Sunderland

The Poll Recount: Liverpool’s penalty, Suarez’s hands, Richardson’s card

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Graham Poll offers his thoughts on the weekend controversies in each Monday’s Mail. Sometimes we agree, sometimes not. This occasional column will explore those of his verdicts that find us at odds with our own …

Today, Graham Poll insists Kieran Richardson should have been sent off when Phil Dowd awarded the penalty to Liverpool. He mocks the perfectly plausible argument that Suraez, as Dowd saw it, was heading away from goal and may even have pushed the ball too far to be able to control it. He was emphatically not making a simple tour round Mignolet to tap the ball home, much as he may have wished.

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Liverpool Soapbox: from Dowdly benevolence to gradual control

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It was a grand day out: I enjoyed watching both sets of supporters applaud a besuited Steven Gerrard as he walked round the touchline, smiling and singing autographs; I enjoyed seeing as many of ours applaud the traditional Gerry & The Pacemakers singalong as booed it, and I enjoyed seeing Liverpool fans applaud the superb touches of Stéphane Sessegnon (one Sunday paper’s rating of 5/10 was laughable). And Pete Sixsmith took enormous heart from a tremendous Sunderland fightback: for once, as he put it to me afterwards, deserving the cliché “very much a game of two halves” …

Another game with the once mighty Reds gets mired in controversy. We’ve had the beach ball, the back pass and the dive, which made it 2-1 to Liverpool on iffy decisions. Our turn this time, as Phil Dowd gave Kieran Richardson a considerable benefit of the doubt and showed him a yellow instead of a red.

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Song of the Day on tour: Republica … Ready to Go

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For some weeks, Salut! Sunderland‘s music offshoot Salut! Live has been running a Song of the Day feature.

Regular readers will know of the folk and folk-rock passions of M Salut and will therefore be inclined to read no further unless they share them. However, today’s choice – a long way removed from either genre – has impeccable Sunderland AFC credentials. So it gets two platforms today: a slot on each site.

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‘SAFC, officially my 2nd team’ – Manchester United fan

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Wes Brown, John O'Shea in funny colours: courtesy ROM

Scott the Red came back from the Manchester United website Republik of Mancunia to renew our warm relations and pose some questions about the new season. This was before the highly encouraging draw at Liverpool, but the answer still stand. One of the United fans leaving comments at RoM said: “Sunderland is officially my 2nd favourite team!” …

This, following a similar exercise with The Chelsea Blog, is Scott’s report and the interview:

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Newcastle’s Joey Barton, Arsenal’s Gervinho: a marriage made in heaven

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It began as a question in our Who Are You? series of pre-match interviews with the fans of opposing clubs, about diving and other forms of cheating.

Then it became the Eduardo Question, in honour of the Brazilian-born Croatian player’s monumental contribution to the art, and finally the Walcott Question as a sincere tribute to Theo for his candid admission – coupled with an apology – that he had dived in an unsuccessful attempt to con a referee.

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Bruce’s Banter: a ‘great’ display against Liverpool

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In his first e-mail to M Salut of the season, Steve Bruce rightly praises a superb comeback from a start that made us look as if we were heading for a battering. Sess and Brown were outstanding but others put in terrific second-half displays, too, and Larsson’s equaliser was stunning. Many thanks to Stan Simpson, of the Durham branch of the SAFCSA, for magically producing my ticket …

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Chelsea came calling before Arsenal’s credit downgrade

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The Chelsea Blog repeated last season’s exercise and popped a few questions our way about 2011-2012.

No great original thought appears in the replies, but I place them on record so that Salut! Sunderland readers can:

* Tell me I’m spot on

* Offer a sharper assessment

* Come back later to tell me to say how wrong I was

I’d also add that my answers would be slightly different had the questions been posed today and not a couple of weeks ago.

News from the Emirates, for example, would have made me wonder about Arsenal’s chances of making the top four. I hate to say it but fear our opponents for tomorrow’s opening game will sneak in and grab the Gunners’ slot … that is a shame because M Salut is a fully paid-up admirer of M Wenger and would be sad to see his club slip down the pecking order.

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Liverpool v Sunderland: here we go again

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So the game is on, the season will kick off after all – and Pete Sixsmith chooses to look back as well as forwards …

Saturday sees M Salut and moi starting our 48th season as fully committed Sunderland supporters. In 1963, we lined up with the likes of Jimmy Montgomery, Charlie Hurley, Martin Harvey and Johnny Crossan. This year, we have Kieran Westwood, Titus Bramble, Lee Cattermole and Stephane Sessegnon. Have things got any better?

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The Liverpool ‘Who Are You?’: a daughter speaks

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I may be proved wrong. The Liverpool supporter who faithfully promised to produce answers by yesterday may still resurface (he’s been silent for a week). We don’t even know yet whether the match will be on. But Salut! Sunderland cannot start the season on a blank, so turned to a disloyally Red, as opposed to Red and White, fan in the family. Lets hear from Nathalie Randall* , a terrific little footballer herself …


Salut! Sunderland:
As I write, Kenny Dalglish has spent an estimated £100m in an attempt to get Liverpool back into the top four. More can be expected before we kick off but is he on the right track?

After our recent track record under Hicks and Gillette with spending millions and getting nowhere but in severe debt, I am a little sceptical of the amount we have spent on players like Downing, Carroll and Henderson. However I think the players we have bought is a promising sign for the future. I just wish we hadn’t spent so much to get them!

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