Sunderland

Man City, Arsenal, Villa, Wolves vie for ‘Who are You?’ awards

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Published by Octopus, co-sponsors of our Who are You? awards

Another update on this year’s “Who are You?” awards from Salut! Sunderland, with news of an extra prize to add to the goodies already promised by our friends, who happily include a Sunderland supporter, at When Saturday Comes …

WSC: co-sponsors of the Who are You? awards

This is the contest that will not change the winners’ lives. Or not much.

Each year Salut! Sunderland judges choose the best contributions from opposing supporters to our “Who are You?” series, the questionnaire that precedes each SAFC game home or away, league or cup, provided we can find someone which, with one sad exception involving Stoke City, is generally the case.

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Sunderland report cards: (1) progress achieved, but Newcastle can smile too

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As Niall Quinn prepares to convene his inquest into the more troubling aspects of a season that ended quite happily, Salut! Sunderland begins its own review of events from August to May. As promised, our contributors are applying their own powers of scrutiny and analysis to the questions of what went right, and what went wrong. M Salut gets the game under way …

First of all, an admission. In the immediate post-match glow of seeing Sunderland rise to a respectable 10th place finish, I overlooked two details: unbeaten in London and ending the season above Newcastle United.

Of course both matter, up to a point. We can be proud of having beaten Chelsea and West Ham away, with draws at Fulham, Arsenal and Spurs. And it is gratifying to remain the top North-eastern club. But I agree with the comment from “Billy the Fish”, which appeared here among responses to Pete Sixsmith’s matchday report from Upton Park, that we should really be concerned with our own performances, our own need for trophies.

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Soapbox: dignity at West Ham, ‘as new’ banners at Newcastle

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Who, as Pete Sixsmith put the question last night, would have guessed it? We were drifting unhappily towards the end of a season that had promised so much and, if truth be known, left us anxious to get the last game over and done with. Then a team still missing several key players turns in a performance, for a full 90 minutes, that was as convincing as some of our recent second halves have been flat. Pete reports on a satisfying finale …

That was a satisfying way to end the season, wasn’t it? Admittedly we were up against a team who were utterly demoralised, led by an interim manager and playing in front of a crowd who looked as glum as I would be at a Michael McIntyre gig.

But, as the old adage goes, “you can only beat what is in front of you”, and that is exactly what we did. We did it in some style, with excellent performances from Sessegnon, Colback , Henderson and Zenden. You can’t ask for any more than that.

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Winners from other sides, and those dreaded end-of-term reports

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When Saturday Comes: ‘Who are You?’ award sponsors

Don’t know about you, but I do not recall with pleasure those occasions when school report cards were due to be issued and taken home. We’ll have to wait and see how the Salut! Sunderland panel dispenses the Well Dones, Not Good Enoughs and Could do Betters. But there’s a prize day coming, too …

Salut! Sunderland will, of course, keep going throughout the close season. The output will not match what you have come to expect when the team is playing, but we will continue to look for ways of informing or entertaining the large army of readers who come here because they support SAFC or because, no matter who they follow, they appreciate at least some of what we try to do.

And there is unfinished business that has become traditional.

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Steve Bruce on victory at West Ham (and the fans): ‘magnificent’

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We are quite sure Steve Bruce is thoroughly fed up with having to send, or have someone send, the weekly e-mail lauding a good performance but more often explaining a bad one. Salut! Sunderland shares his ennui. But we’ve started, so we’ll finish. How often have we had to preface his remarks by negative thoughts? How often has he seemed to be offering the same excuse as last time? And yet after all that, we get the top 10 finish – just, but it counts – that we wanted. It may make some of the end-of-season verdicts look a little different …

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Sixer’s Sevens: West Ham 0 Sunderland 3 – unbeaten in London

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pete2

Starting with the last game of the season, something of a romp at Upton Park to bring smiles to our faces, these are the most recent of Pete Sixsmith‘s incisive seven-word verdicts capturing the essence of just about every game. When, rarely, Pete is absent, a supersub does it for him. Pete’s full analysis will appear tomorrow.

The full Sixer’s Sevens archive – see link below – encapsulates the matchday experiences, from darkest gloom to sublime elation, of a fan who is usually there …

May 22 2011 West Ham (0) 0 SAFC (1) 3 take your pick … Unbeaten in London and above the Mags OR Easy win and well done West Brom

May 14 2011 SAFC (1) 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers (1) 3 … We ran out of steam; Wolves didn’t

May 7 2011 Bolton Wanderers (0) 1 SAFC (1) 2 Great result, strong performance and safety assured

April 30 2011 SAFC (0) 0 Fulham (1) 3 No forwards, creaky defence, hurry up summer

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West Ham 0 SAFC 3: above Newcastle, pity Blackpool and Birmingham

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Mrs Logic

Let us hear it for Steve Bruce’s makeshift finishing squad and a storming last game. It meant we not only finished above Newcastle United but somehow met the owner Ellis Short’s target of reaching the top 10. There has been criticism here as well as elsewhere, but we are thrilled to salute a heartening finale …

We called for urgency and resolve in the final game of a season that has at times flattered to deceive, and that is what we got. This was a thoroughly efficient performance and it brought the sort of routine away win we should be able to expect in so many of our games.

And on a matter of immense pride to all supporters of Sunderland AFC, we end the 2010-2011 season UNBEATEN IN LONDON.

But there is something else to be said before any more is offered here in what will be a brief preliminary to all else that follows, from Sixer’s Sevens to Steve Bruce’s e-mail to Sixer’s Soapbox.

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French Fancies: hail Lille and – nearly – Patrice Carteron’s Dijon

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Image: FC Lille

Lille’s 2-2 draw at Paris Saint-Germain last night was enough to bring them the cup-and-league double – they had already beaten PSG in the final of the Coupe de France – and a promise by the club president Michel Seydoux to throw a “huge party in this marvellous city”.

That’s a great achievement for a relatively unfashionable club that will do well to hang on to its better players. It is only their third Ligue 1 title, though their second double (look back to 1946 for the first). I did help a little by predicting a comfy late cruise to the championship for Marseille but the record books are unlikely to acknowledge this contribution.

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The West Ham ‘Who are You?’: Sunderland ‘a bit like us’

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This is it. A season that has been disastrous for one club and disappointing for the other draws to a close with a game that means a lot in pride but nothing in substance. Sunderland supporters are entitled to expect a performance full of passion and desire; as someone said the other day, we’re always entitled to expect it. But think of some of the end-of-season flops of recent seasons, Bolton and Wolves springing excruciatingly to mind, and you see why it seems important to make a special plea today. Niall Quinn has promised an inquest on the season now ending. Salut! Sunderland‘s will begin in the days to come. For now, we offer a second chance to see the interview with the Hammers-supporting writer and broadcaster Iain Dale*, who also runs the West Ham Til I Die blog …

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Salut!’s week: intruding on Hammers grief, honouring Millwall wit

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The season ends tomorrow, a milestone some of us feel cannot be reached a moment too soon. Here, then, is what may be the last weekly digest before the new season (though that will depend on how busy our contributors keep us during the summer break) …

Someone invited to explore a Millwall supporters’ forum might steel himself for a form of expression that struggles to get past four-letter bluster. Let it be said, then, that if Salut! Sunderland were to award a comment-of-the-week prize for humour and even eloquence, this week’s would go to one Lord Kitchener from the House of Fun site.

This is not the start of a Millwall-Mackem love-in. The comment appeared between plenty more that were neither witty not eloquent, though they did at least betray a sensitivity that, perhaps unjustly, we never expected from this source.

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