John McCormick writes: To read the above in our manager’s post-match missive* you might think we went down 5-6 to Bayern Munich or Real Madrid after storming their barricades for 90 minutes.
The truth is somewhat different as we once again failed to score or keep a clean sheet against mediocre opposition.
At least he gets it right about the fans:
Pete Sixsmith today witnessed his ninth relegation. He and Monsieur Salut were both around for the one before that, Sunderland’s first, but just too young to have formed their lifelong allegiance, one that – promotions and an FA Cup win apart – has been a largely unrequited love. Come back for more – Sixer’s immediate verdict appears below but will write more fully and, as most readers know, is eloquent win, lose or draw. As for the game, we created a lot of chances but never really looked like taking them while Bournemouth were more composed throughout …
#SAFC v #AFCB "Ah, you are assuming he has a gameplan?" A sceptical Pete Sixsmith from @salutsunderland speaks https://t.co/WGqup3ZvQW pic.twitter.com/BklLZognk4
— The South End (@TFTSE) April 28, 2017
Steve Menary, a Bournemouth ‘Who are You?’ interviewee last season, asked if we could reciprocate by answering a few questions for his Tales from the South End site. Pete Sixsmith was pressganged into service …
So has our Wrinkly one, who also answers to Peter Lynn, finally seen the light staring back at him from his imaginary crystal ball?. We regret to say he has. Scroll down for the updated predictions and his thoughts on a grand evening out to Middlesbrough. Well, the company was good, not to mention fish and chips at Wetherby and slices of Mrs Wrinkly Pete’s cake …
NB: this appears slightly out of sequence ahead of Pete Sixsmith’s report from the Riverside, where the poor man witnessed …
Malcolm Dawson writes….Pete Sixsmith is the most resilient of the Salut! Sunderland regulars. While M Salut was tied up entertaining long distance relatives, John McCormick was fighting his own relegation battle in the Merseyside Chess League or whatever and I was occupied in my post retirement part time career opportunity in Lytham St Annes, Pete was at the Riverside suffering ……again! His seven word summation suggests that he and our manager differ in their opinions as to how tonight’s match went if this post match e-mail is anything to go by…
Pete Sixsmith will have more to say, here and standing in for Monsieur Salut at ESPNFC, but this is his immediate post-match verdict on another wretched defeat, once again when facing fairly poor opposition. Some folk were clinging to the straw of a possible West Ham demotion after today’s HMRC raids. They won’t be now. I am told Gary Bennett had this to say on radio: ‘I tell you what… no, I can’t tell you anything. I’ve got nothing to say’. Sixer thought we deserved a point from as dismal a game as you’ll encounter. As Jake said in his caption above, ’nuff said’ …
Forgive Monsieur Salut for feeling down. How can a Sunderland supporter be otherwise?
The poor response, in terms of readers, to yesterday’s pre-match package, a very good ‘Who are You?’ and another prize Guess the Score, suggested lots of us have simply lost interest.
We remain fans of the only club we’ve properly supported but we feel cheated at the same time. The club has let us down in a big way. We may well fear, as did our Boro interviewee, for life in the Championship. But here, for what it is worth, is my preview of the Tees-Wear derby for ESPNFC, cleverly headlined ‘Last Rites for Sunderland as relegation looms into view’ …
Let’s not beat about the bush. Wrinkly Pete’s rose-tinted crystal ball couldn’t save us and nor could my sister and her family’s Boro passions save them from the drop. We are both going down, leaving little more than pride – and avoidance of bottom place – at stake at the Riverside on Wednesday.
The maths are simple enough. We lose at Boro and Hull need only a win and draw from four games – even allowing for goal difference changes – to send us down. Say they drew two and lost two; we’d still have to win five of our six remaining games and hope Swansea and Boro didn’t stand in our way.
So Sunderland are effectively two defeats from relegation, one if Hull were to win just one more game and goal differences remained much as now. Middlesbrough are not much better off. In other words, both clubs are doomed to the Championship with only the mathematics left to complete. Dogs in this predicament are usually put out of their misery, but we have to await the formalities of our demise. Catherine Wilson*, our Boro interviewee and bassist/vocalist with ‘North London’s favorite grungey-indie superdupergroup’ Paintings of Ships, has accepted the inevitable, a relegation perhaps sealed by chairman Steve Gibson’s unwise loyalty towards Aitor Karanka …