SAFC

Manchester United: a questionable stand

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manu fans


Salut! Sunderland‘s spot of innocent fun on how to keep Alan Hutton at the Stadium of Light attracted nearly three times as many people to the site as will be allowed into the away end when we play Man Utd on May 9. All because United fans like to stand. Let us weigh up the arguments …

One thing needs to be clear. I’d prefer Manchester United to win the title. But success for Chelsea is a price I will happily pay for seeing Sunderland beat United as convincingly as we are able in our final home game.

Unlike many football supporters, I do not dislike Man Utd.

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Soapbox: suffering sponsors

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soapbox


What’s this, a new split in the Salut! Sunderland camp? The ink’s hardly dry on Colin Randall’s piece about Sunderland’s Tombola sponsorship, essentially saying it doesn’t matter too much what appears on our shirts (assuming we cannot just return to the good old days of red and white stripes, badge and each player’s number). Now Pete Sixsmith offers his dissenting view …

Unlike Colin, I do think shirt sponsors are quite important. They often give you a flavour of what a club is about. Until the Boylesports deal, all of our sponsors had been Wearside companies – Cowies, Vaux, Vardy’s and I was unaware that Tombola were a Sunderland based company until I read about them on the club site.

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Alastair Campbell on the Burnley legend who shocked even him

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alastair2


In the first part of Alastair Campbell‘s “Who Are You?” questionnaire ahead of Sunderland v Burnley this weekend, we heard of his unwavering commitment to the club, to the extent that the No 10 switchboard was under instructions not to bother him at games. The operators will have needed no further discouragement, if the film satire In The Loop was right in portraying him as a scary, foul-mouthed bully. “Oh, his swearing is much, much worse than that,” John Prescott said after seeing the film. But Alastair would say both – film and Two Jags – got him wrong; indeed, his sensitive side is revealed today as he recalls the day Gordon Harris left him flabbergasted. He recovers in time to predict an away win he can’t be there to see …

Salut! Sunderland: Are you conscious of the long history of rivalry between Sunderland and Burnley for the capture of North-eastern footballing talent (Burnley usually getting their way!), and of the links between the clubs (Jimmy Adamson being the obvious one)?

Yes absolutely. Gordon Harris was one of my earliest heroes. He was also the cause of one of my most shocking early memories. He came to take a throw in right in front of us and as he let the ball out of his hands, he let out a loud fart, and I turned to my brother and said I couldn’t believe Gordon Harris farted. Some of our greatest players came from the North East for one of the most obvious reasons – some of our greatest scouts were from there.

Gordon Harris:gordon harris: pictured with thanks to the Clarets Mad fan site**..

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Soapbox: Hammers wanted it more than we did

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soapboxYet another failure to build on a good home performance as we visit the tackiest stadium in the Premier League – at least until SJP makes an unwelcome return. Pete Sixsmith accepts that Zola’s Boys wanted it more than we did and is entertained by Neil Warnock on a long journey home.

The old maxim goes “After the Lord Mayor’s Show comes the dustcarts”. Presumably the dustcarts are there to pick up the rubbish left – and there was plenty to pick up after this apology of a Premier League game.

Last Saturday, we warmed to two teams who appeared to be able to make passes, create chances and right royally entertain a big crowd.

This Saturday we had to endure two teams who had difficulty in making accurate passes, created a handful of chances and drove a full house at Mockney Castle Park to frustration and boredom.

West Ham deserved to win the game because they wanted it a lot more than we did. Never mind the fact that Sunderland had sold their ticket allocation and that fans had had to make early starts to get there, there was the feeling amongst the travelling support that our players knew they were safe from relegation and that the gravy train would continue to call at their stations next year.

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Soapbox: when West Ham should have been one under the eight

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soapbox

Gnome’s had his say – not for the first time. Now it’s the turn of Pete Sixsmith to recall his relief that paper round money didn’t stretch to a particular football outing to London in the year of the Prague Spring, Martin Luther King’s assassination, student and worker revolt in France – and West Ham 8 Sunderland 0 …

Once upon a time, I considered living and working in London. In the 1970s, the leftward leaning ILEA was offering houses, cars and probably caviar and champagne for any teachers brave enough to face the capital’s schools.

I seriously considered it and decided that if I did take the plunge, I would watch West Ham as my “London” team. They were similar to Sunderland – a working class club, although without the history and tradition that attached itself to Roker Park.

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Who are you? We’re West Ham (1)

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gnome

Gordon Thrower*, known as Gnome at Knees Up Mother Brown, the West Ham fan site he co-edits, has his hair cut by the same barber used by our own Michael Turner. We’re sure his hairdresser is careful with the scissors, but Gordon should have had a sore head when answering our questions: it was the day after his own leaving do.
Any chance he’ll be wanting to drown his sorrows again on Saturday night after West Ham v Sunderland? Whatever the outcome, Gordon is mightily welcome back here after his epic contribution a couple of seasons ago, Great answers so we’ll spread them over two days …

Salut! Sunderland: What on earth has gone wrong at your place?

How long have you got!? Lack of money meant a lack of squad depth which cost us dearly when the inevitable injuries happened. Then, once the club finally got sold, or half sold anyway, a lot of players showed an alarming loss of form all at the same time. Worryingly, this includes those players charged with the responsibility of creating and scoring goals.

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Premier League duds – or a dud list?

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kieran

Here’s a team line-up with a difference: one man’s view of the worst players in the Premier League. One Sunderland regular, and one old boy, get nominations. The compiler gets an earful …

When a journalist runs out of things to say, he can always come up with a list. After all, Nick Hornby did it, over and again in High Fidelity, and made a fortune. So why not?

Justin Mottershead is a mature student in his final year of a journalism degree at City University London. He says he’s from Manchester and “obviously” loves United – the “obviously” is a little baffling to those of us who find the correlation not at all obvious – and his list is of the players he’d select for the Premier team from hell.

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Soapbox: shooting down Spurs (if not quite 6-1)

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soapbox


Pete Sixsmith was pulled up here by a Spurs fan (Telboy) for suggesting in his Observer match verdict that it could have ended Sunderland 6 Tottenham 1. What Telboy couldn’t have realised was the Pete also said it might have been 3-3 (that less sexy bit being cut out). We shouldn’t be greedy, but there’s no denying 6-1 was strictly speaking feasible (two missed pens, one disallowed goal) and would have been very nice indeed …

It crossed my mind to use “Broken nose Bruce slaughters Flannel faced ‘Arry” as my seven-word summary, but I felt this might upset the sensitivities of any passing Spurs fans, so decided on the more prosaic words you can find elsewhere on this site .

It was a wonderfully exciting game of football and if Ellis Short and Niall Quinn wanted to present any wavering renewers with a good reason for parting with a wad of money for next season, then this game provided perfect ammunition.

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Sunderland 3 Tottenham 1. Three sublime points

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dbent

A much-needed, well-won, heartstopping victory. Sunderland are just about safe now, barring a crazy run-in, and can even aspire to mid-table respectability. Here is an updated, edited version of our earlier attempts to offer running commentary (itself a rarity at Salut! Sunderland) …

This was a pulsating match and, in the end, an inspiring win. Darren Bent grabbed two goals before 30 minutes had passed, had a fabulous chance to score a hat trick before the interval and another chance afterwards, but twice had penalties well saved by Gomes.

After Peter Crouch made life uncomfortable by pulling Spurs one back, Zenden eased the nerves… and three more points were in the bag.

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