Sunderland

SAFC v Newcastle: Derby Day – let’s make it an enjoyable experience

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With the October humiliation still fresh in his mind, Pete Sixsmith comes out from under the covers to call on the spirit of the  the Roker Roar before the Wear-Tyne derby. 

 

Sunday is looming on the horizon and with it the chance to gain some revenge for the humiliation that was heaped on us in October. I regard that as possibly the worst day I have had following Sunderland, on a par with Gillingham at home and the Crystal Palace play off game. 

I would imagine that it was Steve Bruce’s worst day in management. He said that he went home and went to bed, thereby mirroring the actions of all those of red and white persuasion in the region. Never has pulling the covers over the head seemed such an attractive lifestyle choice. 

So, this time round, what are we likely to get? For Steve Bruce, this is the defining moment in his Sunderland career. Lose this one and he is a dead man walking in the eyes of many Sunderland fans. Win it and his contract negotiations can continue without any shouts of dismay from fan sites, message boards and Salut Sunderland. 

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The Newcastle fan whose grandpa tyuk the bus fra’ Balmbra’s

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Garry Steckles, with whom Monsieur Salut worked on a newspaper in Abu Dhabi, is not Bob Marley but knows as much about him as most living souls, spending lots of his time in the Caribbean, involving himself in the reggae scene and, a couple of years ago, publishing a biography of the great man. Another claim to fame: his grandfather – Garry’s not Bob’s – once owned Balmbra’s. The Blaydon Races link is appropriate: there’s always a downside to good people and Garry is a Mag. Tomorrow, we get his answers to our questions about Sunday’s Wear-Tyne derby. Today, we recall a brilliant piece he wrote for Salut! Sunderland before the 2008 equivalent, won by us 2-1 …

Before I start, I should point out that I don’t really have any memories of Tyne-Wear derbies.

Most of my Newcastle memories are from the Fifties, and while I might have been at one I can’t honestly recall anything about it.

From 1960 until I left for Canada in 1968, I was working every Saturday during the football season, either in the office putting out a paper or at a match covering it. Since 1968, I’ve been more or less a long-distance fan. Anyway, I think I can write around all of that. Here goes …

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Sixer’s Sentiments: Welcome to Vice Chairman Miliband

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Although the club has not officially confirmed any appointment* Pete Sixsmith muses on the football affiliations of Prime Ministers and almost Prime Ministers, including the best PM we never had

*stand-in editor panics about spreading misinformation while M Salut is swanning around abroad

I am not one for reading the Daily Mail – indeed I would usually reject fish and chips if they came wrapped in it – but my attention was drawn to it this morning while I was trying to persuade the cat to take a pill by stroking its throat, a task that brings hours of entertainment as I comb the kitchen floor trying to find out where he has spat out the damn thing.

The Today programme mentioned that the Mail was running a story about Miliband Major becoming Vice Chairman of Sunderland AFC. I thought about buying a copy on the way to work, but decided against betraying my class and read the story on line.

And for once the Mail seemed to be right. It has a dreadful record – I am sure that all readers are familiar with the Zinoviev Letter of 1924 – and this story was written in the sneering terms that Associated Newspapers reserve for Socialist politicians, who are clearly expected to know their place and doff their (flat) caps to the toffs who, quite rightly in their distorted view, run this country.

They did a mock up of Miliband Major in a Sunderland shirt, but true to form, they used last season’s, a fine example of research by their political staff.  They also had him holding a banana, a reference to a less than flattering photo image from his failed campaign to be leader of the Labour Party.

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Kate Adie: the naked truth of cheering goals at Newcastle

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Kate Adie at U of BedsGavin Stewart

It was time in any case for another look at Kate Adie*, one of the finest TV news reporters this country has produced but more importantly, for the purposes of Salut! Sunderland, a fan since girlhood of SAFC. Occasionally, someone pops up at 606 or Ready to Go alleging that Kate isn’t really a supporter. All I can say is that it is now 35 years since my first conversation with her about our shared Sunderland passion. She is utterly genuine about it. In due course, I may be able to persuade Kate to update this piece written for my series on celebrity supporters at Wear Down South, magazine of the London and SE branch of the SAFC Supporters’ Assocation. But in the run-up to Sunday’s Wear-Tyne derby, it is worth refreshing memories of the original if only because of a lovely anecdote from one of those delicious 2-1 victories under Peter Reid at St James’ Park …

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Notts County Soapbox: Pies poison us

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37 years on from a tight draw at Meadow Lane, Sunderland show that they have learned nothing from the past and turn in a display that has Pete Sixsmith shaking his head in wonderment at such an embarrassing performance

 

So, the idea of symmetry with the teaching career goes out of the bloody window at the first stage.

What an absolutely shocking performance our players turned in yesterday. I won’t use the word “team” in this, because we played nothing like one. It was a collection of individuals pretending to be a unified group in red and white stripes, nothing more.

Our opponents, a decent third level team, stuck to their task well. They were organised, efficient and well drilled. This proved to be far too much for the assembled red and white superstars, who played as if they were up against some wonder team from the upper echelons of La Liga rather than a mid table Division One team.

As I drove across an empty Wearmouth Bridge towards an empty Stadium of Light, I heard the line up and thought, “Hmm, one or two will be keen to show the manager and the assembled fans that they are good enough to play regularly. This makes me look forward to an afternoon of high tempo football and lots of goals whizzing past the Pies goalkeeper”.

How wrong could I be? Quite a lot as it happened. Our “squad” players made it clear that the only squad that applied to them was one they should be stood in front of.

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Two for joy? Salut to miss the Magpies twice

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MagpiesTony Hisgett


Yesterday’s encouraging news about David Meyler – out for 10 weeks but no new rupture to his knee ligament, which would have meant much longer or even threatened his career – is a great send-off for M Salut, who is off on holiday …


It is not often we play the Mags twice in eight days or – thinking of the way Pete Sixsmith referred to Notts Co in his lovely piece about today’s FA Cup game – the ‘Pies one week, the Mags the next.

And of course, if we stumble later today without quite falling, there may be a third game against black and whites during Monsieur Salut’s badly timed absence from Blighty and these pages. Anyone for a replay at Meadow Lane?

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SAFC v Notts County Soapbox: Meadow Lane by Hillman Imp

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Some more glorious reminiscences from Pete Sixsmith, who also offers timely reassurance to anyone who took him seriously when he wondered aloud about which match to watch tomorrow …

To those who thought I was deserting the Stadium of Light for Dean Street, I say thank you for convincing me that my destiny and duty lay at Sunderland rather than Shildon. I shall be in my normal seat on Saturday watching the current crop of Lads take on the current crop of Magpies.

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