Sunderland

Was it 7,000, 8,000 or perhaps even more Sunderland fans who made the trip to Blackpool for the New Year’s Day fixture at Bloomfield Road? Pete Sixsmith was among them and was delighted to record Josh Maja’s 15th goal of the season. Barnes and Benno kept those of us nowhere near the Lancashire seaside in touch and it was clear from their radio coverage that having been well on top, we proceeded as so often to live dangerously after going ahead.

Gary Bennett said repeatedly how important the second goal was to us (‘come on,’ he said before one corner, ‘score from one of these set pieces!’… the cushion never arrived, there was clearly an occasional threat to McClaughlin’s clean sheet, a Bradford-style goal-line incident and a lot of necessarily solid defending. And won. Not the most convincing of victories, but Sunderland stepped three points closer towards promotion. Sixer’s seven-word verdict – on which he will doubtless build for his full report – salute the massive contribution of the scorer, a man we desperately want to hang on to …

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New Year’s day is part of a great English football tradition. Games are played on January 1 just as they take place on Boxing Day, so much better than the wimpish French trêve (it also means truce but here denotes a widwinter sporting break).

And Sunderland, accompanied by 7-8,000 supporters, are at Blackpool. A special Who are You?, to be published on Sunday afternoon, will combine answers from the Lancashire club’s mascot, the Bloomfield Bear, and another look at the smashing interview gven to us a few years ago by the Blackpool and BBC legend Jimmy Armfield, who died in January 2018.

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Monsieur Salut writes: which of the Newcombes, father Gary or son Kieran, a) appears in the photo and b) answered our questions? Not sure about the photo but we can take it Gary answered the questions since the responses suggest a longer stint as a Blackpool fan than that of his lad. Kieran’s lips are sealed beyond saying ‘they’re the bear’s answers’ so here, before the exceptional treat of another look at replies the late Jimmy Armfield once gave us, is the Bloomfield Bear, complete with a succinct reference to the afternoon at Wembley that brought a fairytale season back in the top flight after 40 years, if one with no happy ending.

And then he can work out how to entertain home fans PLUS 8,000 Sunderland supporters on New Year’s day …

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