Sunderland A.F.C. - SAFC Blog

Tomorrow Everton. Today, probably the best article you’ll ever read about Sunderland

October 31, 2015 by Colin Randall

Salut! Sunderland settled back for another quietly inactive Saturday, the lull before tomorrow’s Goodison storm. So why, suddenly, were people coming to the site? We have ‘HarrogateMackem’ to thank, for drawing renewed attention at Ready To Go’s Pure Football forum.

SAFC fans who are otherwise rarely seen here flocked to the link and have posted some rightly admiring comments at RTG. So it seems fitting to bring back to a life at Salut! Sunderland one of the finest pieces of writing* to grace these pages. Apologies to those who have seen it all before (unless, like Monsieur Salut and quite a few others, they feel it lends itself to re-reading at least once a year: see the comments posted by our own readers in 2011 at https://safc.blog/2011/10/jonathan-wilson-the-candystripe-passions-of-grandfather-father-and-son/), when the article was headline ‘Jonathan Wilson: the candystripe passions of grandfather, father and son’. But Jonathan Wilson is a wonderful writer as well as supporting Sunderland and he proves both parts of that statement here …

clough — Jonathan Wilson’s book on a Sunderland great

Winning Sunderland, whining Newcastle and winsome Everton

October 30, 2015 by Colin Randall

Jake: 'Sam on the road and Sixer too...' — Jake: ‘Sam on the road and Sixer too…’

When not watching clips of Coloccini barging into Fletch and maybe getting the wrong colour of card, Pete Sixsmith has been purring about the 3-0 win against Newcastle and hallucinating about a Geordie Nation campaign to force a replay.

Six-in-a-row has that effect. But can we make it three-in-a-row, three successive wins at Goodison? It’s a tall order against a good side, far too good to be only 11th and also far more likeable than most other Premier clubs, their friends across the park included. Sixer will be there, and at a Shildon game in the FA Vase the day before …

Everton v Sunderland ‘Who are You?’: a Middlesbrough connection adds spice

October 29, 2015October 29, 2015 by Colin Randall

Sam Myers with Master Myers — Sam Myers with young Oscar, already orderd to support Everton. Can SAFC make Oscar wild on Sunday?

Last season, Hannah Myers was one of Salut! Sunderland‘s Everton ‘Who are You?’ interviewees and came second in the annual HAWAY (Highly Articulate Who are You) awards. So we’ve been back to the Myers household and pressganged her old man, Sam Myers*, into the hot seat. Doubtless in years to come, young Oscar will be answering questions to some whippernsapper successor to Monsieur Salut. Sam likes SAFC, believes Big Sam can save us with time to spare but expects Sunday to go to script.

But footballing allegiance in the extended Myers family gets complicated. Life on Merseyside may have made Hannah’s dad, Alan, call Everton ‘us’ and he is doubtless predicting ‘we’ will beat Sunderland. But he’s a Redcar – or more precisely North Skelton – lad and his first footballing love was Boro. He was there for last night’s penalty shootout win at Old Trafford. But who will he be shouting for when Boro (‘us’ last night) host Everton (‘us’ the rest of the time) in the quarterfinals? Sam has passed on his father-in-law’s emphatic response below ..

Everton v Sunderland Guess the Score: can we build on derby joy?

November 1, 2015October 28, 2015 by Colin Randall

Jake: 'Sam on the road ...' — Jake: ‘Sam on the road …’

The past is another country. A week is a long time in politics/love.football. And all the other cliches you can think of to cover the fact that one win on Sunday October 25 is all well and good, but only if we can keep the green shoots sprouting.

It is time to Guess the Score at Goodison. I have seen us draw there and, of course, lose. Only one win – Boxing Day two seasons ago. In fact, until the last two seasons, very few of us will have seen Sunderland beat Everton on their own ground. The Boxing Day victory was followed by another, on May 9 this year, when as part of Dick Advocaat’s version of the annual Sunderland great escape we snatched a 2-0 victory. It was a crazy game, one in which Everton felt they did everything but score, crazier still when you consider one of our goals came from Danny Graham – his first for us and his first in the Premier since December 2013 when on loan to Hull.

