John McCormick writes: while we don’t know what the future will bring, although we know it won’t be orange, we do know what the past was like. It was like the season before, and the season before that. You know what I mean, a typical Sunderland season in which we beat the Mags, had a brush with relegation, changed managers, stayed up, hey hum…
That’s the bare bones of it.
And to put flesh on those bones, here is Pete Sixsmith with his conclusion to our “End of Season Reviews”
So the HAWAYS are over for another season. Our judging panel has had its say and, heaven forbid, a Mag has emerged in first place with Everton and Stoke City supporters – the latter our former manager Denis Smith – in joint second. A Burnley fan collects the editor’s special award, having come fourth.
And amid much gnashing of teeth and general anguish, the judges – Sunderland fans one and all – have resoundingly plumped for an entry from Newcastle United, OK an entry from a NUFC supporter.
Salut! Sunderland is very close to announcing the 2015 winners of our annual Haway awards – in other words, fans of other clubs who contributed Highly Articulate Who are You? interviews to our regular pre-match feature.
The shortlist supplied to our judges – see it here – has been whittled down from 13 to five. From Aston Villa, Burnley, Everton, Newcastle and Stoke – listed alphabetically – will come our top three.
We’ll look at tomorrow’s match at Chelsea – plus the relegation dogfight – but first, an update on the HAWAY awards …
The prizes are sorted for Salut! Sunderland‘s annual Haways – awards for Highly Articulate Who are You? interviews – so step forward our Guess the Score sponsors, Personalised football Gifts, and old friends from Campo Retro and When Saturday Comes.
There are 13 shortlisted interviews, to which you could easily add either of the two – Arsenal and, though there is dissent about this, Chelsea -to have appeared since the judging process began.
Salut! Sunderland announces the annual HAWAY awards for the opposing fans who gave us the best interviews this season. Only two to publish, so results should be available soon after the season ends. The first sponsorship comes from our old friends at the half-decent football magazine When Saturday Comes – a year’s subscription – for which we are very grateful …
It’s the bit that makes all the effort involved tracking down Who are You? interviewees worthwhile.
The Haway awards – made each season for the best of our Highly Articulate Who are You? features – are back.
So Burnley departed the Premier with great grace, leaving a gift for the other strugglers by dumping Hull right in it. QPR capitulated at the Etihad and there`s just one relegation place left …
Let’s start with controversy. I don’t really want Newcastle United to go down, except if it’s instead of us. And I’ll be hoping for Boro to progress on Friday to the playoff final, followed by victory at Wembley.
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It’s fair to say the headline was designed to attract supporters of all the relegation-threatened clubs, not just ours, so be aware that they may well be influencing the early No vote on SAFC’s chances of survival (whatever our own feelings!) …
Not everyone who supports our favourite club – I nearly wrote “only club” but retain a very soft spot indeed for Shildon AFC – lives in Sunderland or the North East.
Even those who do may not see the Sunderland Echo or Shields Gazette as often as they should. And we do not all, always, follow what the local press is saying online.
So every now and then, it seems a good idea to draw Salut! Sunderland readers’ attention to a piece that seems to capture our thoughts or put present circumstances in some reasonable order.
A Newcastle United fan with huge YouTube and Twitter followings lets rip after Sunday. No one offended by bad language should click on the link to four minutes and 42 seconds of bile aimed not at us but at his own manager and team. 106,310 people had done so as I started posting this.
We probably need a psychiatrist to decipher Keir Bradwell‘s comment on Connor Wickham. Otherwise his marks go pretty much as you’d expect, with plaudits all round and special mention for an “all right goal”. Newcastle’s star man? Monsieur Salut! is tempted to say Tim Krul for his spontaneous act of sportsmanship, patting Defoe on the back in the tunnel at half time for a super strike, and managing to annoy Jamie ‘you can’t do that in any game, especially a derby’ Carragher in the process. Let’s more Spirit of Krul, less Snarl of Carragher ….