Sunderland

Women, the offside rule and an Aston Villa winner

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After the Darren Bent saga, it breaks our hearts to be kind to Aston Villa. But at heart, they’re a decent club with proper fans so Salut! Sunderland rises above petty differences – who is Darren Bent anyway? Lousy first touchy, shockingly wasteful with too many of the chances he gets – to make a special award to a Villa fan …

Regular readers will know that Salut! Sunderland likes Philosophy Football.

They’re hopeless at replying to e-mails but did once put up one of their splendid T-shirts as a prize in our Who are You? awards.

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Unwise to talk about backing the other side? You bet …

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Our shadowy Birflatt Boy is quick to respond to the rotten question of whether it is ever Ok to bet on your team losing …

M Salut’s article on betting against your team – click here – prompted Birflatt to think of other dilemmas that anyone could potentially face by doing nothing worse than supporting their team.

Now Birflatt wouldn’t condone anyone betting against Sunderland in any circumstances other than those where the wager is intended to cover the costs of an away trip down to London, for example, and where the bitter taste of defeat is accentuated by the trip costing half a week’s wages.

A few seasons back when Peter Crouch was playing for Liverpool, they were drawn to play Chelsea in the semi-finals of the Champions League.

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How to make Manchester United pay if they want Jordan

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Jordan Henderson

Most people seem to agree that Jordan Henderson has looked short of his best in recent games.

He remains a terrific player who ought to have a truly massive career ahead of him.

We naturally hope that career is with Sunderland AFC, and that playing for us proves no obstacle to picking up loads of caps for England. Being chosen for the England Under-21 squad for a friendly in Italy next week means he may have to wait for his second full cap, but that wait is unlikely to prove a long one.

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Forget Ashley Cole, Patrice Evra and Dani Alves: meet Bardinho

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Phil Bardsley - Sunderland - Premier LeagueAddick-tedKevin

There is a site called Sportige.com* that produces lists each year of the best full backs in the world.

The latest edition has Chelsea’s Ashley Cole and Manchester United’s (er, disgraced) French international Patrice Evra above the rest at left back and Dani Alves, Barcelona’s Brazilian defender, in top place at right back. Very honourable mentions for Sergio Ramos, Phillip Lahm and Maicon (Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan respectively).

All pale into shades of nothingness when compared to the scintillating new sensation that goes by various names: Phil Bardsley, Wee Shuggie McBardsley and now – with thanks to Jeremy Robson of this parish – Bardinho.

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Stoke Who are You?: ‘dirty, negative jibes are just dull’

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The disappointment of Chelsea must be put firmly behind us. Saturday’s game at Stoke assumes real importance if we are serious about being a top six sort of club. We didn’t get Fuller and they’re still jam-packed with former Sunderland players (and beginning to whinge about the off-on form of one Kenwyne Jones).

Mark Eltringham* – recommended to us as a “wry, bitter, and cynical” City fan whose thoughts sometimes grace the pages of the Stoke Sentinel – provided answers to surely every question you’d expect a Sunderland supporter to throw at Stoke fan and, having predicted a draw (see below), added after this week’s defeat at Liverpool: “I think after tonight, you’re a must win game for us. Not good and the natives are restless.” …

Salut! Sunderland:
Annoying, dirty, negative are among the adjectives I have seen recently to describe Stoke City. Water off a duck’s back or really quite wounding?

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Chelsea Soapbox: beaten but not humbled by Blues

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In a model of even-handed match reporting, Pete Sixsmith praises what Sunderland did well, puts aside disappointment that we could not quite rise to the occasion and do better and salutes a powerful display by the Champions in general – one José Bosingwa da Silva excluded – and one man, Nicolas Anelka, in particular …

As games go, it was a good one. There was plenty of exciting and attacking football, some poor defending, controversial refereeing decisions and a sublime performance from one player. The pity was that we lost it.

These are the games where we measure our progress. Too many times in the past, we have come up against one of the very good sides at the top of the League and we have been rolled over. So, on that criterion, we have advanced. We were beaten, but Chelsea did not swamp us.

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