Sunderland

Sunderland vs Southend Guess the Score. Serve up another win against the Shrimpers

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Maybe yes, maybe no

Should I offer a prize for the SAFC vs Southend United Guess the Score? Monsieur Salut asks himself the question and cannot decide. The prizeless Donny edition still attracted a healthy enough batch of entries and I am not yet recovered from my bout of skintness, a feeling many readers will know.

I think I shall keep you guessing, not only on the score in Saturday’s game against the Shrimpers but on whether the winner will get a mug.

If the game goes well for us, I may well relent; if we lose or only draw, only a mug should expect a gift in the post. That should serve as a tip for any Southend fan minded to enter: you’re most welcome but go for a home win scoreline if you actually want even a chance of winning a prize. Life can be unfair.

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‘4,000 Sunderland fans, midweek game says it all’. Doncaster Rovers Who are You?

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Darren Burke (right): the Donny generation game

Monsieur Salut writes: Pete Sixsmith has, as ever, written a wonderful article on Doncaster Rovers for his twin series on the ‘first time ever I saw you team/ground‘. It is sheer class, should appeal to fans of both Donny and SAFC and will appear here tomorrow. For now, we have Darren Burke*, a passionate Doncaster Rovers fan whose enthusiasm and pride shine throughout another fine contribution to Salut! Sunderland‘s Who are You? series …

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Doncaster Rovers vs SAFC Guess the Score

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Jake: ‘Monsieur Salut must be in a bad mood again – no prize this time’

For this midweek visit to Doncaster Rovers, Salut! Sunderland reverts to a “just for fun” format for the Guess the Score.

The coffers are empty and there’s a backlog of prizes to be ordered for previous winners.

Normal service – ie prize mugs – will be restored once M Salut feels less skint and has honoured outstanding obligations.

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Sixer’s Shrewsbury Sevens: 2-0 to SAFC, a comfortable win and that elusive clean sheet

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Monsieur Salut writes: this is where Pete Sixsmith offers his customary seven-word verdict on each Sunderland game he attends. He wasn’t impressed by a goal-free first half – ‘poor stuff’ – but found the second half much more enjoyable. It ended with the 2-0 scoreline in our favour that our excellent Shrewsbury Town Who are You? interviewee Glyn Price had predicted. A happy return to Salop for Sixer, in the company of 1,600+ other Sunderland fans including our associate editor John McCormick. And we’re back up to third with a game in hand. There’ll be more from this win to come …

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‘SAFC should walk this division.’ Shrewsbury Town ‘Who are You?’ (2)

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Click Jake’s image to see all editions of Who are You? this season, including part one of Glyn Price and Shrewsbury Town

In the first part of a long interview with Glyn Price*, co-presenter of the Shrewsbury Town podcast Salopcast, we heard about what he calls the ‘massive’ community pride in the club and the highs and lows of supporting a lower league side (don’t expect a Salop fan to thank you for a ticket to see the team at Wembley – they always lose there). Now on to Glyn’s thoughts on Sunderland and his scoreline prediction for Saturday…

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Armchair Liverpool fans ‘can never feel our pride’. Shrewsbury Town Who are You? (1)

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Glyn Price: click his photo and you will see all the ‘Who are You?’ interviews for this season so far

Monsieur Salut writes: League One is proving a goldmine for Who are You? interviews. Glyn Price* maintains the standards set by several others. He’s the co-presenter of the Shrewsbury Town podcast Salopcast and assists the club’s Supporters’ Parliament. Some great responses await you, but it’s a long interview so has been divided into two. The second instalment – in which Glyn jokes that Jack Ross should be strung up or worse if he fails to win us automatic promotion – will appear tomorrow (and can now be seen here) …

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Sunderland vs Peterborough ‘Who are you?’: from Posh Spice to posh football

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James Bloodworth: ‘Don’t know about posh football but it’s certainly effective’

Monsieur Salut writes: as a boy, I briefly loved Peterborough United almost as much as I have most of my life loved Sunderland. There was the romance of a little club battling against official woodentops for entry into the Football League despite astonishing non-league success. Finally, they made it – and continued to excel. I’d even travel to northern grounds to see them – York, Darlo, Newcastle – and I saw them win each time. Now we meet in similar positions at or near the top of League One. Let James Bloodworth* take up the Posh story, including the bizarre tale of Victoria Beckham objecting to a nickname given to the club 53 years before she was born …

Salut! Sunderland:  what a fabulous start to the season, I remember seeing you as a possible promotion contender pre-season, but what has gone right?

James Bloodworth: fabulous is an understatement! Steve Evans has been allowed free reign to bring in his players: a luxury not many of his predecessors have had. It’s not the free flowing football that we became famous for in lower league circles over the past decade, but it’s effective! We had 19 signings over the summer, which is absolutely mental and the fact they’ve all gelled and created a solid, hard to beat unit is nothing short of miraculous.

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SAFC vs Peterborough prize Guess the Score: more than a mug at stake

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Jake: ‘Like a cup final? Nah, much more important than that!’

If Sunderland beat Peterborough on Tuesday night, that would be our result of the season so far.

Posh have been playing outstanding football and are still second, two places above us, despite unexpectedly dropping two home points against Blackpool while we, slightly disappointingly, could only draw at Coventry, What greater test of the Jack Ross revolution could there be at this stage of our own season?

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The Coventry City ‘Who are You?’: Oh what a night(mare), 1977 style

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Ian Davidson: ‘at Wembley for the playoff final last May with my wife, Chris, and daughter Nikki’ City beat Exeter to go up

 

Monsieur Salut writes: Salut! Sunderland, it is fair to say, has had fun and games with Coventry City fans over the years. We still, absurd as such a long-held grievance may seem, don’t like what happened that night in 1977 when our relegation was sealed by a deliberately non-competitive end to the delayed Coventry-Bristol City game. Congestion in the Midlands meant they knew our result before the game ended; our defeat at Everton while they were level on 2-2, meant both sides needed only to play out a draw to stay up. They, in a nutshell, say get over it and some say there was nothing to get over in the first place. We still feel an acute sense of foul play.

Ian Davidson*, who happens to be deputy chairman of the Coventry supporters’ club’s London branch and is also secretary of Sky Blues International for exiled fans, was there that night. He’s also a level-headed City fan and his point of view on that event is important. It should be read in the context of a tremendous set of answers to unrelated questions, which he stresses represent  his views alone. I hope and expect any responses from Salut! Sunderland  readers to be respectful …

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