Martin O’Neill

Sunderland Review of the Season: (4) a mixed start to O’Neill era

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Sixer by Jake

This season, Monsieur Salut has decided not to offer his own end-of-season report. Not because he felt so demotivated at the end of it, though he did, but because it is not really fair to make such an appraisal on too few games attended and the rest followed by a combination of consistently admirable coverage by Nick Barnes and Gary Bennett for BBC Radio Newcastle (heard via the SAFC club site), lamentable stop-start internet streams – Jake did point the way, late in the season, to a slightly more reliable link but even that failed on the final day – and even, once or twice, Pete Sixsmith‘s text messages.

Pete, you see, was at every game; his accounts for these pages were a mixture of superb football analaysis and eloquent travelogue, but also of hope and despair. His commitment reached a level unseen from most of the squad at the back end of the season and his words were a pleasure to handle. Here, to end Salut! Sunderland‘s 2012 series of reviews, is his verdict …

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Sunderland end-of-season reviews: (3) the hope of glory shines on

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Jake finds MON in pensive mood

Salut! Sunderland sees great writing every week from subscribers to the Blackcats e-mail list. But in perhaps another sign of the flat end-of-season feelings induced by SAFC’s uninspiring finale, almost none responded to an invitation to offer their reflections here. Nic Wiseman**, once co-editor of a SAFC fanzine and these days a professional gardener, bucked the trend. And refusing to enter the summer on a downbeat note, he detects the green shoots of revival …

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Martin’s Musings on keeping to script against Manchester United: time for reflection

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Last game of the season so Martin O’Neill’s last post-match e-mail to Salut! Sunderland (and a few others). As I awaited its arrival, I thought about what I’d like to find in it: relief that the season’s over, unbridled optimism for the next one, a hint of contrition? Would we have settled for 13th top when Steve Bruce left us in something closely resembling a shambles last November? Maybe. But the MON-inspired revival raised hopes, admittedly too high given what he inherited and had to make do with, and it is difficult for this Sunderland fan – who, incidentally, feels a little sympathy for the United fans, though this rare experience of failure may prove character building – to escape the flattest of feelings tonight. Then the e-mail dropped and this is what the boss had to say …

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Martin’s Musings from Aston Villa: ifs, buts, maybes and a ‘wrong’ decision

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Jakes imagines MON's snail mail


Martin O’Neill hoped for a triumphant return to Villa Park. In his post-match e-mail, he contemplates the sort of match any away team should expect to win. Sunderland withstood Villa’s somewhat frantic assaults on Mignolet’s goal, had ample chances to grab the three points and believed they’d done so when Bendtner hit the back of the net, only to be ruled offside – wrongly says MON, who otherwise overlooks some painfully sloppy distribution to praise the overall performance. …

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Martin’s Musings from Everton: not good enough at Goodison

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Martin O’Neill is not one to make excuses and in his post match missive this is as close as he has come. But where other men’s explanations come across as whingeing, this manager’s are reflective and realistic leading as they do to the obvious. We were beaten again, by a team who performed much, much better on the day.

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Martin’s Musings on Tottenham Hotspur: making a point, taking a point

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With M Salut still suffering IT problems it falls to me pass on MON’s comment’s after yesterday’s hard fought draw. How many of you who could only watch the game on TV, I wonder, shared Alan Hansen’s view, sarcastically expressed, that this was hardly a classic? From my seat in the stand I thought this was as entertaining as 0-0 draws with little to threaten the keepers, gets. The teams were evenly matched, both produced some fine moves and both gave the ball away from time to time. Sixer’s view will follow shortly but for now, here is the manager once again in positive mindset. MD

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