Pete Sixsmith doesn’t intend to spend the summer moping about our most recent relegation.
He intends to spend the summer moping about all of our relegations.
As he puts it: ‘Relegation Number 10 so lots of memories to ramble on about as our season rambles to an end. So depressing……’
Monsieur Salut writes: the London and SE branch of the SAFC Supporters’ Association has just reached 50 years of age. In common with many who leave Sunderland-supporting parts of the North East to ply their trades in and around the Smoke, I eventually got round to joining the branch after seeing numerous mentions in the matchday programmes of various London clubs where I had attended away games. I’d put my membership at around 30 years, but I could and should have joined sooner, since I moved south a few months before the 1973 FA Cup Final. Plenty have done much longer stretches. Step forward Ian Todd, who was largely instrumental in creating the branch 50 years ago and has been a tireless mainstay of its activities.
Special events are planned, with a get-together and buffet at the Stadium of Light on the evening we play West Ham on April 15 – open to members, past members and their guests – and, on the eve of the final game at Chelsea, at the Knights Templar near Chancery Lane, London (all-comers welcome; many will recall the splendid pre-League Cup final gathering there in 2014). Check out details at weardownsouth.com and now read what Ian had to say in a piece headlined ‘It’s all my fault’ in the new edition of the excellent branch newsletter, Wear Down South …
Time to give readers a tap on the shoulder and remind them to come up with an entry in our Things We Do For Love contest.
You see the prize above – a magnificent print of Roker Park – and we have already had some excellent entries which can be seen at the earlier posts: https://safc.blog/category/salut-competition/ – and Monsieur Salut’s work will have his work cut out when he gets round to choosing a winner.
To enter our competition and have a chance of winning the above print, please note this post has been superseded. …
Our cherished former manager Lawrie McMenemy may have apologised before for all I know for his part in dumping Sunderland AFC into the Third Division. He’s at it again (or should that be for the first time?). Who can remember those relegation playoffs against Gillingham without wincing, whether they were present or following from afar? And who can forget the nasty taste left in the mouth by McMenenemy’s rotten reign? …
There are games that leave some of us wondering whether we’ve gone completely mad just by attending. But there are fans who cannot get enough. Pete Sixsmith was in that latter category until he finally joined the Club of 92. Now he’s done it all. Where does he go from there? …
There’s no football this weekend after our recent debacle at home to Bolton so, just to keep things ticking over …
What is the first chant you remember hearing at Roker Park, or which early chant or song has lingered longest in the memory? The Fulwell singing along to the chorus of the Monkees’ I’m a Believer doesn’t count.
Two great pieces in today’s newspapers retrace Martin O’Neill’s steps as he follows a boyhood dream and goes in search of the Roker Park of the club he supported from the other side of the Irish Sea. Both are riveting reads.
Pete Sixsmith looks back on our new manager’s solitary appearance as a player at Roker Park – and wonders whether his teacher’s pension would run to buying the famous Roker Pie Shop …
Martin O’Neill’s inaugural press conference and his mention of King Charlie Hurley, gave Tyne Tees Television the opportunity to dust off the old Shoot files and run a couple of clips of Hurley scoring goals in front of a packed Roker End. It made me all rheumy-eyed and weak at the knees for Roker Park and all that it represented.