John McCormick writes: There was something from a Port Vale fan on twitter asking why we had only 2000 there yesterday. For my part the move to Sunday scuppered it – no car, and a train service with not only a Sunday timetable but also rail replacement buses left me unable to work out how or when I’d get back.
That said, when the crowd totaled about 7,200 2,000 (officially 1600+)is not a bad away contingent and it gets even better when you realise Pete Sixsmith was one of them:
Port Vale
Sixer’s Port Vale Sevens: Pope misses out on a miracle
Pete Sixsmith reckons his match report will arrive at Salut HQ some time around midday. Before then we’ll have another in his “first time” series to set us up for Tuesday’s trip to Morecambe.And before that we have his immediate post-match seven word text, sent on its way as the whistle blew in Burslem and Sunderland concluded their tenth in a row unbeaten:
Port Vale vs SAFC: another Who are You?, a big Sunderland connection
Monsieur Salut writes: sometimes, Salut! Sunderland struggles to find anyone supporting an opposing side to do the ‘Who are You?’ interview. Sometimes – not often – we receive a cast-iron promise, send out the questions and wait in vain for responses. And then there are the times we are overwhelmed with offers. Port Vale is one such example. Let’s hear from Ally Simcock*, former chairman [sorry, M Salut is too old to be doing with chairs as people] of the supporters’ club, a prolific writer on all things Vale and now a supporters’ liaison officer with the club. She reveals a Sunderland connection that goes right to the top of her club … and I have promised a third volunteer, Lisa Bowker, that I’ll be back with questions if it goes to the replay Ally predicts …
The tables turned: Sixer – ‘happy for once with SAFC’ – answers Port Vale’s questions
Monsieur Salut writes: since Rob Fielding was kind enough to answer our Who are You? questions we could hardly say no when he asked for a reciprocal gesture.
Pete Sixsmith knows his Potteries and will be at Sunday’s match so it seemed right for him to do the honours for Rob’s highly professional OneValeFan site, where I noticed one Vale fan describing the likely away contingent of around 2,000 as a ‘poor show really … we’d take more than that if the game was at Sunderland’ …
‘The novelty of a packed away end’: Port Vale vs SAFC Who are You?
Monsieur Salut writes: a slightly troubled search for a Port Vale fan for this week’s Who are You? finally led to three offers of help. Rob Fielding*, who runs the onevalefan.co.uk fan site, then turned around the questions as quickly as anyone in the history of the series and we are deeply grateful to him
This is what his fellow-Vale fan Tony Boulton, a Burslem boy in Texas, has to say: ‘Rob is a great bloke. He’s been working on his website for over 20 years, since the emergence of forums. Despite the very nature of fan communication, in the age of social media, he has persevered and kept it under control with an amazing level of integrity. Our history does not bear comparison to Sunderland, but we are two tiers below where we would like to think we can be. Football has changed so much, but the mid 90s was our heyday and if we never see that success again, we did make it to Wembley three times. That was something we could only dream about, when I was a kid …
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Ground: Port Vale and Vale Park
Malcolm Dawson writes……….it’s years since I’ve been to Vale Park, the last time being in 1998 when we won 2-0 …
The Port Vale vs Sunderland Guess the Score. Let’s keep up that winning feeling
Oh, the shame of playing in the FA Cup first round. That’s one way of looking at Sunday’s visit to Port Vale. Another is to be philosophical about the chance to test players’ fitness, give lesser-used squad members some game time and maintain the great recent run for Sunderland AFC.
Sunderland’s Twelve Days of Christmas: (11) Port Vale
Pete Sixsmith nears the end of an entertaining series of recollections – or, in one or two cases, historical research – of matches played over the festive season. Atkinson, Davenport and Byrne are the names that counted in this game, the start of a run that finished with Sunderland’s last FA Cup Final …
See the full series here: https://safc.blog/category/sixers-sentiments/sunderlands-twelve-days-of-christmas/
Odd likes and dislikes: cheering Brentford, loathing Tranmere, respecting Charlton
(‘The stripes help’: Image by Yellow Book)
Which football teams you have a soft spot for, and which you would cheerfully consign to oblivion, is not driven by rocket science. It could be as simple as a long remembered favour or slight. Ask John McCormick*: he should know …