Pete Sixsmith went to the Potteries to watch the other SAFC – Shildon in the FA Cup. One more win and they are in the first round proper. I’m bet he’s glad he did as the Railwaymen drew with higher league opposition to bring Norton back to Dean Street. So it’s substitute Malcolm Dawson who steps up to the plate with his seven word summary of today’s performance.
Sunderland
The gloomy stats that doom QPR, Burnley and Newcastle (or us)
reading between the lines
Lost in the deluge of post-Southampton news, anger and gallows humour, John McCormick applied a scholarly eye to the statistics he considers relevant factors in determining who goes down, who stays up. Ominously, in this update, the 8-0 defeat is seen as not only wrecking our goal difference but pushing us more obviously into the frame, on John’s interpretation of trends. He hopes and we hope he is completely wrong …
Arsenal ‘Who are You?’: out with Wenger, fond of SAFC, don’t care about Spurs
Quaking in their boots in expectation of a heroic bounceback from 8-0 – or breezily confident, after coming from behind to beat Anderlecht on Arsène Wenger’s 65th birthday, of adding to our woes? We’ll soon enough find out which Sunderland and which Arsenal turns out. Nigel Payne*, our Arsenal ‘Who are You?’ interviewee, is a sports marketing consultant and well-known figure in horse racing (co-owner of the 1998 Grand National winner Earth Summit, chairman of the Professional Jockeys Association and a former communications chief at Aintree). Expect strident views on Wenger, warm thoughts on Sunderland and Poyet … and an eccentric score prediction …
Wrinkly Pete: last words on Southampton and some of them are positive
We cannot guarantee these will be the very last words – Salut! Sunderland clings to democratic values – but, speaking …
From WBA to Bolton, Sixer chooses his top 10 moneyback Sunderland games
Pete Sixsmith will, for once, be absent when Sunderland take on Arsenal on Saturday. No boycott, just the competing lure of Shildon in the FA Cup. But the post-Southampton soul-searching and self-flagellation must have set him thinking. Here’s a dip into the archives of his mind …
It was an honourable decision by the players to attempt to reimburse those of us who travelled on Saturday and it is to be hoped that Grace House will benefit by £50,000 as a result.
Gambles’ Rambles: Yes to Mannone’s humility, a resounding No to moneyback culture
Just as old cynics – step forward Ken Gambles and also M Salut – were wondering what sort of reception Vito Mannone got in the dressing-room when he took the hat round for refunds for the fans (£50,000, £60,000, £70,000 in all or am I way out?), safc.com put out a statement saying this grand gesture was on. Ken, though, disagrees completely with idea of fans demanding their money back after wretched performances and would doubtless go along with the idea floated here of allowing their refunds to go to the Grace House children’s charity. All you need do is miss the deadline of Nov 5 for claiming the money. But let Ken have his say on the principle anyway …
After Eight: a mint Sunderland vs Arsenal edition of Guess the Score
What better to accompany the tea or coffee, or stronger, in your rollover pair of prize mugs than a few tasty wafer-thin mint chocolates with cream inside?
Sixer Says: Leicester youth seen off before seniors’ bounceback starts vs Arsenal
Monsieur Salut writes: The last I saw of Pete Sixmith was when he boarded one train, and I another, at Southampton Central. It’s fair to say our spirits were not high. As we await our Mannone payouts – Sixer reckons £500 would cover his extended south coast stay; mine involves diesel and motorway tolls for 1,200km through France and the south-east, one overnight stop, travel and beer on Saturday and the old codger’s ticket but I’d accept even less, say £300) – he takes in a Sunderland return to winning ways, unfortunately at the wrong level to ease our Premier worries …
Keir’s Ghostly Player Ratings: Sunderland’s men of the match at Southampton
What would Keir Bradwell, our marks-out-of-10 columnist, make of it? One reader, Bill, said Seb Larsson was the only player whose head failed to drop: ‘I would say he was [our] Man of the Match and give him a 5, so Keir will probably give him -5.’ One newspaper had Santiago Vergini on 1.5/10, Vito Mannone on 2/10 and other team members on three or four, a shamefully low set of ratings for a top-flight side.
After West Ham (1968), Watford (1982) and Southampton (2014): a dozen questions
Still on the national news, still getting ribbed mercilessly if someone spots the SAFCSA membership card in my wallet, still feeling numb …
So 12 questions. A mug for the best answers posted below, as judged by Monsieur Salut (who drove 1,200km to be at this debacle). You can answer one or more or all of them. You can be a supporter of any club you choose (or that chose you) but you must have a UK delivery address to qualify for the life-altering prize …