Pete Sixsmith is on Father Christmas duty today, up in Weardale where Monsieur Salut once looked out of the window of a Save Our Railway Line special and saw him doing his stuff with the red-and-white-striped Shildon Sunderland Supporters’ FC team. But he delayed his drive up the dale to write this fittingly noble report on yesterday’s outstanding performance against Chelsea, one that went agonisingly close to yielding three points instead of one …
Rob Hutchison had to watch on a stream but was quick off the mark with his one word player ratings. No quarrels from Monsieur Salut (though 10/10 for Catts would have been tempting), who wrote at ESPN ‘At no stage of this game, with the possible exception of an opening spell of compelling but ultimately fruitless possession by Chelsea, were manager Gus Poyet’s players second best to his former club’.
Unbeknown to M Salut, deputy editor Malcolm Dawson, just in from the match, had already started editing Hutch’s ratings. This was Malcolm’s introduction: Rob Hutchison is a man of few words. At least he is when rating the Sunderland team in the minutes following the full time whistle. Today’s performances all rate highly against a team that had scored in every game this season and were unbeaten as they arrived at the Stadium of Light. They left still unbeaten (and defeat would have been harsh on them) but this was a gutsy Sunderland performance …
Pete Sixsmith said at half time that Sunderland were giving Chelsea a tough old game and he was right. And when he cried for more, he got it. This was a superb point and could have been three with a spot more luck, from a game in which SAFC were never truly second best. Sixer offers two seven-word verdicts; his fuller assessment should be a rousing read …
Nov 29 SAFC (0) 0 Chelsea (0) 0*A performance to make Sunderland supporters proud or Could and maybe should have won it
Standard practice around here is that an admirable band of stalwarts call by every day or so to see what Salut! Sunderland has been up to.
Hundreds more, and sometimes thousands, visit the site only when something new appears on newsnow.co.uk’s SAFC pages or a kind soul drops a link at Ready to Go or elsewhere.
The trick, when trying to avoid descent into insanity as a fan site editor, is to take it all in the stride. Must Not Fret about readership figures should be the mantra; let us be the low-circulation site for the thinking supporter and stop worrying about tabloid-level hits.
Let our very good friend Paul Dobson, universally known as Sobs, introduce – at Salut! Sunderland’s invitation – his new book charting the astonishing events of last season …
If ever a season in which no trophy was won, and no promotion achieved, screamed out to have something permanent written about it, last season at Sunderland did.
We don’t often do well against them at home, but when we do it’s spectacular. Most of us recall that …
Colin Randall writes: We all have memories of our best gig. Mine, as an old folkie, was in a field in Oxfordshire one fine summer’s evening in 2007. The original Fairport Convention line-up – minus, of course, Sandy Denny, whose place was taken admirably by Chris While – reassembled to reproduce the classic Liege and Lief album track by track. But before Fairport, Show of Hands had played their own superb set, making it an evening to remember for the thousands present.
Vaughan Pearce* is the manager of Show of Hands and a Chelsea supporter from boyhood. It seemed a good idea to invite him into the ‘Who are You?’ hot seat ahead of Saturday’s game. I think we can take his Premier top four tips with a pinch of salt …
It began as an understandable precaution, Jack Rodwell playing for 60 minutes or so before being subbed. This seemed unremarkable. At Manchester City, competition for places was so stiff and Rodwell’s injury record so troubling that he arrived at Sunderland short of match fitness.
But when he got that equaliser against Manchester United, it seemed a corner had been turned. Confidence would be high, fitness levels were presumably improving.
So a Leicester-supporting pal says his lot were the better side but adds that it’s difficult to tell which of the two will go down. M Salut thought aloud at ESPN – http://www.espnfc.com/club/sunderland/366/blog/post/2158151/black-cats-fail-to-shine-at-leicester – neither side could grumble at the outcome. Here, with young Keir Bradwell absent on family duties, is what the older Rob Hutchison made of it, one word for each player, plus a tweet I couldn’t resist repeating about the Fletcher yellow card …
A quick edition of the boss’s post-match thoughts, as expressed in his customary e-mail. Others may add to this introduction. Gus Poyet is right to emphasise the positives. But were two points squandered? …