Newcastle United

Winning Sunderland, whining Newcastle and winsome Everton

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Jake: 'Sam on the road and Sixer too...'
Jake: ‘Sam on the road and Sixer too…’

When not watching clips of Coloccini barging into Fletch and maybe getting the wrong colour of card, Pete Sixsmith has been purring about the 3-0 win against Newcastle and hallucinating about a Geordie Nation campaign to force a replay.

Six-in-a-row has that effect. But can we make it three-in-a-row, three successive wins at Goodison? It’s a tall order against a good side, far too good to be only 11th and also far more likeable than most other Premier clubs, their friends across the park included. Sixer will be there, and at a Shildon game in the FA Vase the day before …

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Warm post-Newcastle glow resists defeat to Manchester United Under 21s

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Pete: 'maybe I need to stick to playing Santa'
Pete: ‘maybe I need to stick to playing Santa’

Monsieur Salut writes: on Friday I found myself at a London event sitting next to one of the world’s least likely Newcastle United fans, Marwan J Al Sarkal, chief executive officer of the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Sharjah, as every schoolboy should know, being next door to Dubai and one of the the seven emirates of the UAE). That Geordie Nation of theirs clearly knows no bounds. Marwan was good company all the same and smiled, with a hint of envy, when I showed him my ticket for Sunday. I can honestly say I wish he had been there with me to see our resounding (at least by the scoreline) victory.

Pete Sixsmith was still beaming when he headed to Hetton for a big test for the Under 21s. Don’t be too hard on him about the slightly grainy photo of pals at the game (M Salut has only basic enhancement tools) – he insists he was ‘playing with a new phone’ …

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Sixer’s Sevens: SAFC 3-0 Newcastle United. The joy of six in a row

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Jake: 'the world's a better place today'
Jake: ‘the world’s a better place today’


Monsieur Salut writes: after an opening 40 minutes of worryingly inept football, Sunderland sprang into life to beat Newcastle 3-0 and keep the run going. Jermain Defoe’s introduction when injury left Ola Toivonen unable to continue made the difference. Suddenly, in first-half stoppage time, his pass of Premier League – one of few Sunderland mustered in the first half – cut open the United defence. Steven Fletcher looked about to reach it ahead of Ellott and Coloccini bundled him over. Clear penalty, clear red and Adam Johnson did the rest, sending us into half time with the lead. Shaky moments followed the interval but Costel Pantilimon, harshly blamed here last week for the WBA winner, pulled off a couple of terrific saves before Billy Jones and Fletcher made it comfortable. The season has started …and our seven-word specialist summariser Pete Sixsmith went home a happy man

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SAFC v Newcastle ‘Who are You?’: a Mag who jinxes the Mags

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Terry
Terry Pattinson: jinxing the Mags

For our second Wear-Tyne derby ‘Who are You?’, we welcome Terry Pattinson*, a veteran of old-fashioned labour reporting (he was an award-winning industrial editor of the Daily Mirror. Terry was born in Gateshead and schooled on Wearside. So he has some affection for Sunderland – but his passion is Newcastle. That said, he’s a self-confessed Jinx to Mag fortunes, a trait his dad identified when he was nipper. What a shame we cannot get him to the SoL on Sunday – Newcastle could be three up and still lose if only Terry was there …

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SAFC v Newcastle: (5) not trying too hard to love the enemy

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Jeremy Robson
Jeremy Robson

Jeremy Robson is more than disillusioned with Sunderland just now. Just settled in Scotland after returning from Canadian exile, he will be ‘roaring at the telly’ on Sunday but says ’40 odd years of failure punctuated by lesser degrees of failure and no success at all has taken its toll’. That said, he had no worries about reposting these old thoughts about Wear-Tyne rivalry.

It first appeared in February 2009, and was introduced by Monsieur Salut as a as classic piece of Jeremy ‘wit, wisdom and bluster’ … but a couple of comments posted in recent days seemed to suggest it was time for a re-run, to be followed by a quite different analysis from a Newcastle supporter …

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The Newcastle United ‘Who are You?’: love and despair across the divide

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Jake: 'let the Lads give us hope'
Jake: ‘let the Lads give us hope’

Paul McMillan* has lots going from him. He’s a smashing lad – Monsieur Salut and he once worked together in Abu Dhabi – and comes from Washington. His wife Georgia, though an Aussie, supports Sunderland and once told on these pages the story, a mixture of joy, tragedy and love, of how she and Paul got together. We even covered the wedding, at a distance. But Paul is a Mag, black and white through and through. He returns to Salut! Sunderland for the first time in almost seven years for a look at Sunday’s derby, at the respective woes of both clubs and the prospects for Sunderland survival under Big Sam …

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SAFC v Newcastle United: (4) wanting a win but longing for Monday

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This is the new banner image that greets members going to our Facebook group
This is Jake’s new banner image to greet members of Salut! Sunderland‘s Facebook group. Join it today at this link if you are a Facebook user

Get the Salut! Sunderland Facebook group above 500 members. Join today at this link

So Salut! Sunderland‘s buildup preparations for the Wear-Tyne derby are just about done. Ticket is sorted, travel plans have been made. Look at the home page – www.salutsunderland.com – and you’ll find a prize Guess the Score and updated look at the interview with a Mag that won last season’s HAWAY top prize. At least one new Who are You? interview will run between now and the weekend. We must all therefore be raring to go. We cannot wait. The excitement has got to us. Yes but only up to a point. Pete Sixsmith has seen dozens of Wear-Tyne and Tyne-Wear derbies and just wants it over with. Then again, as our Newcastle-supporting HAWAY winner Nick Donaldson said last season (it was repeated here the other day: ‘Nearly 30 years away [from the North East] now and all I have ever witnessed is mild interest bordering on couldn’t-give-a-tossment. It’s only a big deal in the North East, but that doesn’t diminish it. It’s our derby, not theirs. – See more at: https://safc.blog/2015/10/safc-vs-newcastle-united-2-the-mag-who-loves-mackems/#sthash.OTVhh9Z0.dpuf …

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