Right, we got back into the game, maybe should have found the strength to win but cannot seriously complain about the result.
Derby and Joan Club: Middlesbrough still to beat. Arsenal to come?
Middlesbrough
Martin’s Musings on Boro: ‘brilliant McClean, cool Campbell keep us in it’
Martin O’Neill maintained his unbeaten home record at the Stadium of Light with the heartening goal from Fraizer Campbell, just back from long-term injury securing the draw. We now have to go the Boro and win to earn another home tie, against Arsenal, in the 5th round – and Martin’s post-match missive recognised that the main plus from a moderate display was that we were still in the hat …
Sixer’s Sevens: Sunderland 1 Middlesbrough 1 – Campbell’s super saver
This is where Pete Sixsmith captures the glory and shame, hope and despair, excitement and ennui of the Sunderland matchday experience. When, rarely, Pete is absent or delayed, a supersub does it for him and the seven-word verdict is preceded by an asterisk. Pete’s full analysis of the game will usually appear within a day or two.
Salut! Sunderland’s Week: beating Swansea, facing Boro, mourning a good man
It is time again for our glance at the week gone by. But let us look forward a little as well.
Soapbox: will Balotelli, Davies and/or Muslimovic climb through our transfer window?
Pete Sixsmith gazes through the transfer window, sees little he truly fancies but wonders whether one or other of the …
SAFC v Middlesbrough ‘Who are You?’: (2) the man in The Far Corner
In the second of our Sunderland v Middlesbrough “Who are You?”s – it happens that way sometimes – we talk to Harry Pearson, Guardian sports columnist and author of books that include the wonderful North-eastern footballing odyssey, The Far Corner. That’s the one to grab if you read nothing else about the game. Harry is also a slightly guilty Boro fan, too guilty about the long gaps between his attendances to muscle in on the limited ticket supply …
Middlesbrough ‘Who are You?’: Alan Comfort’s broken career and fond Boro memories
Sunderland v Boro: the star’s wife who cried on seeing Middlesbrough
Boro on Sunday in the FA Cup 4th round and Salut! Sunderland‘s build-up starts here. For a man who was able to play so few games because injury cruelly cut his career short, Alan Comfort – now, of course, the Rev Alan Comfort – made an impact, him on the North East and the region on him. He remains deeply fond of Boro to this day – and yes, his wife grew to appreciate the Dales – wonders what might have been and says he would happily have seen out a player’s normal-length careeer there …
Coming clean on Newcastle and Middlesbrough connections
A posting at the main Salut! site, which you can see by clicking this link, mentions the subject only in passing, but it was sufficient to inspire a cartoonist, James Benn, to come up with a great illustration. It got me thinking: we’re all meant to hate the Mags, they hate us. We both used to hate Boro, and them us, but what with all that’s happened down on Teesside, we’ve all but forgotten one another’s existence. Maybe we should just all get a life …
Pete Sixsmith made a telling comment here the other day that should have made every thinking Sunderland supporter reconsider the kneejerk anti-Mag mantras they – we – adopt, and vice versa.
He was reacting to Jeremy Robson’s amusing look at the story of the two lads, from either side of the Wear-Tyne divide, who had a wager on who would finish higher: the loser had to go to the other club’s shop and buy and wear a top.