Sunderland A.F.C.

A non-gloating West Brom view and talking Lescott (up and down)

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Andy Caulton, exiled in the USA,  celebrates in the mountains with his Chris Brunt top


Andy Caulton was seen on the pages of Salut! Sunderland before the game between Sunderland and his team, West Brom, at the Stadium of Light on October 1, a afternoon marked by a traditionally bad SAFC start, an second-half recovery and a late equaliser from our joint second-top scorer, Patrick van Aanholt. He did the “Who are You?” interview in which he revealed a soft spot for Sunderland – and a fleeting memory of his dad mending Brian Clough’s car*.

Now PvA looks likely to desert Wearside for a reunion with Big Sam at Crystal Palace. On the face of it, it’s another of those rash gambles Sunderland have a habit of taking (Bent and Kaboul out, Graham in are examples that spring to mind) , unless there is someone better lined up to take his place. Time will tell whether Joleon Lescott is that player; the money is on him joining on a short-term deal. [UPDATE: signed as a free agent until the end of the season].

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Sixer’s Sevens: FA Cup 3rd Round replay. Burnley sink SAFC after another sad performance

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Jake: catch Sixer's instant seven-word verdicts throughout the season
Jake: catch Sixer’s instant seven-word verdicts throughout the season

Monsieur Salut writes: The more Pete Sixsmith mentioned going to Burnley for the replay, the more I felt he was forcing himself to make the trip, such is the burden he carries as a Sunderland supporter and Salut! Sunderland chronicler. On commentary courtesy of Radio Newcastle, an increasingly exasperated Gary Bennett kept insisting we had a chance to rescue the game. Familiar as he is with the Northern League, Benno hoped against hope that a floodlight failure would necessitate a replayed replay. It wasn’t to be and in his succinct seven-word summary Sixer sums up his own frustrations after another disappointing trip across the Pennines …

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Jermain Defoe looked unhappy but who wouldn’t? SAFC absolutely must keep him

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Oxford vs Portsmouth (CC BY 2.0) by quisnovus

Monsieur Salut writes: I got into trouble with a Salut! Sunderland reader, ‘Maw’ over at Twitter when I tweeted Jermain Defoe and said that while I might understand him wanting to leave at the end of the season, would he please stay for now? ‘Grow up,’ was the gist of my critic’s response and, while there was a germ of a serious point in what I had said, I ended up conceding defeat. The serious point holds good, especially if it is true, as speculated, that Defoe’s body language on Saturday suggested restlessness; whatever restructuring is needed – and by whom – come the summer, Defoe is our main, perhaps only hope of salvation between now and then. Alex McMahon agrees …

 

Jermain Defoe is one of the best strikers in the Premier League. The Sunderland man may be 34, but he certainly has not lost his mojo. The former England man has scored 12 goals and created as many chances in 21 Premier League appearances so far this season. That’s 57 per cent of the goals Sunderland have scored.

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Stoke Who are You?: the ‘Marvellous’ clown who became a Potteries legend

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Click anywhere on this caption to buy Neil’s book from the Salut! Sunderland Amazon bookshelf

The story of Neil Baldwin* is an astonishing and uplifting one. Born to devoted Stoke City supporters, Neil had learning difficulties and needed speech therapy. He has made light of this, and his lack of formal academic qualifications, to work tirelessly as a lay preacher, circus clown and for many years the Potters’ kit man. He has his own football team, Neil Baldwin FC, with players drawn from the student body of Keele University, of which he is an honorary graduate having given 50 years of voluntary service in welcoming new undergraduates. Football celebrities, notably Lou Macari but also including Kevin Keegan and Gary Lineker, have acclaimed or befriended him or both.

When Macari, then managing Stoke, made him the kit man, he said it was the best signing he had ever made, such was the positive effect of his humour on the squad. He played five minutes a sub in a testimonial for Gordon Cowans in 1993 and, most famously, inspired the film Marvellous, based on his life.

‘It says everything for Neil that Marvellous was ever made,’ wrote the Stoke Sentinel TV critic, John Woodhouse. ‘In times when TV is seduced by vacuity and celebrity, it doesn’t sound that promising a pitch. A drama, set in Newcastle [under-Lyme], about a man saddled with the tag of “learning difficulties” who reveals himself to be so much more? Good luck with that one. And yet here it is – primetime BBC2.’

The autobiography, Marvellous: Neil Baldwin – My Story, written with the help of Keele University alumni Malcolm Clarke (a recent Who are You? interviewee) and Francis Beckett, was published by John Blake in 2015.

Welcome to Salut! Sunderland, Neil …

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SAFC vs Stoke City Guess the Score: one we can (must?) win

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Guess the Score … in which the esteemed supporters of Sunderland and Stoke City, both sides acquainted with that most prestigious of colour schemes, red and white stripes, are warmly invited to predict the scoreline that history shall record …

Why is this week’s Guess the Score appearing early again this week? OK, the main reason is that no one has anything else they want to say beyond pointless reflections on transfers that may or may not happen.

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Sixer Says: disappointments vs Burnley, Atherton Collieries, Everton and for SAFC Ladies

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Pete Sixsmith was among the tens of thousands who gave a miss to Sunderland vs Burnley. Oh what they missed. Sixer’s comeuppance came when the match he chose instead ended with a heavy defeat in the FA Vase for Shildon. the first team M Salut and almost certainly he saw in their County Durham boyhoods. Next day, he dutifully attended Sunderland Under 23s against Everton and still could get a win … there’s just a passing, sorrowful reference to the plight of SAFC Ladies; read more at this Sunderland Echo link

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Sixer’s FA Cup Sevens: SAFC 0-0 Burnley. As Jake put it, ‘zzzzz….’

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Jake: ‘zzzz…zzzzz….’

Monsieur Salut writes: To no great surprise Pete Sixsmith preferred Shildon vs Atherton Collieries in the FA Vase. He kept in touch via Barnes and Benno, describing a drab game short on quality and ending goalless before all of 17.632 souls (but my emergency seven-worder appears for now). With a replay almost the last thing Sunderland wanted, and young Joel Asoro on the bench, David Moyes had sent on John O’Shea late as his only substitution. Mmm …

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FA Cup Third Round: five good, five bad. Everton, Notts County make both lists

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Bobby Kerr and the FA Cup, May 5 1973, from Art of Football

… in which Pete Sixsmith looks back on the good, bad and exceedingly ugly FA Cup 3rd Round ties he remembers with affection or disgust …

Excitement levels among Sunderland supporters, it has to be said, have not been high over the impending FA Cup tie with Burnley.

I have my ticket due to the Cup Ticket option but am considering missing out in order to watch a tasty FA Vase tie between Shildon and Atherton Collieries. But it did get me thinking about epic and disastrous third round clashes in the past.

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Sunderland vs Burnley: aiming for revenge in FA Cup Guess the Score

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Jake: ‘let’s make beating them more than a consolation prize, Lads’

Monsieur Salut introduces another prize Guess the Score ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup 3rd Round to at home to Burnley, against whom we have something to prove (though most of us might feel strongly that the point should be made, and three points taken, when the return league fixture comes round in March) …

No one won the three-for-two New Year Guess the Score, in which readers were asked to predict both the Burnley and Liverpool scorelines and – if right – win three mugs.

That is hardly surprising since only in the deepest recesses of pessimistic hearts would a Sunderland supporter (most entrants always being SAFC) would the prospect of a crushing defeat at Turf Moor seem a) a likely outcome and b) one respectable to predict.

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