SAFC

Supporting Arsène, Arsenal and Aaron. And, a little bit, Ryan.

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On the Ramsey/Shawcross affair, we still await the thoughts of Monty and Rupert, names that somehow seemed to personify posh London football support when they were announced on tannoy at Arsenal v Sunderland. Lots of others, notably Gooners, have had their say, however, and not least at Salut! Sunderland …

Just before the kickoff of Stoke v Arsenal, the TV screen (sound down) showed Arsène Wenger and my football-loathing wife started on about how much better dressed, better spoken, more intelligent, better everything he was than your usual football character.

She’s French so would say as much. But it’s a view that I happen, up to point, to share.

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Soapbox: where do we go from here?

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soapbox

Pete Sixsmith looked for something positive to say about the excruciating bore draw against Fulham. He looked, you will not be surprised to hear, in vain. You would do your own looking in vain if you wanted sharper analysis of our present malaise …

The gents’ toilets in the East Stand is a pretty good place to test the post match feelings of those refined and cultured Red and Whites who frequent that august structure. After a famous victory, it is buzzing with laughter and joy. After a humiliating defeat it is a place of doom and gloom. After horrible games like Sundays, it is a place of almost sepulchral quiet.

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SAFC 0 Fulham 0: Grand Central blues

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Colin Randall crowns a grand, pleasure-free day out at the Stadium of Light by sitting on a crowded Grand Central train stuck in the wilderness for more than three hours with no particular place to go


You know, said Lee, the man in the Wetherspoons pub before the game, I just have a feeling in my bones we’re going to beat them.

But didn’t Lee also think Aston Villa would win the Carling Cup, that Ryan Shawcross was a shade unlucky to be sent off and that the earth was very flat indeed?

In fact, isn’t Lee just the sort of optimist who’d convince himself the Grand Central train back down from Sunderland to Kings Cross would never in a million years manage to get stuck indefinitely behind a “failed train” in the middle of nowhere, allegedly between Huntingdon and Stevenage?

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Fulham or Aberdeen: will the real Lily Allen stand up?

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Once again, we wondered whether Lily Allen might be up for a contribution to our Who Are They? feature. Disregarding another Fulham fan who wrote in disparaging terms* to question her true allegiance – the Cottagers sic or Aberdeen – we duly invited her. With these results ,,,

Well, we put our questions to Lily Allen, famous for being a Fulham fan and probably game for such things … if only there wasn’t a brick wall in the shape of Murray Chalmers PR.

Last time we played Fulham, Murray’s charmer, Sarah, had a plausible excuse for a No: “Lily isn’t doing press.” (As if Salut! Sunderland could strictly speaking be called press, but we let that pass).

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Sunderland v Fulham: a star is born

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That’s cheating – the headline – because the star of SAFC is whoever, young or old, wins us three points at home to Fulham tomorrow. But Luke Harvey is a new star of Salut! Sunderland. He’s a poor deluded soul on two counts: he supports Sunderland (condemning him to a life of disappointment) and is a journalism student (no money in it unless he becomes Piers Morgan). No matter, he’s agreed to write for us to ease the burden on Pete Sixsmith and the ageing editor. This is Luke’s first offering (he may even add a photo later) …

Fulham bring me a lot of fond memories, not particularly as a Sunderland fan – but as a football fan in general.

They seem to embody everything I believe a football team should be about, a hard working and talented group who are lead by an experienced manager capable of masterminding a victory over any team.

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Who are you? We’re Fulham

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tizzard

On May 4 2006, Sunderland beat Fulham 2-1 in the last home game of the season, with Kevin Ball as caretaker manager. We were already doomed and all that was at stake was avoidance of the added humiliation of becoming the first team in English league history to fail to win a single tie at home all season. We do not have to go back quite as far now as we did then for the last Premier win (home or away): it was, of course, Nov 21 when we beat Arsenal and thought ourselves in clover.
Is Sunday to be our day? James Alexander Tizzard*, our undercover, non-Lily Allen Fulham fan discovered at the Cottage Corner fansite, thinks we will have to wait a little longer for our next victory. We should wish his team well tonight at Shakhtar Donetsk in the Europa League – and hope they’re too knackered to muster much of a challenge on Sunday …

Salut! Sunderland: As a Sunderland fan, I was embarrassed by our first half performance at Craven Cottage, and I know you all felt it was a 3-0 win dressed up as 1-0. Were you surprised at how bad we were?

