Let our very good friend Paul Dobson, universally known as Sobs, introduce – at Salut! Sunderland’s invitation – his new book charting the astonishing events of last season …
If ever a season in which no trophy was won, and no promotion achieved, screamed out to have something permanent written about it, last season at Sunderland did.
When Campo Retro offered free World Cup T-shirts to Salut! Sunderland readers and invited their verdicts, Paul Dobson – aka Sobs – was the first to throw up his hand. He opted for Belgium. Here’s the shirt, above, but worn by another member of the Dobson clan, and now comes the verdict …
Monsieur Salut writes: I have long envied Sobs. Paul Dobson, that is. We tend to meet only at away games, in the company of Pete Sixsmith though we also had a beer in Charleroi before England vs Germany during Euro 2000 and saw each other at the retirement do of the Northern Echo’s Mike Amos. But Sobs gets to pretty much every game whereas I get to only a few.
I suppose my dream, post-Lottery win, would be living half the year in France, as now, but flying back for every single game, preferably joining the London branch whenever rail travel is on the cards for home or away. With the Lottery win, I’d happily pay for everyone to travel in first.
But Sobs never told me that he is a published author. Until today that is when, inspired by my flippant suggestion that such an important game as SAFC v Cardiff merited more than a mug as the prize in Guess the Score, he offered a signed copy of Ganterbury Tales. Not Chaucer on strong medication, Sobs and a much-missed pal on journeying the country in the cause of Sunderland support. Let him explain …
Roll up for the great Salut! Sunderland Guess the Score ahead of the visit to the only ground in the world that’s quieter than the Library, aka Highbury.
What a pleasure, after a season of such disappointment for Sunderland AFC, to be able to congratulate a team in our red and white stripes. Sunderland Women’s Football Club again won the Premier title and this time the FA could find no spurious reason to justify shutting the door of the Super League to them. We asked Paul Dobson – Sobs of A Love Supreme fame and also one of this site’s great friends – to write about the exploits of a side he occasionally watches in action. It appears at Salut! Sunderland as Monsieur Salut’s younger daughter, Nathalie, prepares to line up with her London-based team Old Actonians for a friendly against Toulon in the south of France (minus “Sir” Jonny, as my neighbour calls him, absent – as is neighbour – at the French rugby cup final at the Stade de France) …