Sunderland

Postcard from Portugal: praising van Aanholt and Catts, rebuking a hostile minority

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Liam Bridcutt
Richy with Liam Bridcutt

Two down, one to go, with a win and a defeat so far. Our man in Portugal, Richy Duggan, offers his report and analysis of the late defeat to CD Nacional. That leaves Vitória Setúbal on Saturday before it’s home for the final fortnight of the pre-season preparations. Richy will be pleased to hear the five World Cup replica balls for his Hendon Young People’s Project arrived yesterday – Salut! Sunderland having to raid the piggy bank to pay excess postage of 57 euros – and will be up on Wearside for hand delivery as soon as M Salut finds himself back for a match …

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Pure Poyetry: CD Nacional 1 SAFC 0. Gus happy enough in defeat

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Jake captures the man and the touchline method
Jake captures the man and the touchline method

Last season, CD Nacional finished fifth in the Portuguese top flight,qualifying for the Europa League. So the win that looked for a long while like coming would have been an impressive second win in Sunderland’s short trip to the Algarve, Instead, a late goal brought defeat, Gus Poyet remained upbeat, as managers do when able to pass off pre-season reverses as essentially exercises in fitness and blending. Here’s his post-match e-mail from Portugal’s holiday playground …

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Postcard from Portugal: Mika’s joy puts smiles on Mackem faces

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Richy on the left, Mikael Mandron in the middle and Michael (Tomo) Thompson on the right
Richy on the left, Mikael Mandron in the middle and Michael (Tomo) Thompson on the right

From our Own Correspondent, as the BBC might say. Richy Duggan, Salut! Sunderland’s man on the Algarve continues his diary of an enviable little break following the Lads – and the Boys, it seems – on pre-season duty. Mika’s tweet (see below) summed up his own feelings; the picture accompanying this introduction shows him in fan-friendly mode …

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Pure Poyetry: Recreativo de Huelva 0 SAFC 1. Boss hails Mika winner

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That was the tweet from Boulogne’s finest, Mikael Mandron. Great to see such desire from the 19-year-old forward whose penalty decided the first of an unfamiliar-looking Sunderland’s friendlies in Portugal. Here’s what the boss made of it in his customary post-match e-mail to Monsieur Salut and one or two others. Malcolm Dawson asks the delicate but pertinent question in Comments: what is the explanation for the boss’s repeated use of players most of us would have considered at best on the the fringe of his first-team squad? ….

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Graeme Anderson: a towering figure of Sunderland AFC journalism

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graeme anderson

Pete Sixsmith offers a generous but thoroughly deserved appraisal of Graeme Anderson, who has performed with great style and accomplishment the delicate tightwire act of reporting on SAFC for the local paper without falling off either side (self-destruction or obsequious compliance) for a long stint that is now ending as he enters the world of freelancing. See also the comments of Ian Todd*, co-founder of the SAFCSA London and SE branch, who alerted M Salut to Graeme’s departure …

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Postcard from Portugal: Richy’s quick introduction ahead of Sunderland’s opener

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Richy contemplates our latest target
Richy contemplates our latest target


Richy Dugggan, project manager at the Hendon Young People’s Project in Sunderland, is among the lucky supporters out on the Algarve for the warm-up trip. Tonight Sunderland play the first of two games, against Recreativo de Huelva, and Richy will be there to pass on his thoughts to us.

You may recognise the name from recent Salut! Sunderland reporting: Richy’s admirable project is the beneficiary of the generosity of Raich Carter junior, son of the Hendon-born Sunderland (and later Hull City) legend.

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Sixer sees Hearts in right place, misses Portugal and Danny Graham scoring

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tynecastle

We have our spies, or at any rate a spy, in Portugal who promises faithfully to act as Salut! Sunderland‘s foreign correspondent. No spies in Lincolnshire, so far as we know, so we must just trust the reporters got it right and Danny Graham really did score. Pete Sixsmith had mates there who can fill us in on the detail if they wish. The man himself felt Tynecastle held more attraction than either, or was just an easier or better trip …

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Fifty years of Sunderland openers: (2) visions of hell at Millwall

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millwall prog2

The New Den is hardly the Old Den. Back in 2000, a semi-reformed Millwall Yob-and-Proud-of-It – he’d become a published author telling of his exploits – told me people were hypocritical about football hooligans because they created all the atmosphere in grounds. Pete Sixsmith, looking back in the second of this series on opening fixtures of his past, could be forgiven for thinking otherwise after experiencing a special Old Den welcome reserved for supporters of visiting teams with the audacity to score a few times. Some of the assailants that day, 40 years ago, will now be in their 80s and, presumably, causing havoc with their walking sticks in south London old people’s homes …

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Summer Gold: (3) Tasmin Archer, No 1 star among Sunderland’s celebrity supporters

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ta 2

Back in 2007, when Salut! Sunderland was a long way from its first million hits, we reproduced a series of Celebrity Supporters interviews originally written a few years earlier for Wear Down South, the newsletter of London branch of the SAFCSA.

It had been the idea of Joan Dawson, whose brother Malcolm is these days Salut!’s deputy editor. What was intended as the final piece – https://safc.blog/2007/06/the-celebs-we-cornered-and-the-ones-we-didnt/, wrapping up all the successes and failures of the series – appeared on June 6. On the same day, wondering if there might be scope for a new batch of interviews, I wrote to Tasmin Archer, the soul singer who’d had a No 1 hit with Sleeping Satellite in 1992. I’d heard she supported Sunderland; she replied the next day and an interview was set up.

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