Sunderland

Bomber Brown, player power and Michael Gray’s Ferrari

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It was a good day at the office for the Salut! Sunderland Comments department yesterday. Some sharp thoughts on Blackburn’s plight and on our own progress, plus a simple, moving response to our tribute to Ralph Coates. And once again Frank Johnson, who covered Sunderland for the Northern Echo for four decades, popped up with priceless memories. We just hope he doesn’t mind them being elevated in this way to ensure a wider audience …

I wonder what Alan Brown (the manager, not the player) would make of today’s game and today’s players.

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Son of Durham, star of Spurs and Burnley: Ralph Coates RIP

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Image: Tottenham Canadian Supporter’s Club

Technical issues may have prevented this smashing tribute by Jeremy Robson being as widely seen as it deserved. Ralph Coates, who died a week before Christmas after suffering a stroke, was one of the great Durham-bred footballers who made a mark away from the region. He was a man in the mould of Jimmy Armfield, grateful for the career and life his skills had given him: “When I was playing, our wages reflected the era – I was on nothing like the £30,000 a week that today’s top players can earn, but I lived comfortably and was not looking to see if I had the money to pay the next bill when it came through the post.” …

The internet provides instant access to information about any subject.

Or at least so it seems. It came as a shock at the start of the Spurs v Newcastle Utd game when there was a tribute to Ralph Coates, the former Burnley, Spurs and Orient winger who had recently departed. I hadn’t heard the sad news of Ralph’s death even though he had passed away on Dec 17, aged 64.

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Blackburn Soapbox: comfort zone for SAFC, danger zone for Rovers

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Sunderland 3 Blackburn Rovers 0: a thoroughly satisfactory scoreline as Pete Sixsmith sits in on lessons in finishing from our strikers (somewhat necessary after the zillion misses against Blackpool). Pete lauds a classy performance from Jordan Henderson and warns Rovers of danger ahead before delivering a lesson of his own to SAFC which he earnestly hopes Niall Quinn will see is heeded …

Another year has dawned and with it the realisation that my time on this planet is now approaching its own diamond jubilee. So, a good way to start Year 60 is a win at home against traditionally difficult opponents.

Except they weren’t particularly difficult. They were missing a good goalkeeper, a dominant centre half and anyone with any idea of how to put the ball in the net.

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Man Utd, Preston and the Ferguson dynasty: wrong and right

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UEFA Champions LeagueImage: tpower1978

The TalkSport site has been having some fun recalling the various times Sir Alex Ferguson – that’s him, gagged, in the image above – has blown his top. The research may well have taken years, so copious is the archive.

Why did they bother? Ah, then you haven’t heard that the Manchester United boss has – TalkSport’s words – “reacted angrily to the sacking of son Darren at Preston by demanding the return of three of his Man United players from their loan spells at Deepdale”.

Hardly the most important talking point of the year just ending, but interesting all the same. And Salut! Sunderland – or, since this is a democracy, one part of it – is instinctively on SAF’s side.

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House of the Rising Sunderland fan (who also likes Fulham)

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Another slice of Salut! Sunderland nostalgia with apologies to those to whom it is all a bit familiar. Many years ago, when I was writing about Sunderland celebrity supporters for Wear Down South, the branch magazine of the London & Southern England SAFSA, the chance arose to interview Alan Price. I had discovered that despite his later association with Fulham, and what I assumed were the Mag allegiances of the Animals, Alan had grown up a devoted SAFC fan. His reminiscences were repeated here a few years ago but are worth repeating because the Salut! Sunderland audience these days far exceeds the combined readerships of Wear Down South and this site in earlier days …

First published during the bad though not quite disastrous 2001-2002 campaign (the 19-point disaster was a season later)

Good though the Animals were as a Sixties band, I had always assumed they were a bunch of Mags.

“Oh Lord,” comes the thundering response from Alan Price at the very thought. “Please don’t let me be misunderstood.

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Ralph Coates: honouring one of the best players we never had

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Fans at more than one ground gave him a one-minute silence on Tuesday. Now Jeremy Robson, in far-off Canada, pays tribute to a player who came from Durham mining stock and ought really to have played for Sunderland, but instead joined what was then an exodus of talent from the region to follow his trade elsewhere …

The internet provides instant access to information about any subject.

Or at least so it seems. It came as a shock at the start of the Spurs v Newcastle Utd game when there was a tribute to Ralph Coates, the former Burnley, Spurs and Orient winger who had recently departed. I hadn’t heard the sad news of Ralph’s death even though he had passed away on Dec 17, aged 64.

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Soapbox: more reflections on Blackpool, jitters before Blackburn

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The post-Christmas setbacks have left Pete Sixsmith in a gloomy mood. The possible absence of Welbeck and Gyan when we face Blackburn hasn’t lifted his spirits. But surely he is going too far down the road of pessimism to suggest we could find ourselves in trouble …

Two days later and a short viewing on Match of the Day have done little to assuage my disappointment after Tuesday’s result.

The Northern Echo sent Steph Clarke to cover the game. I assume she is a young journalist, finding her way in the world and has been told not to upset the powers that be at Premier League football clubs. She wrote in a positive vein and even gave Gyan and Bent a score of seven each out of 10. Maybe she confused the mark with the number of chances missed by each player. (Not as bad as the Sunderland Echo, Pete; its headline reads “Gary Rowell: How did Sunderland lose against Blackburn?” – ed)

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