SAFC NASA

Salut asks – Who is Sunderland’s secret admirer?

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followed around the world

John McCormick writes: I had some time to kill this morning, waiting for the miserable weather to ease up, and got the computer out to check my premium bonds (I hadn’t won) and order hoover bags. I never did order the bags because I got distracted by the little red counter at the top of the Salut home page. To you it might be just a number ticking towards the 3.5 million mark but I, with a password, can go a bit deeper. And what did I find when I did that? Only that we have a secret admirer.

Who is it? I don’t know for certain, but surely there can be only one answer:

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I’ve seen Man United fall, now I’m off to Montreal, Martin Bates, Martin Bates

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Excuse the coat. It was freezing
Excuse the coat. It was freezing

John McCormick writes: I’m not sure if the title line will make sense to you but when I was putting it up a song was going through my head and I thought…

“…why not, Martin Bates deserves a bit of appreciation”.

The only problem is I couldn’t fit Toronto in, so he’ll have to make do with Montreal.

Here’s the final part of Martin’s trilogy. By now he should have have winged his way back across the Atlantic but, after this game, he probably didn’t need a plane. What a send off.

Hope you enjoyed the trip, Martin, and thanks for the reports.

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Unanswered questions about Advocaat’s future squad as Sunderland face Aston Villa

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For no really good reason, except that it’s Friday and no one ever seems to write for these pages on Fridays, let’s give another well-deserved boost to the excellent lads and lasses of the SAFC Supporters’ Association branch in North America – SAFC NASA for short.

Just before we get onto transfer talk, the photo gallery is from Martin Bates, one of the Out West supporters who kept Salut! Sunderland in the loop during the pre-season tour.

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Sunderland Out West: a stiffer test looms against Pachuca from Mexico’s Premier

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Jesse
Jesse Burch

So Sacramento Republic move offstage and CF (that’s FC to us) Pachuca are ushered on from the wings. Paul Pattison, from the Sunderland AFC North American Supporters’ Association (and long before that from Annfield Plain), did sterling – or should that be top-dollar – work before and after the defeat at Sacramento. Now Jesse Burch – appropriately an actor and as through-and-through American as the name suggests – takes a bow, introducing himself and the second match of SAFC’s North American tour, when the Lads return to Sacramento’s Bonney Field stadium to take on a club founded by British miners, tin not coal, in the capital of Mexico’s Hidalgo state, in honour of whom Salut! Sunderland has dug out a clip of the marvellous Show of Hands song Cousin Jack …

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