Pete Sixsmith felt cheated. Not because he believes Gus Poyet or the team deliberately lost, but because he was obliged to sit through a dreadful display against moderate opponents that exposed glaring weaknesses in the squad. We must all hope to find him in better spirits at tea-time six days from now …
Gary Clark‘s* answers to the Salut! Sunderland questionnaire are long by any standards and it seemed like a good idea to split the interview into two rather than expect people to plough through 2,500 words or more in one go. Read Part One here – https://safc.blog/2014/02/sunderland-vs-hull-city-who-are-you-is-allam-becoming-mike-ashley/– and now sit back to enjoy the rest of the Q+A, including an amusing reference to the respective goalkeeping qualities of Tony Norman and Ian Hesford – and why Raich Carter, son not ghost, will be in the away end on Saturday …
Despite the battering it got at Ready to Go’s SMB forum last week – people taking against what I thought was a fine Newcastle United ‘Who are You?’ – this series is something I am proud of; I am deeply grateful to all those who give their time to participate.
And I trust my Hull City friends will excuse this week’s provocative headline. In fact, it reflects one of the questions put to Gary Clark*, City fan extraordinaire and author of two books charting his club’s historic seasons, From Boothferry to Wembley and This Is The Best Trip…. . He’s been this way before but, ahead of an important match for both clubs, is mightily welcome back, even at the great length he has chosen for his answers (so much so that I have decided to split it up and run Part Two tomorrow). Only thing is, we must all hope he’s a bit down in the dumps on the road back to Humberside …
Tempting providence or not, Lars Knutsen feels Steve Bruce may be left with egg on his Newcastle-supporting, Sunderland-phobic face after missing a fair few grand opportunities to shut up with his whining …
The idiocy of much football reporting is illustrated by what Sky Sports made of a simple, unconvincing question and answer with Steve Bruce after Hull’s penalty shootout defeat at Spurs.
Welcome to another outstanding edition of ‘Who are You?’ as Sunderland prepare to visit Hull for the crucial follow-up to derby joy. This is a bit out of sequence given Hull’s return to Spurs tonight (league cup) but other commitments mean that can’t be helped. Ian Waterson,* editor of the Hull City fanzine City Independent and a frontrunner in the campaign to preserve the club’s name as Hull City AFC rather than change to Hull Tigers as the owner wants, bears a proud Hull name of his own, one shared by the original members of the Watersons folk group (Norma and her late siblings, Lal and Mike). Ian turns out to be a ‘very distant relation’; it’s a little like the Sunderland connection that means any Wearside family called Morris may also be among Monsieur Salut’s “very distant relations” …
So who’s next? Will Ellis Short stick with Bally or go for one of the candidates we’ve seen mentioned – for example Gus Poyet, Rene Meulensteen, Gianfranco Zola and Stuart Pearce – or someone else entirely? Whoever it is, we should expect it to mean work for the Sunderland-born, Sunderland-supporting artist Owen Lennox, who now describes his labour of love …
In the 83/84 season when Alan Durban was the manager, Sunderland made an important signing, Chris Stevens. Rarely had Roker Park seen such artisty. Not since the board had commissioned the Hemy painting that now hangs majestically in reception at SoL had the club invested in so much money in art. Chris Stevens was appointed as artist in residence on a year’s contract valued at £7,000.
John McCormick writes: In a response to one of my posts Sobs wondered if it might be possible to use substitutions and tactical changes to rate our managers. No chance, I thought, as I headed off to Spain. But, one baking hot day, when I was idly contemplating the frothy, chilled bottles calling my name from the fridge and wondering if it was too early, Sobs’s comment came back to me out of the blue. I began to wonder how we might compare managers. What stats would be needed, what would someone look for?
John McCormick writes: Monsieur Salut has still not returned so I’m continuing my sojourn as assistant editor, which once again allows me to introduce a guest writer. Those of you who followed the account of my journey to Hillsborough in ’73 will know that I was at Hull University at the time. In those days Hull City were a nondescript team playing in nondescript Boothferry Park, which I last visited in 1973 or 4, when they beat an equally nondescript (but cupholding) Sunderland 2-0.
How things have changed. We’re an established top-league team with a top class stadium and Hull, with an even newer stadium, have now returned to the Premiership to join us
Now this is not John McCormick at his most upbeat – not, at any rate, at the start of his review of the season so far. He’s been comparing and contrasting statistics again and what he comes up with would scare the living daylights out of most Sunderland supporters – if he hadn’t also identified a great SAFC tradition of making a nonsense, one way or the other, of the early season numbers …