John McCormick writes: Monday morning’s radio, on the drive home, said they were our first back to back derby wins since 1967. I’ll have been there then, so is it back to back wins for me too, only 46 years apart? Probably not, I must also have been at some of the drawn and lost games between 1967 and 1970. Whatever, it’s certainly a hell of a long time since I’ve been to a derby, and this was my first one at the SOL, one of the benefits of retirement.
In his first article here after a spell of stunned silence, Lars Knutsen reflects on a heady weekend and contrasts the styles of the successive head coaches …
Pity Wendy Taylor. When she left a perfectly good job and, I’m sure, decent colleagues at Newcastle airport to become head of communications for Newcastle United, she had high hopes of putting her public relations skill to effective use.
“I am looking forward to working closely with all areas of the media; developing and strengthening our relationships off the pitch,” was how she put it. Noble aims.
Pope Francis may have offered rather little in return for the Sunderland top the club chaplain Father Marc Lyden-Smith gave him at the Vatican, promising prayers for “all Premier League players to reach their potential”. The Lord, however, appears to have been more selective when considering a response that excluded the players of one club in particular. It all leaves Pete Sixsmith reflecting on his spiritual options …
Send it in. If you come up with something you feel commemorates an important and memorable moment in the history of Sunderland (six times top flight champions against their four, though we’ve yet to win the coveted Inter-Cities Fairs Cup), share it with us.
Gus Poyet does not like to be told, as he has been, that winning today was all that mattered to Sunderland. Happy as he is for the players and the fans, he wants a repeat performance and another win next weekend, at Hull. Today was a start; we need to build on it …
So far so good, said Pete Sixsmith at half time, “keep fingers crossed”. This is the slot where Pete records an instant verdict, in seven words, on Sunderland games. Crossing fingers does not always work and Newcastle were soon level, when Adam Johnson – whose sublime cross had set up Fletch for the opener – stood still to let Debuchy in at the far post to slide a cross home. Then came Fabio Borini’s wonderful strike, just when United seemed sure of at least a draw. The season has finally started and it could not have happened against more appropriate opposition. Sixer was so overjoyed he sent two seven-word summings-up. Ha’way the Lads …
You will go a long way to find a better buildup to the Wear-Tyne derby than here. Hands up the man who said, ‘you would say that, wouldn’t you?’.
But truly, we’ve had two pretty good “Who are You?’ interviews, a Guess the Score, a statistical review of the history of Wear-Tyne derbies and a well-argued debate on the jail sentence imposed on the Newcastle horsepuncher.
You can see all that by going to the home page – https://safc.blog – and navigating from there.
Can someone shed more light on the case of the Newcastle horsepuncher?
I am notoriously liberal on penal matters but found the one-year jail sentence a wholly excessive punishment, an example of what I have taken to calling tabloid justice.
It doesn’t mean I have any real sympathy for this unlikeable character. Nor would I if the circumstances been reversed and he was a Mackem laying into the horse.
But leaving aside the risk it could have ended in a more serious incident, we have here a drunken lowlife who punches but does not hurt a police horse. If he deserves a year, the cretins who beat up the Bigg Market will presumably be going inside for life.
Last week, the prize offered in Guess the Score was a generous, unaffordable £50 but the bar was set high: to win, you needed correct scorelines from two internationals plus the Swansea match.
No one got close enough to trouble me, but then not many bothered to enter at all. The rest must have known what was coming at the Liberty.
There are no rollover jackpots around here but I will offer the more customary Salut! Sunderland mug for Sunderland vs Newcastle United before we move into an era of just-for-fun Guess the Sore features.