Not all readers of Salut! Sunderland will agree. But I shall say it anyway. Sunderland AFC, whether in the hands of Ellis Short, a Chinese consortium or the return of a Drumaville or even Sir Bob Murray, should stick with David Moyes.
Only Peter Reid and Lee Clark, and perhaps whoever served them at the Yarm Country Club, know for sure whether it really took five shared bottles of champagne to persuade the Wallsend-born midfielder to join Sunderland from his beloved Newcastle United.
That is what I recall Reid saying happened in an interview at the time. But whatever the truth of the 1997 booze-up recruitment meeting, it will come as little surprise to Sunderland supporters that Clark now regards the move as a mistake.
Having helped us to promotion, he then chose to wear a t-shirt bearing the slogan “Sad Mackem Bastards” at the 1999 FA Cup final, which he attended as a NUFC fan (they lost to Man Utd).
Malcolm Dawson writes……….Pete Sixsmith is used to getting up early, what with next door but one’s dog to walk and the papers to deliver to the great and good of Shildon, so catching the coach to West Ham was no hardship. Watching the match might have been but for 94 minutes it looked like he could have been celebrating a 50 per cent improvement in our points total on the long journey home. That he wasn’t isn’t a novelty, but still he goes along most weeks to bring you his insightful views of how the Lads performed. Here’s what he rattled off before journeying forth to take in the Under 23s’ match this lunchtime.
Rob Hutchison thought this display was much better than last week’s dismal showing at Stoke but the net result is the same – nul points. After an hour of decent play, a few seconds of switch off in the 94th minute let the Hammers drive another nail in the Sunderland coffin. As Rob says ‘same old, same old’ …
While the missus watched X Factor – and why not? – Rob Hutchison sat down, tried to forget the disappointment of Sunderland’s last-gasp defeat at West Ham and put into writing his thoughts on a first footballing visit to the London Stadium…
Monsieur Salut writes: I had another good stream, poor Pete Sixsmith was there as usual. We came back from an abysmal start, had the best chance of the game Khazri) and then lost in the dying seconds. Reid’s shot was from a long way out but two West Ham players were standing in offside positions ahead of Jordan Pickford. Interfering? Looked like it in one case. Nitpicking? Maybe – and I certainly think referee Bobby Madley had an outstanding game. Another defeat but, like Sixer, whose customary seven-word verdict you see below, I feel we deserved a point …
What a busy lad Pete Sixsmith is. Not content with his paper round, Father Christmas duties (planning starts tonight) and gracing the pages of Salut! Sunderland, The Observer and ESPN, he finds time to answer questions for fan sites such as Claret and Hugh, friendly Hammers folk who have helped us out, too. Here’s what Pete made of their questions …
Over at Salut! Sunderland’s Facebook pages, Jim Minton posted a message saying how much he liked the Who are You? interview with David Blackmore, editor of the West Ham fan site Blowing Bubbles.
‘He seems pretty sensible and I agree with most of what he says,’ Jim wrote, ‘Don’t know yet whether many West Ham fans have picked up that lots of other supporters now dislike them a bit more than they used to – which is a shame because I’ve always thought of them as a proper club with good fans.’
Jim’s point, and the occasion of Sunderland’s first visit to the little-loved London Stadium, seemed a good excuse to hark back six years to a piece by Pete Sixsmith, prior to a game at Upton Park …
Keeping goal is sometimes a thanked task but, as often, a thankless task. Humans err and this applies to goalkeepers at all levels, as Monsieur Salut and Pete Sixsmith can confirm from personal experience, albeit long ago. Sixer now describes how what happened to us down the rec (Shildon’s splendid recreation ground) or on the playing fields of King James I Grammar and Woodhouse Close Sec Mod can also happen to a Portuguese pro …
West Ham have been in disarray, hardly on our scale but bad enough with a poor start to the season and lots of unhappiness about the London Stadium. Who better to ask about all this than David Blackmore*, editor of Blowing Bubbles (Twitter: https://twitter.com/WestHamMagazine. He thinks the club will eventually get it right on both counts – but fears for our Premier League;’s tenure …