when Sunderland were desperately unlucky not to win the game that ended 2-2 – they’d already been fortunate at Wembley (no way back, I’d suggest, if Borini had buried that second chance)? We’ll see. Now let Alex – who has family links with Wearside – speak for himself …
You don’t get long to rest on your laurels in the Premier League.
In a fairer world, Sunderland would have had a week to bask in the glory of the invigorating and much-praised performance against Chelsea. Or there’d even be an international break with Roy Hodgson putting away those blinkers and handing Lee Cattermole his first full England cap.
It began as an understandable precaution, Jack Rodwell playing for 60 minutes or so before being subbed. This seemed unremarkable. At Manchester City, competition for places was so stiff and Rodwell’s injury record so troubling that he arrived at Sunderland short of match fitness.
But when he got that equaliser against Manchester United, it seemed a corner had been turned. Confidence would be high, fitness levels were presumably improving.
I suppose the referendum on Scottish independence was the starting point for this post, that and my trip up for …
Nic Wiseman, fresh from being told on Twitter by Sky’s SAFC-supporting David Jones that It’s The Hope I Can’t Stand – co-created and co-edited by Nic – was ‘the best name for a SAFC fanzine ever’ – tonight made his debut in the Salut! Sunderland editorial set-up, editing and posting Keir Bradwell’s Easter-delayed ratings from Man City and Chelsea. Welcome on board, Nic …
So Pete Sixsmith succumbed to the power of a lifetime’s devotion. Instead of West Auckland vs an Eden Buses XI, or whoever, he trundled off to Manchester with his ticket. And witnessed the sort of performance that, if only it had been replicated in every other game this season, would have seen us safe. Sit back and enjoy another tremendous Sixer read …