Sam Allardyce

Norwich City Who are You?: squeaky bums when Sunderland come calling

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Jake: 'not for the squeamish'
Jake: ‘not for the squeamish’

SEE FULL INTERVIEW AT https://safc.blog/2016/04/the-norwich-city-interview-i-fear-sunderland-will-pull-it-off-again/
Malcolm Dawson writes…….where I agree with Big Sam is that Saturday’s game at Carrow Road is a “must not lose”. Where I disagree with him is that I do feel it is a “must win” fixture. Do the maths. If we lose we are virtually dead and buried. No argument. But a draw still leaves us 4 points behind the Canaries meaning we have to win our game in hand, get at least one more point than them in the remaining four fixtures and hope that should it all come down to goal difference our defeats are by smaller margins than theirs. A win not only puts us just one point behind with that extra game to play but will improve the GD.

Colin Randall flicked through the pages of his interweb contacts and found Gary Gowers, a die hard Norwich fan who maintains the tradition of excellent WAYs from East Anglia. A win for either side will virtually seal the Mags’ fate but I’m pretty sure, whilst wanting all three points both Alex Neil and Sam Allardyce would settle for a draw. Personally I’d rather be in Norwich’s position than ours but as Gary says it’s squeaky bum time this weekend. 

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Can Sunderland avoid relegation? Seven-in-a-row would make a Yes more likely

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Ye olde days
Ye olde days

Parts of Salut! Sunderland are a bag of nerves as the Tyne-Wear derby approaches. Six-in-a-row will count for nothing if Newcastle United end the run; even a draw may end up being insufficient depending on the result in WBA-Norwich on Saturday and, more important still, the outcome of Norwich’s forthcoming home games against both us and Newcastle. Here is an assessment of our chances, and how others rate them, from Noah Sparrow…

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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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SA’s Essay on Manchester City: no beating Hart, but let’s take heart

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Big Sam as Fred Flintstone
Big Sam as Fred Flintstone

Sam Allardyce strikes a sensible balance in his post-match e-mail, accepting the disappointment of another defeat but praising his team, especially the new boys, for a heartily encouraging performance. With all the talent at their disposal, Manchester City were reduced to playacting and blatant timewasting to preserve their lead. Anyone betting on a City victory at cash out betting sites would have been sorely tempted to cash in their winnings rather than count on the cruelly early lead surviving a second half in which Sunderland were the only side looking capable of scoring in the second half …

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Summer signings Coates and Borini to leave? Giving Ellis short shrift

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Malcolm Dawson writes……it’s a proven fact that we all feel better when our chosen football team is doing well and that poor on field results can bring disappointment and depression.

It may only be a game but football fans are stuck with their team. Some glory hunters might chop and change but the true supporter has no options. I was a fresher at college when Sunderland last won anything meaningful and now I’m only a couple of years away from a state pension.

Our first FA Cup win happened 17 years before I was born and the last League Championship Sunderland claimed was the year before that. Eighty years ago in fact. So success is not something we are used to.

Should we be doing better? Surely we should at least be doing as well as Stoke City, West Ham or Spurs. Surely we should be better than Watford, Southampton and Leicester City and no disrespect is intended towards those clubs. 1973 apart Sunderland AFC have been perennial underachievers, at least in our own eyes for eight decades now. Little windows of optimism have promptly been slammed shut again.

We all have views on the causes of our current malais but if he hasn’t already done so, maybe the owner of the club should take a long, hard look at his tenure in charge.

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