Warm post-Newcastle glow resists defeat to Manchester United Under 21s

October 27, 2015October 27, 2015 by Colin Randall

Pete: 'maybe I need to stick to playing Santa' — Pete: ‘maybe I need to stick to playing Santa’

Monsieur Salut writes: on Friday I found myself at a London event sitting next to one of the world’s least likely Newcastle United fans, Marwan J Al Sarkal, chief executive officer of the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Sharjah, as every schoolboy should know, being next door to Dubai and one of the the seven emirates of the UAE). That Geordie Nation of theirs clearly knows no bounds. Marwan was good company all the same and smiled, with a hint of envy, when I showed him my ticket for Sunday. I can honestly say I wish he had been there with me to see our resounding (at least by the scoreline) victory.

Pete Sixsmith was still beaming when he headed to Hetton for a big test for the Under 21s. Don’t be too hard on him about the slightly grainy photo of pals at the game (M Salut has only basic enhancement tools) – he insists he was ‘playing with a new phone’ …

Hutch’s Patch: one-word verdicts on SAFC after beating Newcastle United

October 25, 2015 by Colin Randall

Rob Hutchison is as happy as the rest of us but also realistic: “Never have we played so poorly and won 3-0. Took our chances mind you. Now who’s for the Magnificent Seven?

Sixer’s Sevens: SAFC 3-0 Newcastle United. The joy of six in a row

October 25, 2015October 25, 2015 by Colin Randall

Jake: 'the world's a better place today' — Jake: ‘the world’s a better place today’

Monsieur Salut writes: after an opening 40 minutes of worryingly inept football, Sunderland sprang into life to beat Newcastle 3-0 and keep the run going. Jermain Defoe’s introduction when injury left Ola Toivonen unable to continue made the difference. Suddenly, in first-half stoppage time, his pass of Premier League – one of few Sunderland mustered in the first half – cut open the United defence. Steven Fletcher looked about to reach it ahead of Ellott and Coloccini bundled him over. Clear penalty, clear red and Adam Johnson did the rest, sending us into half time with the lead. Shaky moments followed the interval but Costel Pantilimon, harshly blamed here last week for the WBA winner, pulled off a couple of terrific saves before Billy Jones and Fletcher made it comfortable. The season has started …and our seven-word specialist summariser Pete Sixsmith went home a happy man

SAFC v Newcastle ‘Who are You?’: a Mag who jinxes the Mags

October 23, 2015October 23, 2015 by Colin Randall

For our second Wear-Tyne derby ‘Who are You?’, we welcome Terry Pattinson*, a veteran of old-fashioned labour reporting (he was an award-winning industrial editor of the Daily Mirror. Terry was born in Gateshead and schooled on Wearside. So he has some affection for Sunderland – but his passion is Newcastle. That said, he’s a self-confessed Jinx to Mag fortunes, a trait his dad identified when he was nipper. What a shame we cannot get him to the SoL on Sunday – Newcastle could be three up and still lose if only Terry was there …

Clickety click: Salut! Sunderland says happy birthday, Arsenal’s Arsène (and Our Sam)

October 22, 2015October 22, 2015 by Colin Randall

By Olaf NordwichChrisTheDude at en.wikipedia (Transferred from en.wikipedia) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Pete Sixsmith offers a sincere if qualified and somewhat whimsical joyeux anniversaire to Arsène Wenger – to whom Monsieur Salut does warm, much more wholeheartedly – without forgetting that another, younger manager recently celebrated his own birthday …

SAFC v Newcastle: (5) not trying too hard to love the enemy

October 22, 2015 by Colin Randall

Jeremy Robson is more than disillusioned with Sunderland just now. Just settled in Scotland after returning from Canadian exile, he will be ‘roaring at the telly’ on Sunday but says ’40 odd years of failure punctuated by lesser degrees of failure and no success at all has taken its toll’. That said, he had no worries about reposting these old thoughts about Wear-Tyne rivalry.

It first appeared in February 2009, and was introduced by Monsieur Salut as a as classic piece of Jeremy ‘wit, wisdom and bluster’ … but a couple of comments posted in recent days seemed to suggest it was time for a re-run, to be followed by a quite different analysis from a Newcastle supporter …