Well, a competition I feared would be ignored attracted some cracking responses.
How, I asked, do you caption the following photograph? It was taken by Rob, all round good man and inspiration for this little contest (he suggested it, having snapped the hapless, lifeless magpie in his office car park) …
Who said of Bob Murray: “I absolutely worship him. He’s quite wonderfully good, and has an amazing way of making you feel part of a very special family. He lives and breathes that club. I was watching him (at a Spurs v SAFC game) and you could see that every kick, every movement of the game was etched on his body. He has effectively poured his life into the club. The most ardent fan of Sunderland AFC hasn’t a quarter of the commitment Bob has got”? It was Lord (David) Puttnam, filmmaker extraordinaire, “second club” supporter of Sunderland and clearly a man to whom Murray is mint. Lord Puttnam will be thrilled at news that Bob is to be Sir Bob.
Pete Sixsmith offers a more measured view …
Once again, I was disappointed to see my name missing from the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. I thought an OBE for services to the drinks industry or an MBE for services to supporting Sunderland AFC might have been in order, but apparently not.
Seen enough manifestos to last a liftetime, or at least until Cameron is forced to call another election? Well, here’s another all the same. “Gizza job, I can do that,” says Pete Sixsmith, putting on Yosser Hughes’s best suit to be interviewed for the vacancies left by Lord Triesman’s tumble from grace …
Once again, the Football Association is plunged into turmoil as fearless hacks from the Mail On Sunday uncover Chairman Triesman as a xenophobic ranter, accusing Russia and Spain/Portugal as being in cahoots over the 2018 World Cup bid.
Lord Triesman’s capacity for suspecting foul play has spread. Was our competition result fixed to ensure some reflected Mackem glory? Where’s Melissa Jacobs, and the transcript of her text messages, when you need her? Writs may follow …
The first stone has been thrown.
From one Dewsburywolf, at the Molineux Mix site, comes the first challenge to the integrity of the four wise men who judged Salut! Sunderland’s glittering Who Are You? competition and, on an aggregate of their votes, awarded the prizes to 1) Manchester City 2) Hull City and 3) Wolverhampton Wanderers.
With their Bunsen burners and experiments with mercury, chemistry teachers tend to be men (and women) of few words who know how to get quickly to the point with a minimum of fuss.Bob Chapman lives up to the stereotype with a short but impeccably presented summary of our season, straying from the path of science only to borrow plus and minus signs from his maths colleagues …
As a school teacher I have just finished writing a series of reports for my A level Chemistry group who are all off to University this coming autumn.
It was an easy task as they already have enough marks and with a couple of exams to go should be successful come summer. The grades they achieve will match their ability. However writing this report for Sunderland has been so much more difficult. The grade we achieved did not match our ability!
Jeremy Robson may be in Canadian exile but he keeps fellow subscribers to the estimable Blackcats forum entertained with his trenchant thoughts on everything from the possible shelf-installing skills of Daryl Murphy to the competing merits of obscure rock bands. For his contribution to our series of end-of-season reviews, Jeremy chose to conduct a time and motion study on John Mensah since his arrival on loan from Lyon. His conclusions are illuminating …
Highs and lows. Peaks and troughs. The agony and the ecstasy. Great triumphs and complete humiliations.
Sixer’s Sevens is Pete Sixsmith‘s pithy summing up of each Sunderland game. Sixer does not mince his words; his seven-word verdict has not always made for pretty reading. Let’s hope for a run of upbeat Sevens inspired by Steve Bruce’s much strengthened squad. The verdict is posted as soon as possible, but be tolerant of any delay. An asterisk denotes a “holding” preview/verdict pending arrival of Sixer’s own or one from a supersub (Colin Randall or Malcolm Dawson). …
Since the mini-run started …
May 9 2010 Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 (1) Sunderland (1) 1 Deeply disappointing finale lacking quality and determination
May 2 2010 Sunderland (0) 0 v Manchester United (1) 1 Good performance bodes well for next season
Apr 24 2010 Hull City (0) 0 Sunderland (1) 1 Good to win away but a horrible game
Apr 17 2010 Sunderland (2) 2 Burnley (0) 1Comfortable win but edgy at the end
Apr 10 2010 West Ham 1 (0) Sunderland 0 (0) Yet another disappointing away performance. Deserved nothing
Apr 3 2010 Sunderland (2)3 Tottenham Hotspur (0) 1Absolutely tremendous game and a great win
Mar 28 2010 Liverpool (2) 3 Sunderland (0) 0 Well beaten by a far better side
Mar 24 2010 Aston Villa (1) 1 Sunderland (1) 1 Excellent performance from a well balanced side*
Mar 20 2010 Sunderland (2) 3 Birmingham City (0) 1 Magnificent Gordon’s heroics ensure three vital points
Mar 14 2010 Sunderland (1) 1 Man City (0) 1 Very frustrating: this performance deserved a win
Mar 9 2010 Sunderland 4 (1) Bolton 0 (0) Comfortable in the end – what a relief
Feb 28 2010 Sunderland (0) 0 Fulham (0) 0 Well, at least we got a point
Before the mini-run …
No Sunderland player will need lifting for this one. We have played well against all the top clubs at home this season – and we came within an ace of winning at Old Trafford. Free from relegation stress, playing for pride and a top 10 finish, we can confound the received wisdom that this is an away banker.
Salut! Sunderland came across Justin Mottershead, United fan and football blogger*, when he named Kieran Richardson, just entering his best form of the season, in his worst Premier League XI. Who better, then, to star in our last-but-one Who Are You? feature of the season? Justin sees Kieran scoring the winner (sadly an own goal) but accepts that even this wouldn’t be enough to take the title back to Old Trafford …
Salut! Sunderland: So let’s get this out of the way: who will end up as the top four, in order, and – somewhat easier now than when the question was posed – bottom three?
Chelsea, United, Arsenal and Spurs. Pompey, Burnley and Hull.
Chelsea will win then title because Liverpool reserves will lie down and die, like Benitez and everyone else associated with the club wants them to. Spurs will get fourth just so Kia Joorbachian can sell Tevez to someone else in Europe and wipe the smile off the bitter blues faces.
Pete Sixsmith worries about the lack of a Spurs angle (yesterday’s throwaway on the Hon Alan Hutton inexplicably drew in readers in their thousands, albeit mostly from Tottenham’s tower blocks). But he still manages to capture the essence – and the fight for half-time chips – of a satisfying night with the reserves …
Monday night reserve games always bring back waves of nostalgia for the Reidy days when it looked like we had made the breakthrough as a serious contender in the Premier League.
