Southampton

Sunderland’s Desert Island Discs – Wrinkly Pete’s playlist

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Peter Lynn: a musical theme for every moment
Peter Lynn: a musical theme for every moment

John McCormick asks: Do you remember, at least three managers back, so it must be years and years (or perhaps 18 months) ago, when I did an end of season piece about the songs that made the season. Now Peter Lynn, aka Wrinkly Pete, has picked up the theme with his own version of Desert Island discs. In keeping with the programme he has picked eight songs that  have special meaning for him, and maybe for other supporters.

Were you there? Did you sing? Or do you have other songs that bring back memories? In his e-mail to the boss Pete suggested others might give us their favourites. Why not give it a go?

Now, over to Pete:

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Sixer’s Sevens: SAFC 0 Southampton 1. Simply not good enough

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Jake: catch Sixer's instant seven-word verdicts throughout the season
Jake: catch Sixer’s instant seven-word verdicts throughout the season


Monsieur Salut writes: For starters, Newcastle’s win was probably good for us as Bournemouth are more likely than the Mags to drop heavily into the bottom three. But with performances as limp as the one that deservedly failed to avoid defeat against Southampton, it may not matter in the end. Pete Sixsmith was deeply unimpressed by our play and by the reckless stupidity of Yann M’Vila’s challenge that gave the Saints their penalty winner. It was a pretty depressing show and Sam Allardyce will have to accept that playing ugly is all very well for a team in trouble if you are still able to get something from the game. As Gary Bennett said in the BBC radio commentary we are just not good enough to sit back and defend, hoping to snatch a result ..

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Southampton ‘Who are You?’: Sunderland are in his blood but ‘need’ relegation

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Jake: 'another win's sorely needed, Sam'
Jake: ‘another win’s sorely needed, Sam’

Connor Armstrong* passionately supports Southampton but, as his surname might suggest, has North-Eastern family roots. An uncle supports SAFC and his father is also from County Durham though he appears to have become a Saints man whatever his footballing allegiance in earlier life. Connor, a football writer who also dabbles in media duties for Southend United (catch him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ConnorArmstrong), was convinced SAFC were heading for relegation until a couple of weeks ago and still wonders whether it might be the best outcome even for us. It’s a fascinating set of replies. Read on …

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SAFC v Southampton prize Guess the Score: light after the Goodison gloom?

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Jake: 'make us forget the Halloween horror at Everton, Lads'
Jake: ‘make us forget the Halloween horror at Everton, Lads’

This is your chance – whoever you support – to Guess the Score in SAFC vs Saints, be first to get it right and win a prize …


It was already a massive test. Southampton are seventh for a reason just as there is no mystery as to why Sunderland are second bottom.

Our Saints “Who are You?” interviewee* wonders whether Sunderland actually need to go down “to gut the squad and have a decent crack at rebuilding … a risky game, as many can testify”.

The best response is the one Big Sam has been appointed to deliver. And we know from experience that a rotten result is not necessarily followed by another (though we can usually predict one with some accuracy after a derby win).

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Diving for glory. Is blaming foreigners jingoistic piffle, or sadly spot-on?

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Tom Webb
Tom Webb

Salut! Sunderland has been banging on for years about diving, the feigning of injury, unprofessional attempts by players to get opponents booked or sent off and other forms of cheating. The issue is raised with every “Who are You?” interviewee and I can think of only one or two who said too much fuss was made of it.

But should we really accept that British players are largely blameless, or that they were until they caught the nasty habits of Johnny Foreigner?

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Taylor Made: a BBC football version of This is Your Life

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Bill Taylor gets lost in stats
Bill Taylor gets lost in stats

Bill Taylor came across a nifty new BBC tool allowing fans of all Premier League teams to calculate their clubs’ performance during their lifetimes. Fellow Sunderland supporters – and others – are invited to have a go and report back any interesting findings …

There’s no evidence to support this, but George Santayana, the Spanish/American writer and philosopher, COULD have been at Wembley in 1937 to see Sunderland clobber Preston North End 3-1 in the FA Cup. Santayana was certainly in Europe at the time.

And the saying he’s most famous for could well be applied to the Black Cats and their long-suffering fans: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

For those of us who have trouble remembering what happened last week, let alone a few decades ago, the BBC’s football website has unveiled a magical new tool to jog our memories.

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Revitalise the Premier: expand Chelsea, Manchester, Arsenal hierarchy, send bottom six down

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Jake: 'but will this work for us?'
Jake: ‘but will this work for us?’

Ordinary Jon, aka Jon Adamson, Sunderland supporter and football blogger******, was bored rigid by the vaunted Premier League last season. Even our customary great escape left him feeling there’d been only two or three SAFC games worth remembering and that ours wasn’t even the great escape anyway. His recipe for making life at the top more exciting, and life at the bottom more troublesome, follows. It will suit some appetites, it may cause acute indigestion and it could be too tongue-in-cheek to win votes on Come Dine With Me. Bland fare it is not …

The dullest season since the Premier League began suggests radical action is required. Here’s a five point plan to bring some excitement back into the beautiful product.

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