At the start of the season, Sunderland looked like a side capable of pushing for Europe. The past two seasons you had dominated the games at our place so it was particularly suprising to witness such a poor first half display.

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Forget Arsenal, forget Nov 21 – Feb 20: concentrate on Fulham

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In the coming days, we’ll be hearing from a Fulham supporter – two, if Lily Allen’s publicity people pass Salut! Sunderland‘s questions on to her.
But for Sunderland supporters, it’s time to come to the aid of the club. Our fans deserve better than they’ve had to endure this season – and for most preceding seasons – but they also have a part to play in kickstarting the revival, says a (temporarily) mellowing Colin Randall …


Right. The defeat at Arsenal, hardly unexpected, is behind us. The terrible run of defeats and draws since we beat the Gunners in November is in the past, too. We’ve had our say, expressed our bitter disappointment and raised legitimate questions about the club, its management and its direction.

But that’s it. We now enter a spell of games at the Stadium of Light – four home ties with just one scheduled trip, a match at Aston Villa that their probable FA Cup progress tonight would put off – in which a combination of ability, commitment and – yes- luck would give our season a decent lift off.

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Gloom descends over the post-Arsenal dinner party

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niall


Arsenal fans** will probably not care a hoot, but this part of Salut! Sunderland hopes they have a championship to toast at the end of the season. As for us, the next few games, mostly at home, will define our season, admits Steve Bruce. In how many recent years have we heard a similar refrain? Is it time for Sunderland AFC – and perhaps especially Niall Quinn – to realise the extent to which our collective patience is being tested? …

Whatever they are not, Sunderland fans are realists.

No one looked at the arrival of Ellis Short as owner, or Steve Bruce as manager, and thought: “That’s it. A top four place is there for the taking. This season.”

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Soapbox: Bennett the bottler (ask any Arsenal or SAFC fan)

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Steve Bennett, not Salut! Sunderland‘s favourite referee by a long shot (even when we get his name right – see comments), so comprehensively annoys opposing sets of fans that he probably feels he must be getting something right. While Gooners bleat that he allowed our ruffians to hack away at their cultured elite, Sunderland supporters point to his failure to dismiss Fabregas for as clear a second yellow offence as could be imagined. Pete Sixsmith intensifies the war of words …

That’s the weekend games over, and incredibly, we have only dropped one place in the Race To Get Out Of The Premier League And Into the Championship Table. This is clearly not good enough, and Bruce must ensure that we lose the next four games so that we can join the Doncasters, Bristol Citys and Watfords of the footballing world.

If the world were turned upside down, that would be a distinct possibility. There appears to be a lemming like rush to get out of the top league as all the bottom eight teams bar one, lost – and that was West Ham, who beat Hull City, a fellow struggler.

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Soapbox: Arsenal here we come (be afraid)

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soapbox


Earlier in the season, it seemed we could pick up points against the top teams while underperforming against the rest. Now we just underperform against everyone. Or can we snatch victory – even in the shape of a draw – from the jaws of much predicted defeat at the Emirates tomorrow? Pete Sixsmith prepares for a long day ..

So, Saturday sees my first Sunderland away game of 2010. Having missed Chelsea (too expensive), Portsmouth in the Cup (preferred Roker Park, Stotfold in the FA Vase) and the midweek excursions to Goodison and Fratton Parks (thanks, PL Computer), I am back on the road at 6.30 am tomorrow, armed with Walkman, Guardian, book, reading light, pies and sandwiches, heading for Ashburton Grove in order to watch the third best team in the Premier League play the thirteenth.

Do I travel with any degree of optimism? Well, you have to hope, but I can’t really see anything coming of it. We have a reduced midfield and a defence that leaks more readily than an embittered civil servant. Recently, we have slung away eight points because of shoddy defending in the last 10 minutes. Had we held on for two of those games, we could be looking upwards at Fulham rather than downwards at Wolves.

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