Sunderland - SAFC Blog

Hutch’s Patch: Fletch and Réveillère star in one-word Sunderland performance assessments

November 4, 2014November 4, 2014 by Colin Randall

Jake: Rob's ratings — Jake: Rob’s ratings

Monsieur Salut: writes: Opinions. We’ve all got them. Nic Wiseman and I have been debating at twitter on the Palace goal. Was it a world-class save by Pantilimon undone by the rebound off Wes Brown, as he believes, or two-thirds of a great save which ended with a fumble, as I wrote – on the strength of a single view from the stand – at ESPN? Rob Hutchison was there, too, and among his one-word, pre-Keir snap judgements, our big Romanian scored 7. I’d have made that a 6 and Brown a 7 but otherwise concur with Rob …

Sixer’s Sofa-bound Soapbox: gritty Sunderland’s luck rides Crystal Palace bluster

April 9, 2015November 4, 2014 by Colin Randall

Jake: 'take it easy, Pete" — Jake: ‘take it easy, Pete”

Pete Sixsmith declined the option of a bleak night out at a poky little ground with abysmal catering in the middle of South London nowhere, preceded by a country-length trek. He watched it at home. The Soapbox fitted neatly onto Pete Horan’s sofa …

Sixer Says: beginning of the end if we lose this one?

November 2, 2014 by Colin Randall

Jake: 'this time, Lads?' — Jake: ‘this time, Lads?’

Pete Sixsmith is a worried man and he knows other worried men. It is up to Gus and the Lads to ease his concerns, starting at Selhurst Park …

We all accept that Monday night brings a crucial game for both Sunderland and Crystal Palace. Win it and we rise above Palace, Leicester City and a plummeting Aston Villa and we will be on the same points as Hull City.

A draw keeps us in the bottom three but halts the mini-slump that has hit us in the latter days of October.
Lose and Palace will be four points ahead of us and Neil Warnock will be gloating – and we don’t want that do we, boys and girls.

Isn’t something missing? Sunderland P3 W0 D0 L3 F0 A11 Pts0

November 2, 2014November 1, 2014 by Colin Randall

Jake: 'get stuck in, Lads'' — Jake: ‘get stuck in, Lads”

At least the headline doesn’t tell the whole story of the season so far.

But that is my record to date. Perhaps Ellis Short should be paying me to stay away.

Crystal Palace vs SAFC ‘Who are You?’: on recovering from Liverpool’s nine

October 31, 2014October 31, 2014 by Colin Randall

The Eagles Beak* is a fine Crystal Palace fan site, not infallible on apostrophes as you can see but a place accommodating enough to allow Pete Sixsmith to ramble on about why he dislikes Palace. It was created and is edited by Jay Crame*, who joins us now for the latest edition of ‘Who are You?’. He tries to make us feel better about that mauling at St Mary’s..

Crystal Palace vs Sunderland ‘Guess the Score’: redemption time?

October 30, 2014 by Colin Randall

Jake's new Guess the Score image, with the usual insolent caption — Jake: ‘you can get your own After Eights this week’

The rollover Guess the Score competition for Sunderland vs Arsenal was won by our resident harbinger of doom, Bill Cowell.

The man will soon run out of space for all his prize mugs. Two more are on their way from Personalised Football Gifts, to be preceded or followed by a carefully packed box of After Eight mint chocs, for which Pete Sixsmith dug deep into his pockets to stump up the purchase price, Nestlé having been too humourless to do so itself.

Cabral: curious case of CL player begging to ‘train with the kids’

October 29, 2014October 29, 2014 by Colin Randall

Another of Jake's new images. — Jake: ‘Cabral? Yeah, I remember him’

Cabral’s acquisition was one even Paolo Di Canio was thrilled by. A player of Champions League pedigree, he played well when given early spells of action but was abruptly dropped. Then he may as well have disappeared from Wearside, never to return. Now, Gus Poyet has made some utterly mystifying comments of his own without getting close to explaining why Cabral cannot get into a team he claims to have to pick from threadbare resources. Can Pete Sixsmith get to the bottom of it? …

Another view of SAFC vs Arsenal: a defence of Buckley

October 27, 2014October 27, 2014 by Colin Randall

Jake says "It's gonna be a long hard season!" — Jake says “It’s gonna be a long hard season!”

Monsieur Salut says: it is said few people witnessing the same event, be it a car crash or a football game, see it quite the same way. For the definitive assessment, go to deputy editor Malcolm Dawson’s report. I felt Jack Rodwell, Seb Larsson and Adam Johnson had reasonable games – no more than that, though – and that it was an error on Gus Poyet’s part to substitute the first and third of those. Young Keir Bradwell agreed with me on Johnson and Rodwell but was harsher on Larsson, where he found common cause with a new guest contributor, Simon Ramsey. Against the more common view, Simon found kind words for Will Buckley. A home and away fan for 30 years and a regular supporter of Salut! Sunderland at Twitter, Simon offers his thoughts here for the first time …

Keir’s Player ratings: Rodwell, Johnson and PVA best of a poor bunch

October 28, 2014October 27, 2014 by Colin Randall

Monsieur Salut writes: Keir Bradwell‘s “after Len Shackleton” device for his ratings from Southampton – a blank page – divided opinion. This week normal business is restored. I would not quarrel with most of it, save that Larsson’s industry merited a high mark and Wickham was, in truth, no better served than Fletcher …

Pure Poyetry after Arsenal: Sunderland so difficult to beat they’ll do it for you!

October 27, 2014October 25, 2014 by Colin Randall

Malcolm Dawson writes…..it’s part of the manager’s job to be upbeat and seek out the positives. He couldn’t quite do that last week but is back in the groove after two of the most schoolboyish of errors cost the team a point and bit more composure should have seen the Gunners punished for their own keeper’s howler. Were there any positives? Gus thinks so as his post match e-mail explains. You’ll get my views tomorrow as I fill in on Pete Sixsmith’s soapbox.

Jake sees Poyet's point — Jake sees Poyet’s point