The annual Salut! Sunderland HAWAYs, modest prizes awarded to opposing supporters who are judged by our panel to have been the best interviewees of the season, will be announced early next week.
But now we need new contenders for the 2016-2017 awards.
Salut! Sunderland’s deputy editor Malcolm Dawson shrugs off the torpor of the early close season, pre-transfer window, pre-fixures list and all, and considers what seems to be going right, and what more he’d like to see, in the world of Sunderland AFC …
Back in 1939/40 at the outbreak of World War 2, the whole of Britain was on tenterhooks waiting for an invasion that never came. It became known as “the phoney war”.
Here in the summer of 2016, the celebrations of Sunderland fans relieved at a 17th place finish, may not have been on a par with those on VE Day but were pretty impassioned nonetheless. For some the fact our survival condemned our local rivals only added intensity to the festivities.
Pete Sixsmith rightly and as ever closed the end-of-season reviews with his excellent piece on Friday. But there’s always one straggler and it would be unfair to deny Rob Hutchison a postscript, especially since he concentrates more on individual performances in an extended version of his customary one-word, one-mark ratings after matches he attended or managed to watch …
Rob says: ‘Sadly, I was away on holiday as we travelled the road to safety… a rather late look at the players and their full season ratings . . . I’m sure I’ve missed one or two, and no, let’s not bring Santi home.’ Monsieur Salut says: ‘Harsh on Yedlin. Otherwise, mostly ageed.’
Once again, the full series can be season at https://safc.blog/category/end-of-season-reviews-2016/
Michael Robinson is always happy when cricket returns, not least because it means Sunderland’s woes are over or close to over for another season. He contributed a review of last season and returns with some whimsical thoughts on this year’s winning race to avoid the drop …
Rudyard Kipling went to Chicago and considered it an abomination: ‘I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages.’ It serves Geoff Hiron* OK all the same. Born near Vicarage Road, he has made his home in the Windy City while remaining loyal to his roots and his football club. Salut! Sunderland spotted his nom-de-guerre – Harry Hornet – in Comments posted after mentions of his team and asked him to handle the last Who are You? of the season. Here are his responses. I like Geoff’s replies, and that is not just because he likes us. What Kipling made of Watford may or may not be recorded …
For one last time this season, Guess the Score.
It might have mattered a great deal. It no longer does except for the very good reason that the massive travelling support, and the massive home support when it comes to it, richly deserve the added fillip of ending the season in style/
Here’s the place to have your fun. Subject to the usual rules of decency and legality, use the Comments facility to post anything you like about the outcome of the relegation scrap …
Now, we did try. No gloating, I thought, would make for a noble all-round instruction to the army of Salut! Sunderland toilers. Sadly, maybe even ignobly, the editor has been flattened by the tidal wave.
The truth is the truth. We feel about them much as they feel about us. We may pay lip service to the notion of the North East being a better place if only all the three top clubs – Sunderland, the Mags, and Shildon – could be in the top flight forever. But we know it won’t happen. And we don’t, or not all of us, actually like the Wear-Tyne-Wear derbies that much; just too much stress and anguish except when we go on six-in-a-row expeditions.
So let’s gloat after all. As they would be doing in spades.
Colin Randall writes: We did it as we all, er, knew we would. And despite allowing Everton a fair amount of possession, we did it in style, with en emphatic scoreline and a clean sheet that rarely looked under threat. Patrick van Aanholt’s free kick left Joel Robles hopelessly wrong footed in the Everton goal and three minutes later Wearside met paradise as Lamine Kone blasted the first of two poacher’s goals into the net. Kone and Kaboul – who was very close dos coring, too – were towers of strength at the back, too. Never forgetting the incredible job Sam Allardyce has done. Another sell-out crowd got its proper reward: Premier League football maintained. Pete Sixsmith‘s considered account comes later; this is where his seven-word instant verdict appears …
It may seem an odd thing to juxtapose final words of encouragement to the Lads, hours from tonight’s potential season-saver, and richly deserved honours about to be bestowed on two of Sunderland’s finest.
But think about what Jimmy Montgomery and John Hays have done for the club, the city and the region and it becomes the most natural mixing of themes imaginable.
As Lars Knutsen says, the season’s not over yet, writes John McCormick. But we’re all walking just that bit taller and smiling just that bit wider. The reason, according to Lars, is that we have a manager who is not just up to the job of keeping us up but who is also capable of taking us forward …