Sunderland

Sheffield Utd vs Sunderland: cup fever or fear of cup runs?

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Jake: ‘guess the score – just for fun’

Monsieur Salut writes: most of us like a good cup run. We may not turn up in big numbers any more for games in the early rounds but interest builds as each obstacle is cleared. As Wembley looms and interest turns to excitement, we even start to care about winning something as mundane as the Checkatrade Trophy.

So to Bramall Lane and the Football League Cup third round tie at Sheffield United.

We naturally consider ours to be a bigger club than theirs and historically that is hardly a controversial belief. But as things stand, they are a Premier League side – on merit – and we are striving for promotion from two divisions lower.

How will it go?

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Bolton Wanderers vs Sunderland. Wanted: another winning trip across the Pennines

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Click on the image above, post your scoreline prediction

Just for fun, we have taken to saying about our regular slot inviting readers to predict Sunderland scorelines, says Monsieur Salut.

It hasn’t been much fun being a Bolton Wanderers fan. The club almost driven out of existence and all those goals shipped. I have no idea as I write on Monday morning, before a week’s break, whether they will go into our game buoyed by a midweek win at home to Oxford United – or how we did against Rotherham.

But gallows humour comes easily to Sunderland supporters and even before last Saturday’s latest walloping for Bolton – 6-1 away, almost inevitably to our own midweek opponents, Rotherham – one was moping at Twitter that Wanderers would probably start their revival against us.

(Of course we now know both teams came away with a point in midweek, Bolton claiming they were unlucky not to take all three  whilst those who saw or heard or followed our game in some other way can’t help but feel we dropped two points after the perfect start against the South Yorkshire side. Bolton of course brought in nine players on the last day of the transfer window and those players will now be getting up to speed, so we are unlikely to be facing the Trotters’ U18 side. This on paper should make it a tougher ask for our boys and my own personal opinion is that the wave of negativity surrounding a club that has still only lost 6 of its last 54 league games can’t be doing anything to help. The fact we are playing away might take some pressure of our boys but even if we emulate Ipswich, Rochdale, Tranmere and Gillingham by sticking five past Wanderers it won’t stop some saying we should have done better. MD)

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Sunderland – Middlesbrough U21: Sixer’s Smoggy Snapshot

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Here’s a quick warm up for tonight’s main event. Another game against another Yorkshire club.

Not as important, perhaps, but it gives us a glimpse of some players who might yet grace the famous grounds of the English Football League such as Roots Hall, Adams Park, Highbury, The Kassam three sided,  The New Meadow and the Stadium of Light.

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Sunderland vs Rotherham United. A big game, make it a big result for SAFC

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Jake: ‘and the score will be …’

A good result at Accrington Stanley propelled Sunderland back into the top six.

Isn’t the mark of a successful side at any level that it wins even when not playing that well, Monsieur Salut asks?

On to Rotherham at home. Who will win? By what score? Tell us below – I am sorry but we are still in just-for-fun mode, but that will change if Salut! Sunderland‘s fortunes change.

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Accrington Stanley vs Sunderland Who are You? .. any Stanley fans up for questions?

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Jake wants answers …

It would be an exaggeration to say Salut! Sunderland expects dozens of Stanley fans to turn up here and answer the questions below. Our Who are You? feature is in its dying days.

 

The death of Who are You? is a great shame – well, maybe only a small shame. It’s been fun to do, but simply too time-consuming given the modest resources of this site.

In all honesty, posting questions here in open letter format was never really likely to bring in lots of opposing fans even though they see the invitation via newsnow.co.uk. It just seemed worth a try; had the supporters of other clubs responded as well as did Ipswich fans, the series would be continuing.

But it hasnt happened. That has nothing to do with, for example, Accrington Stanley’s small fan base. We can tell from our internal systems data that lots of opposing fans, including some driven here by links at newsnow.co.uk, visited Salut! Sunderland, have seen the open invitation to have their say. They simply chose not to respond.

So be it. But on the off chance that some Stanley devotee out there sees this and wishes to offer his or gee thoughts, here are the questions again (updated since they originally applied to the league cup game) …

 

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Accrington Stanley vs Sunderland: just as we were enjoying a break from football …

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Yes, it’s back. Proper football, I mean, says Monsieur Salut.

