Sunderland - SAFC Blog

God speed Steed. Bonne chance à Saint-Etienne. Tu nous manqueras

August 4, 2011 by Colin Randall

Out of the Light, into the Cauldron … Salut! Sunderland offers thanks and best wishes to Steed Malbranque …

M Salut and M Malbranque can talk freely over a good bottle of sturdy Côtes du Rhône without fear of complaint from me if he happens to be chainsmoking Gauloises throughout.

We’d be able to agree that this football business can be, not to mince words, merdique. You win a place in the hearts of most of the fans of your club only to be sold on during some restructuring programme that leaves you “not featuring in the boss’s future plans”.

Darlington 0 Sunderland 3: a silent (for us) romp

August 3, 2011 by Colin Randall

Monsieur Salut

Monsieur Salut was not there, the French Mediterranean seeming to have the edge on Darlo. But Pete Sixsmith, we think, was.

And Big Pete was clearly so ecstatic with the Sunderland performance that he forgot to send a single text.

Hartlepool 1 Sunderland 3: and is it farewell to Stee…eeed?

August 2, 2011 by Colin Randall

The news from down the A19 was that Sunderland won comfortably, 3-1 with goals from Gyan, Colback and Larsson.

Better still, Pete Sixsmith reports from the game, we took it seriously and the match produced “some good pointers”. Ian Porter, at Blackcats, was also encouraged by what he saw (see footnote*).

Soapbox: beautiful at Burnley – the weather, not the game

July 31, 2011 by Colin Randall

A great day out, says Pete Sixsmith, but – like the curate’s egg – only in parts …

Burnley shimmered in the summer sunshine as the crowd filed in to Turf Moor, clad in shorts and t-shirts rather than the waterproofs and overcoats that one associates with this wet and windy part of North East Lancs.

Behind the ground, Burnley III were playing Ramsbottom III in front of a decent crowd of cricket and football fans, who were no doubt appreciative of the fact that the England pace bowler James Anderson learned his trade here.

Burnley 1 Sunderland 0: nothing to write home about

July 30, 2011 by Colin Randall

Managers cannot lose with pre-season friendlies. Win and the Lads did well. Lose and it doesn’t really matter; it’s all about fitness.

Let us hope fitness had a boost today as there was precious little to get excited about in the way of Sunderland’s performance, according to our own Pete Sixsmith.

Scottish Soapbox: class in Kilmarnock, now for beauty in Burnley?

July 29, 2011 by Colin Randall

Better late than never, Pete Sixsmith reflects on his trip over the border …

A favourite quiz question was “Name three senior clubs who play at grounds named after other sports?” One of them went when Derby left The Baseball Ground, another when Wrexham’s Racecourse became a non-league stadium, leaving Kilmarnock’s Rugby Park the sole remaining part of the poser.

It is a decent stadium, with an old grandstand and three modern “throw them up quickly” stands. The current capacity is 18,000 (not challenged on Tuesday night) whereas the old standing ground was double that. It was quite a recent record as well, for a SFA Cup tie with Rangers in 1962, which they lost 2-4.

Kilmarnock 1 Sunderland 2: Sess again, Wickham off mark

July 27, 2011 by Colin Randall

Not the toughest of pre-season opposition but good to record a win all the same. And 399 SAFC supporters were counted among the 2,333 crowd.

Thanks to the combined efforts of the safc.com live text team, and Mr Peter Sixsmith of this parish, I knew fairly quickly that we had taken the lead at Kilmarnock and soon after the end that we had beaten them 2-1.

Beating Arsenal away: rare enough to shout about

July 26, 2011 by Colin Randall

ooh to be a gooner Image: KetuGajjar

It was a line-up that included bright young hopes for the future and men who need to get away, for the sake of their careers and also Sunderland’s player staffing levels.

And they did something the senior team has not managed for nine years: win away at Arsenal. Arsenal Reserves 1 Sunderland Reserves 2.

Soapbox: on to Kilmarnock & Burnley as the summer starts here

July 25, 2011 by Colin Randall

Well, that’s the retirement malarkey over and done with. Thursday at work was an emotional day, culminating in the presentation of a framed, signed photograph of the 1973 FA Cup winning side. It is now replete on my living room wall, sandwiched between a photo of Niall Quinn and another of Marco, rolling the second goal past Fat Burridge in 1990.

The day on the Trans-Pennine Ale Trail went swimmingly. If the old maxim “A man can be judged by the quality of his friends”, then I must rank somewhere between the Dalai Lama and MK Gandhi as a truly wonderful person.

Bruce upbeat on Borussia Monchengladbach and Germany: a ‘tough training camp’

July 24, 2011 by Colin Randall

The personal e-mails from Steve Bruce after each match have not yet resumed. When they do, we’ll find a collective name for them. Bruce’s Blarney is tempting; last season, there were times when some Salut! Sunderland readers may have thought Bruce’s Bluster would fit.

But it is useful, all the same, to see what the manager has to say, even if the e-mail (personal to me but also thousands of others) contains thoughts marshalled or massaged for circulation by a press officer. And today’s thoughts, after a 0-0 draw with Borussia Monchengladbach left us winless but with positives to draw from three friendlies in Germany, were demonstrably his own since he gave voice to them on SAFC TV.