Southampton - SAFC Blog

The Southampton Soapbox: a useful point – or an indication of troubles ahead?

August 26, 2013 by Colin Randall

Not quite the scoreline Jake hoped for until the 88th minute — Not quite the scoreline Jake hoped for until 87 minutes had gone

John McCormick writes:
Fed up with dodgy feeds and determined to break the chain of causality which results in a Sunderland loss every time I stay in to watch them I thought about joining the 900 souls at Southport, where Gateshead were playing. Instead, though, I walked to Sefton Park with my wife and daughter to watch the Mersey Beatles, then the Brazilian Beatles, then the Mexican Beatles play from the repertoire of the original fab four. I found myself wondering what the score was and then wandered home to find we had drawn.Having therefore broken the chain I won’t be going to Palace so that we can keep our undefeated run going. Pete Sixsmith doesn’t think he’ll be at Palace either but he did go to Southampton. Here’s his report …

How dare we? Praising Poll attacks on Villa/Liverpool, Southampton/SAFC commentators

August 26, 2013 by Colin Randall

Jake suspects a fondness for making mischief

The latest in our occasional series that pokes Salut! Sunderland noses into the business of others …

Graham Poll was a referee whose apparent excess of self-confidence was often interpreted as arrogance. There was much gloating when his three-card trick – in fact it was one card, the yellow one he showed three times to Josip Šimunic of Croatia in the 2006 World Cup – signalled the end of his international career.

In truth, it was his decision to stand down, directly because of his error, and he refereed for only one further season in the Premier before retiring.

He now does an excellent and necessary job, commenting in the Daily Mail on controversial issues arising from match officials’ decision.

Le Parole di Paolo: punished late, hardly robbed, by Southampton

August 24, 2013August 24, 2013 by Colin Randall

Paolo Di Canio was honest enough after the Southampton game to admit in his post-match e-mail, exclusive to us and probably 35,000 others, that a win for Sunderland would have been fortunate. He did not explain why he finished a game with three strikers when we were desperately trying to defend a narrow lead …

Sixers’ Sevens: Southampton 1 SAFC 1 – so close to a snatched win

August 24, 2013August 24, 2013 by Colin Randall

This is the slot for Pete Sixmsith‘s instant verdicts on the great many Sunderland games he attends. An early lead from Emanuele Giaccherini’s header must have given Sixer hope that his pre-match pessimism was unwarranted. But 87 minutes of normal time, plus the extras, is an awful long time to defend a slender advantage. With possession squandered repeatedly and Saints applying more and more pressure, holding out proved beyond us. On the balance of play, it was hard to complain too loudly, Pete will be having his considered say later. For today, he’s happier with the draw than with what he saw …

Don’t do this to us, pleads Jake

(2013-2014)

August 24 2013 Southampton (0) 1 SAFC (1) 1

The point was better than the performance

August 17 2013 SAFC (0) 0 Fulham (0) 1 Ultimately little difference from previous two seasons

Southampton v Sunderland ‘Guess the Score’: Altidore or Osvaldo to shine?

August 22, 2013 by Colin Randall

Out of 13 entries, no one was disloyal or Fulham-supporting enough last week to predict the 1-0 defeat, or any defeat come to that.

So the prize mug rolls merrily forward. Are Paolo Di Canio’s men about to do on their first Premier League travels of the new season what they could not manage at home?

Southampton v SAFC ‘Who are You?’: exciting transfers, colour blindness, SuperKev’s goal vs Pompey

August 22, 2013August 21, 2013 by Colin Randall

Salut! Sunderland is delighted to announce the renewal of sponsorship by the US sportswear suppliers soccerpro.com for the new season’s “Who are You?” awards. More on that later. This week’s contender is Ben Gammon*, a Southampton fan and creator of the Go Marching In fan site. He expects a straightforward home win in Saints vs SAFC, acclaims Mauricio Pochettino’s ability to attract top players to St Mary’s, remembers a special SuperKev goal and laments the contempt for tradition shown by the club when launching its grim new home kit …

Jake says: 'Don't be fooled. These stripes have nothing to do with how the Saints look' — Jake says: ‘Don’t be fooled. These stripes have nothing to do with how the Saints look’

If it’s not Villa, Fulham or Southampton, or Newcastle or Sunderland, then it must be Wigan

June 17, 2013June 11, 2013 by Colin Randall

John McCormick: you know he makes nonsense — John McCormick: you know he makes non-sense

This is the final piece of a series I started around Christmas. It wasn’t intended as a series, it just turned out that way. Idle speculation about the importance of goal difference in the relegation dogfight led to the first post, in which I wrote “I’m going to stick my neck out and say that the five (from SAFC, the Mags, Villa, Wigan, Southampton and Fulham) whose goal differences show the greatest improvement in the second half of the season will avoid relegation, irrespective of their points on Boxing Day, and a consistent decline will point to the doomed team”.

Salut! Podcast: former Sunderland favourite Martin Smith talks Southampton and Tottenham

May 16, 2013 by Colin Randall

Are the cigars out? It’s a testament to how far the club has progressed in recent years that this season …

Southampton Soapbox: another wretched display puts Sunderland’s fate in Arsenal’s hands

May 13, 2013May 13, 2013 by Colin Randall

C'mon feel the gloom, says Jake — C’mon feel the gloom, says Jake

The cruel truth is that our season seems over. Sunderland inspire so little confidence that many, maybe most supporters feel at least they’ll know the worst by tomorrow night. In other words, Wigan fail to win and we survive, they win and we go down, since few consider Sunderland up to doing the job for themselves at Spurs. And no one would dare look to Villa for favours, though they’d go down on goal difference should all the ifs come together including us drawing at WHL. Pete Sixsmith has seen it all before. Will he pay to endure it again? …

Paolo’s Pow-Wow after Southampton debacle: ‘I needed more from my players’

May 12, 2013 by Colin Randall

So our Champions League final might as well have been an end-of-season jaunt. Southampton, clearly the better side without even being that good, will feel aggrieved at dropping two points. Sunderland survive for now but rely, in all rational probability, on Arsenal or Villa to maintain that survival. Paolo Di Canio knows the score as his post-match e-mail makes clear …