Along with plenty of others, if probably still a minority, I tend to regard international breaks as weekends without football. At the very least, it’s a time to welcome not being too bothered about results.

Delighted though I am that England won against Bulgaria, and much as I hope they also beat Kosovo handsomely, I do not lose sleep over the international side’s ups and downs as I do over Sunderland. I am not in England just now and it took me a day or more to remember to check online for the Bulgaria score.

That sums up my interest in the national side though I was amused to see that here in France, they played the Andorran national anthem instead of Albania’s and then, after kickoff was delayed for the mistake to be rectified and the Albanian players assuaged, offered hearty apologies to Armenia.

Even in France, I suspect, protective labour laws and the abolition of execution by guilltoine may not be enough to stop heads rolling.

But football – for us – is back on Saturday and this is your chance to tell us, without selfish thoughts of reward, whether Sunderland will get the promotion drive back on course after the bad defeat at Posh.

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Will Toney atone? Luke O’Nien cleared but Peterborough man’s simulation stains football

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HThe hardest bit is trying to enter the mindset of a professional footballer who, during a meaningless touchline tangle after his team has taken an unassailable 3-0 lead, receives no contact to his face but goes down clutching it as if someone has just whacked him with a sideways blow from a sledgehammer.

Luke O’Nien has been cleared by the FA disciplinary bods of committing the imaginary offence for which Peterborough United’s Ivan Toney managed to have him sent off. I do not know whether Toney has form for this kind of simulation but if he has a shred of dignity and decency, he should apologise now.

If the Chronicle’s excellent James Hunter is right, Toney could even say sorry without worrying about further inconvenience. You and I might think he should now be starting a two-match ban; James thinks his luck will hold out:

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A slightly delayed Salut! Sunderland welcome to Laurens De Bock, on loan from Leeds

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Our new man via Football.ua [CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL]
Perhaps it was all the whingeing on social media about Jack Ross and the shortcomings of Sunderland’s transfer dealings. Perhaps it was a return, despite all we had to spend to put things right, of the occasional redirection from our pages to a rogue Turkish escort site (if anyone knows of a legal way of counter-attacking such cyber louts, please tell us).

One way or the other, we neglected to offer our customary greetings to the final signing of the transfer window: the Belgian left back Laurens De Bock on a season-long loan from Leeds United.

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Peterborough United vs SAFC ‘Who are You?’: an open invitation to Posh fans

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a chance for Posh fans to have their say

Sunderland’s games again Peterborough United last season epitomised the problem with our Who are You? series. As happened all season, we were able to publish terrific interviews – but with the same opposing fan each time. For his efforts, James Bloodworth went close to winning a prize in our annual HAWAY (Highly Articulate Who are You?) awards.

But it is embarrassing to have go cap in hand to the same candidates. And finding new ones is a time-consuming and often frustrating exercise. Salut! Sunderland’s limited resources are constantly stretched and no one, in honesty, has time to pursue opposing supporters, cajole them and then set up and publish the interviews.

So as with all other games so far this season, we present a shortened version of the customary questions to Peterborough fans in open letter format*. Please use the Comments field to answer any or all the questions posed.

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Peterborough Utd vs Sunderland. Ross’s dilemma as he seeks seven in a row

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Jake: ‘guess the score – just for fun’

An interesting dilemma faces Jack Ross ahead of Peterborough away.

He made eight changes for the Carabao Cup visit to Burnley and watched in admiration as the team came from behind to secure a marvellous 3-1 win and a third round trip to another Premier League side, Sheffield United.

There were excellent individual performances – Denver Hume, Luke O’Nien, Jack Baldwin and George Dobson being among the names that stood out in the commentary – but above all it seems to have been an exemplary team display.

So the winning side picks itself for Posh? It does not. The team Ross played in the last league game, at home to AFC Wimbledon, also won 3-1. Aiden McGeady and Chris Maguire, absent on Wednesday night, will surely be among the first names on the team sheet for this Saturday and it is difficult to see other than a return in goal for Jon McLaughlin,well as Lee Burge played at Burnley.

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