1992 and all that: Nathalie in red, her dad in, er, a gruesome away top
With her old man away in Budapest and relying on Pete Sixsmith’s very gratifying texts from the Stadium of Light, it would have been unfatherly to turn down Nathalie Randall‘s offer to write a piece on the match. She follows the style used by ESPN, where Sixer did the honours for the Hull game. Nathalie probably wants a Liverpool win this coming weekend, but she has a soft spot for her dad’s team, too …
Monsieur Salut writes: as many readers will know, I am off to Budapest for the weekend to celebrate my 45th wedding anniversary.
Whatever happens at the SoL on Saturday afternoon, I shall almost certainly have to rely on Pete Sixsmith’s texts to my mobile phone to make me happy or gloomy. I try to be philosophical, especially this early in a season, but it can be tough.
Before I go, let me remind those who have not necessarily been paying attention that it has been a good week on Salut! Sunderland.
This week’s Guess the Score is attracting plenty of entries, which is hardly surprising given
the importance of Saturday’s home game against Hull City. Bottom versus third-bottom is not the stuff of dreams for supporters of the brands – Man Utd/City/Chelsea/Arsenal etc – but it’s got the look of our Cup Final, or maybe the first of several.
There is, perhaps, another reason for the rush of interest: the quality of this week’s prize for whoever is first to predict the correct score.
All the lads and lasses of Budapest out on the town to celebrate a Sunderland win
Pete Sixsmith is not a man without romance. However, his idea of how to make perfect a romantic wedding anniversary weekend in Budapest – a choice of football games – is not necessarily one Madame Salut would share and risks being overlooked. There is certainly romance in the idea of our beloved club whizzing over to Hungary for a major European cup competition. We did it once, way back in 1973, and our Pete was there, breezing through the Iron Curtain to witness splendid goals from Billy Hughes and Dennis Tueart. Let him set the scene for some powerful memories …
While perusing Sunday’s 16-page Observer Special on “Why The Donald Was Able To Seize The Hearts And Minds Of Millions Of Americans” I was disturbed by the phone. Fearing someone trying to convince me that installing solar power was a good idea (in Shildon? Really?) I answered it with a certain amount of trepidation.
Paul Summerside hoping for the season to take off in a big 3-0 sort of way
Paul Summerside offers another dollop of his usual upbeatery, though he has also been given to moments of doubt, to explain succinctly why Sunderland will beat Hull City and stop us all looking up road maps to Bristol, Barnsley and Burton for next season (truth be told, he’s as nervous as the rest of us) …
All season, many of us have watched in admiration some of Duncan Watmore’s approach play, his tenacity and his sheer enthusiasm only to be disappointed, as he clearly is, by the lack of end product.
That wasted final ball, the missed opportunity to shoot, the tendency to run a shade too far or let the ball roll beyond him – each of these has happened in games and a bright lad like Watmore did not need Monsieur Salut to tell him so.
So just click on the clip above and savour a moment of finesse he produced in an England Under 21 game.
Guess the Score has never been earlier. But then, there have not been many games as season-defining as Sunderland versus Hull City on Saturday.
Yes, I know we have said that kind of thing before, quite a lot over recent seasons, but this really is a vital test of whether our 2-1 win at Bournemouth was just a momentary, skin-of-the-teeth distraction from a Villa-style descent to the Championship – or the catalyst for instant revival.
Ask Jeremy ‘Clock Stand Paddock’ Robson where Sunderland play and he’ll say ‘Roker Park’
This replaces the original posting to take account one important update to the rules (see introduction). Any responses already received will be added as entries here …
Monsieur Salut introduces a sparkling new competition. The deadline for entries is Tuesday December 13 to give plenty of time for the prize seen above to be posted for Christmas (our many overseas readers may be interested to hear that there us no restriction on where you’d want it sent though we obviously cannot be sure of delivery times) …
And right, I have ripped up the rules. John McCormick, our inimitable associate editor, had chipped in with a great anecdote so I shall no longer require the help of other Salut! Sunderland codgers to judge entries and choose a winner. Everyone except me is eligible to enter …
Like it, the image above? Whether you remember starting your Sunderland-supporting days in that wonderful if ultimately decrepit stadium, or have only the handed-down memories of older relatives and acquaintances, Roker Park is a name that evokes pride, passion and history.
The excellent people behind a firm selling a wide range of conceptual prints and artwork, all marketed as products called Dorothy though no one there bears that name, have kindly agreed to put up one print as a prize.
During the close season we gave readers the opportunity to select their relegation favourites from the entire Premier league. Then we asked readers to select three candidates from the eight clubs which came top.
By the season’s start some 3,500 votes had been cast in our relegation poll
Hull were firm favourites to go down, with Burnley and Sunderland giving the North a full house. Watford weren’t far behind Sunderland, then came ‘Boro, Bournemouth and West Brom, followed by one hundred votes for “another club”and finally Crystal Palace, whose 67 votes (we got three times as many to become third favourites) must surely mean safety for them.
