Ten years ago this Christmas, Salut! Sunderland welcomed into the world little Abigail Emmerson, the daughter of Monsieur Salut’s confrère and consoeur, the BBC’s Martin Emmerson and his wife, Julia from Tyne Tees.
All was going well, two lovely sisters coming along to join the family, until Abigail, bless her soul, started going to see the team supported by successive Emmerson generations. For some weeks, the pain of Sunderland’s decline has been eased a little for some of us by a series of entertaining little Facebook clips showing Abigail and her dad chatting on matchdays. It’s been enough to make Barnes and Benno sharpen up their act.
Memo to Chris Coleman and the team: Abigail is 10 on Christmas Eve. We bet she’ll have a great birthday party anyway but think how much more fun it might if Sunderland had won a couple of games, three even, by then (quick, handy definition of ‘win’ in football terms: score at least one more goal than the other lot).
NB: do not report Martin to the social services department. Abigail’s ordeal is of her own making. Let her take up the story …
