Portsmouth

Sunderland’s win at Bristol Rovers is also a win down Mexico way

by
. This is a beauty but click on the image to view all Art of Football’s Sunderland-related treasures

As we all now know, the Checkatrade Trophy has assumed an importance the Champions League, the FA Cup and the Carabao can but envy. The semi-final win at Bristol Rovers, courtesy of Will Grigg’s first goal for Sunderland from open play and a second from Lewis Morgan, leaves us Wembley bound.

There is still much work to do in the league as we strive to take a top-two position. But for now, we can savour the moment and look forward to the March 31 final against Portsmouth. Two grand old clubs at Wembley = a sell-out crowd and a memorable occasion. More from Pete Sixsmith and/or Malcolm Dawson, both present at the Memorial Ground, will follow in due course but may have to await their return from the West Country. So let’s deal with other business …

Read more

The League One breakaway: Peterborough dent Charlton’s progress

by

Part one of our mid-season review looked forward to the Christmas games.

Part two looked at what had happened up to New Year’s Day.

Part three was delayed until yesterday, and I’m taking the time to update that post after yesterday’s results. The first part of this one is the same as yesterday, given that we didn’t play. It’s the discussion   of the breakaway group that has changed:

Read more

Portsmouth, Luton, Barnsley and Sunderland, plus Charlton – the League One breakaway group?

by

Part one of  our mid-season review looked forward to the Christmas games.

Part two looked at what had happened up to New Year’s Day.

Part three was meant to go out after the Luton game. Repetitive strain injury decided otherwise and I still have to take care so here’s what I’ve managed, with a focus on a couple of comments I made towards the end of that second part:

Read more

Salut!’s Seasonal Summary. Part Two: from Bristol to Blackpool

by

By now you should have read part one of this series, the preview of the Christmas period which I wrote for the SAFC programme. You might even remember some of the words I wrote, especially the conclusion:

“Christmas and early January remain crucial, which for us means holding our own away and completing doubles over Bradford and Shrewsbury at home. I’m not one for predicting results or tempting fate, and am all too aware there are no easy games in this league but I think we can do that, and I can see us still being in contention when the decorations come down.”

 

Read more

Rating the Ref: Watford don’t appreciate a SAFC bête noire either

by
Better late than never: what did you make of Steve Martin at the Valley?

A message from Ken Gambles, whose idea led to our mini-series Rate the Ref, presents an opportunity for Monsieur Salut to offer a final encouragement to supporters to mark Steve Martin’s performance in charge of the 1-1 draw at Charlton.

In his 1-10 list of ratings for each edition of the series, Ken chose a special ignominous mention for one hapless man with the whistle, David Coote. Alongside the (lowest) 1/10 option appears this explanatory note: “Coote-like (the ref for the Peterborough game). Enough said. Abysmal.”

[polldaddy poll=10202624]

Read more

Salut!’s Seasonal Summary. Part One: Bristol Rovers and the pre-Christmas outlook

by

Regular readers will know that the Salut team make occasional appearances in the official matchday programme. Recent visitors will know that my last contribution came at the end of 2018, when I wrote about my take on the year before the Shrewsbury game.

However, that piece only came about after Sunderland had to fit in an extra cup game following our draw at Walsall.

I was originally asked to do something for the Bristol Rovers programme, with a focus on League One’s promotion challengers over the Christmas/New Year period. The extra game forced a change to the timetable and then other events took over, with the result that the piece I duly sent off never made it into print.

Read more

Portsmouth vs SAFC prize Guess the Score: our cup final or theirs?

by
There IS a prize and for once it’s not a book

Monsieur Salut has a ticket. The ongoing bore of train strikes – who is the more obstinate, South West Railways or the RMT? – means a car journey down to Fratton Park …

It’s certainly a big game. But is it our game of the season given that they are five points ahead of us at the top of League One, or theirs since victory for us would cut that to two and we have two games in hand?

Monsieur Salut, for once (well twice) will be there to learn the answer to that question. He’s experienced good, bad and average days at Fratton Park over the years.

Read more

Barnsley lurk behind Peterborough, Portsmouth and Sunderland, while Charlton and Coventry stutter.

by

With a break this weekend it’s time to revisit our “Ones to watch”.

If you’ve been following this series you’ll remember that we’re tracking six clubs over the course of the season. The six were chosen by a people’s vote, that new tool of democracy,  with the club which came top of the poll – Coventry City – also providing a baseline against which the other five will be compared.

If you’re wondering how Coventry came to be chosen click the hyperlinks at the bottom of the page. (And if you want to see how I’ve followed our selected teams in previous seasons you can follow this link ).

Read more

Sunderland vs Rochdale prize Guess the Score. Keep Henderson quiet, Lads

by

Hail the return of Guess the Score in prize format – Monsieur Salut is in a slightly better mood this week despite the defeat at Burton Albion – and all readers, Rochdale fans included, are invited to take part.

A Sunderland-supporting winner, that is to say a SAFC fan correctly predicting the result of Saturday’s game, will receive a mug that looks a little like this …

The SAFC dressing room mug

Read more

Coventry are base as Peterborough join Charlton, Barnsley and Portsmouth (and SAFC) on our watch list

by

There should have been an update to this series (see the archive links below for the earlier posts) at the start of the season but I travelled up early for the Charlton game, spending the Friday in Leeds before driving on to the North-East, then when I got back home I did a match report to complement Pete Sixsmith’s and didn’t have time for anything else.

This was followed by five games in two weeks, with no space to fit anything in, and here we are.

This means my last post in the series was the one that explained the role of Coventry City‘s fans in propelling their club up and Sunderland down in our poll and asked who should be the sixth team to join Coventry, Sunderland, Charlton, Barnsley and Portsmouth in our  deliberations. Peterborough was the very clear preference from the four choices offered; they got more votes than the other three clubs (Southend, Plymouth and Luton) combined.

Those six will be the ones we start with, and I can’t imagine it changing before Christmas.

Read more