Premier League

Salut! Sunderland’s 10th birthday present: from us to you

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Join the Salut! Sunderland Facebook group – click anywhere along this line

And follow us on Twitter: @salutsunderland … click along this line

 

Consider this a last piece of housekeeping, says Monsieur Salut, before I depart for the Far East (holiday in what I still calls Burma, not to sign up as a goalie in China). It will remain at the top of the home page until my Salut! Sunderland colleagues get up with seeing it there.

The 10th birthday competition invited readers to share their thoughts on any Sunderland-related topic with 10 years being the theme. It is still open to new entries.

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Guess the Score: special Tottenham, Crystal Palace and Southampton prize edition

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Jake says: ‘have a go’:

Monsieur Salut writes:

There is already a Guess the Score prize competition running for SAFC v Tottenham at this link. Check it out if you haven’t already.

Tomorrow (Sunday) I leave on holiday, entrusting the safe stewardship of the site to Malcolm, John, Pete and Jake in the knowledge that there will also be a steady stream of first-rate contributions from Wrinkly Pete, Bob Chapman, Ken Gambles and so many more, who will have the foresight to send their words to salutsunderland@gmail.com as well as to me.

And for the small matter of taking nine points from the three games in my absence on holiday, I leave the club in the safe hands of David Moyes and our splendid players, who will naturally be welcoming some top new colleagues before Wednesday.

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SAFC v Tottenham Hotspur Guess the Score: double prize if Sunderland win

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Jake updates his brilliant image for last season’s SAFC v Spurs game

Monsieur Salut is off to the Far East on a fact-finding tour holiday but puts off preparations to explain how one esteemed reader of this site can win not one mug, but two in this week’s competition …

Each matchday is preceded by a Guess the Score competition. And each week, most of Salut! Sunderland‘s loyal readers operate on the principle of blind faith and predict a win or a draw for the team they support.

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A non-gloating West Brom view and talking Lescott (up and down)

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Andy Caulton, exiled in the USA,  celebrates in the mountains with his Chris Brunt top


Andy Caulton was seen on the pages of Salut! Sunderland before the game between Sunderland and his team, West Brom, at the Stadium of Light on October 1, a afternoon marked by a traditionally bad SAFC start, an second-half recovery and a late equaliser from our joint second-top scorer, Patrick van Aanholt. He did the “Who are You?” interview in which he revealed a soft spot for Sunderland – and a fleeting memory of his dad mending Brian Clough’s car*.

Now PvA looks likely to desert Wearside for a reunion with Big Sam at Crystal Palace. On the face of it, it’s another of those rash gambles Sunderland have a habit of taking (Bent and Kaboul out, Graham in are examples that spring to mind) , unless there is someone better lined up to take his place. Time will tell whether Joleon Lescott is that player; the money is on him joining on a short-term deal. [UPDATE: signed as a free agent until the end of the season].

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Wrinkly Pete’s Crystal Ball: ‘don’t panic, it’s only Tottenham next’

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Peter Lynn, aka Wrinkly Pete

                I’m sending out an SOS, ‘cos I’m in so much distress

When Peter Lynn, young-at-heart  but prematurely aged physically by watching Sunderland, began his exercise in calculating how the rest of the season would go, he concluded that 37 points would be enough for survival – and that we’d get them.

After enduring the atrocious displays at home to Stoke and then at West Brom, even forgetting the equally clueless cup exit at Burnley in between, you might expect him to chuck in the towel.

Not so.

Pete predicted no points against Stoke, knew we’d be booted out of the FA Cup at Turf Moor, and bargained on only a draw at the Hawthorns. So he has only one point to retrieve. Will it come? Where might it come from? Well, Pete reckons we’ll beat Spurs for a start, though he doesn’t say how beyond a call for 100 per cent support from the crowd and Honeyman-level commitment from the team ….

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A key moment in SAFC’s West Brom no-show – and Papy’s little problem

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Happier days for Sunderland AFC, and the Echo

One bright spot on a dark day for SAFC supporters was the introduction of the Sunderland Echo’s new chief football writer, Phil Smith, to listeners to Barnes and Benno in the buildup to the limp display at West Brom.

Phil is a Sunderland supporter, not the first to occupy this particular journalistic hot seat or cover the SAFC beat for other media outlets. Like Graeme Anderson and the late, hugely missed Ian Laws before him (not forgetting Chris Young and Nick Barnes’s predecessor as BBC Radio Newcastle commentator Martin Emmerson), he came across as man brimming with passion for the club and sharing the pain of the rest of us. (Not so sure about Chris’s prior allegiance but he writes about the club, even since departing for more glamorous pursuits in LA, in a way suggesting SAFC got under his skin Niall-style.)

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Sixer’s Sevens: West Brom 2-0 SAFC. All but Honeyman throwing in towel

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Jake: ‘desperate times’

Monsieur Salut writes: No Pete Sixsmith at the Hawthorns. He wisely gave himself a day off from the drudgery and misery of supporting Sunderland and caught a game (and maybe some decent fish and chips) at Whitby. Another wretched defeat, 2-0 as I am afraid I predicted at ESPN, and we’re where we probably deserve to be, bottom place. Gary Bennett told BBC Radio Newcastle listeners we were ‘all over the place’, ‘lost’ and lacking a leader. It must be all too easy to play against Sunderland, he added. At least we have no game next weekend, said Nick Barnes; ‘we’ll still lose,’ came Gary’s reply. George Honeyman, on his league debut, came closest to offering that leadership Benno craved. No other positives …

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As Sunderland face West Brom, enter Salut! Sunderland’s 10th birthday competition

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Jake: ‘ha’way Lads, this time’

 

There are two Salut! Sunderland competitions on the go.

Guess the Score in the match at West Brom and you could win your choice from these mugs – the inclusion of WBA-themed mugs indicating that Baggies are welcome to enter, too.  This posting is a signpost – you cannot post comments here – and you should go to the main Guess the Score article by clicking anywhere on this sentence if you want to have a go.

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Wrinkly Pete’s Crystal Ball: on course for survival, oddly enough, despite Stoke

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Peter Lynn, aka Wrinkly Pete

Before the Stoke game, “Wrinkly Pete” Lynn calculated the points Sunderland might pick up from the rest of the season and concluded, perhaps generously, that we would snatch survival once again – even if we lost to Stoke, which we duly did and in style (what kind of style would require the sort of bad language Salut! Sunderland tries to avoid).

Using that article as his template, and then adding progress reports, Pete proposes periodic updates to let us all know how each result affects his prognosis. It could end in tears. Whether those tears are of joy or distress remains to be seen …

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