We heard from Mick Brown, a terrific features writer of Monsieur Salut’s acquaintance, two years ago and now it’s the turn of his son Dominic Brown*, a fellow Palace fan and also a writer as well as an independent filmmaker – latest documentary Forgotten Bird of Paradise – and human rights campaigner. Some things are even more important than football …
After Sunderland’s completely needless defeat at West Ham, we probably all needed cheering up.
Step forward Slaven Bilic, the Hammers’ normally impressive manager.
Rob Hutchison is quick off the mark with another of his occasional sets of one-word verdicts. ‘Failure to beat teams …
Colin Randall writes: how many times over the years have we watched Sunderland lose and wonder how on earth we came away with nothing? After giving away a soft and sloppy goal just as we seemed to have the measure of West Ham, we proceeded in the second half to create one opportunity after another that Defoe, Rodwell and van Aanholt simply had to do better with. Even allowing for Andy Carroll’s thunderous shot against the bar, we ought to have won this game. The Hammers were fairly poor and this gave a grim impression of the West Ham Way. No one played truly badly for SAFC and Jan Kirchhoff deserved to be on the winning side but this was a game where, as Pete Sixsmith observes with his customary snap verdict, utterly crucial points were crying out to be seized …
Years ago, when Sixer, Malcolm Dawson, John McCormick and Monsieur Salut were still young, or at least a long way from qualifying for bus passes, Salut! Sunderland reproduced a nice little interview that formed part of a Celebrity Supporters series for the newsletter of the London and SE branch of the SAFC Supporters’ Association.
The interviewee was Steve Cram, then as now president of the branch as well as being “The Jarrow Arrow”, a world record-breaking middle distance runner with impeccable credentials as a Sunderland supporter.
Sunderland face of a whirlwind of games that will play a key part in deciding which division we play in come August.
It may not even be an exaggeration to suggest the season could well depend on the outcome of the visits to West Ham and Southampton, this Saturday and next, with Palace at home on Tuesday night.
David Blackmore*, our West Ham United interviewee, is the editor of the Blowing Bubbles print and online fanzine and can also be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/WestHamMagazine. He’s a level-headed Hammer who acclaims Payet’s genius but also the ability of smarter teams to close him down, sees great prospects of Bilic leading his club to a higher level and feels Sunderland’s support has won those crucial end-of-season points in our series of relegation scraps. He thinks we might snatch a 2-2 draw – and stay up again …
Asked who has most impressed West Ham supporters this season, our “Who are You?” interviewee, David Blackmore, editor the Blowing …
When the question was first raised, Monsieur Salut’s instinctive response was along the lines of ‘Hodgson doesn’t really know where Sunderland is, so is unlikely to see Jermain Defoe play unless we’re away to and being beaten soundly by a London side containing one or more of his favourites’. But the questioner persisted with the result that we have now a guest article, from Mark Smith, a sports writer based in Prague, weighing up the pros and cons of Defoe’s case for an England recall …
Who is going down? We all want to know and The Observer asked supporters of all the threatened clubs. See the full set of verdicts at http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/feb/20/premier-league-battle-for-survival. Pete Sixsmith‘s thoughts have cheer-up value …