Sunderland

Soapbox: can we send Cattermole back to Wigan?

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“It’s becoming ridiculous.” When a manager says that about his captain, and he’s not defending him but describing his immaturity and indiscipline, you know things are serious. Pete Sixsmith chose the headline; it’s unforgiving but reflects the complete exasperation of supporters Lee Cattermole has again let down …

We are sitting tenth in the league, a position that would probably keep us happy if it were May. However, after four games, three of which were against sides we had hoped to beat, a return of five points is a little disappointing.

Of course, had we managed to keep 11 players on the field for 50 per cent of those games, there is every possibility that we would have had nine points and would have been sitting pretty in third place with Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United to come.

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Wigan Observed: guess how many out of 10 for Cattermole

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Pete Sixsmith‘s considered view – a point won, or two sacrificed? – should be up and running here by tomorrow. But before he even left Wigan, he was being pumped by Salut! Sunderland for his seven-word verdict – published here last night – and The Observer for a slight longer instant summary …


THE OBSERVER fan’s verdict:

It was very frustrating at the end because I thought we had done enough to just about deserve the win.

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Wigan 1 SAFC 1: Gyan’s magic not quite enough

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In the end, it was a disappointing result because, having shot ourselves in a foot now riddled with self-inflicted bullet wounds, we’d put ourselves in a winning position. But to gain a draw when forced to play with 10 men for three quarters of the game, as Pete Sixsmith says in his one-line verdict elsewhere, shows character …

Asamaoh Gyan cost an awful lot of money. He repaid a small chunk of it with a finish of delightful aplomb after magnificent play on the right from Jordan Henderson.

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HT: Wigan 0 SAFC 0. A shocking lack of maturity

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This posting has now been superseded by Wigan Athletic (0) SAFC (0): Gyan’s magic not quite enough. CLICK HERE


Asamoah Gyan on as a sub and off the mark with a superbly cool finish after Jordan Henderson’s sublime work on the right followed by a great cross. Sadly, despite Simon Mignolet’s great work in our goal, Wigan equalised late when a shot going nowhere was headed past him. Earlier, another depressingly familiar story: Sunderland a player down and needing a backs-to-the-wall second half performance ……

Make immediate allowance for the ridiculous harshness of the first Lee Cattermole booking.

Then remember that a man given the responsibility of Sunderland’s team captaincy is presumably aware that having been booked, he must now take care to avoid rash tackles or general indiscipline.

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Wigan v Sunderland: a game to define our season

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Image; Addick-tedKevin


We know our away from has to change. Steve Bruce knows it. Tomorrow, on his old Wigan stamping ground, would be an excellent time to start, with or without our new £13m star …

Which Sunderland team will turn out at Wigan tomorrow?

The question has less to do with the names that appear in the starting line-up, and on the bench, than with the way the players approach the game and perform once out on the DW pitch.

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Soapbox update: the Keane era and its ripple effect

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This posting has been affected by technical problems but has still managed to inspire some lively responses comparing the Roy Keane and Peter Reid eras of the recent history of Sunderland AFC. The comments have also been re-posted (though the little thumbs-up marks already awarded are, sadly, missing!).
It is now four years ago – give or take a couple of weeks – since Keano signed his contract at the Stadium of Light. He took over a squad of misfits and underachievers who had lost their first five games, including a league cup game at Bury, then the lowest of all Football League clubs. No wonder that after being talked through the players’ strengths and weaknesses, he joked that he should have held out for twice as much money -and set about replacing as many as he could. Pete Sixsmith looks back on the appointment as right decision, right time …


When Niall Quinn and the Drumaville consortium took over, we were promised a “magic carpet ride”.
After dispiriting defeats at Southend and Bury, the magic carpet was distinctly threadbare and we looked like a team heading for the third level of English football.

Quinny then decided that managing footballers was not as easy as breeding racehorses and decided to appoint a world class manger”. We now know that O’Neill had been indecisive (I believe SAFC had something like seven meetings with him – ed) and Allardyce had bottled out of leaving his comfort zone at the Reebok.

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The Wigan Athletic ‘Who Are You?’

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It could be subtitled “and how Sunderland missed out on N’Zogbia” – read on for a fascinating account of the aborted deal. We’ve said it before, or something like it. If Bernard Ramsdale* didn’t exist as an outstanding example of the (proper) Lancashire football supporter, he’d need to be invented. A past winner of our annual Who Are You? awards, he returns from a little rest – from Salut! Sunderland duties but not much else – with some more pearls ahead of Wigan v SAFC on Saturday. Bernard, landlord of Ye Olde Tree and Crown fan site, has tremendous humour and a refreshingly down-to-earth outlook. It really is a great read. But don’t expect a non-stop bundle of laughs; Bernard lives with the distressing consequences of an awful family tragedy …

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Doing it for England: a good day for our Lads

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Darren Bent, Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson are basking in international glory tonight after playing crucial parts in England victories …

Darren Bent off the mark for England and would have scored twice had Shaun Wright-Phillips not made a mess of an easy pass in front of goal. Not bad for a substitute, securing the 3-1 win in Switzerland after the home country had halved the lead established by Rooney and Johnson.

But it doesn’t end there.

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Gyan, Elmo and Mignolet seen through Charlton eyes

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Rarely in recent times has a Sunderland debut been as keenly awaited as that of Asamoah Gyan, who should team up with Darren Bent to cause Wigan all sorts of problems on Saturday. That’s the theory anyway. But if you saw a Daily Star headline suggesting that Steve Bruce “admired” Gyan’s World Cup penalty miss, rest assured that he did nothing of the kind …

Alert readers will have seen that the image (below), sometimes used to illustrate Salut! Sunderland items relating to Darren Bent, is credited to a man who calls himself Addick-tedKevin and can therefore be assumed to support Charlton Athletic.

No surprise, then that Kevin should have paid his artistic tribute to Benty, who scored 31 times in 68 games for the Addicks between 2005 and 2007.

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Domenech get his comeuppance

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Raymond Domenech cut a pathetic figure as French team coach in South Africa, humiliated by his players during the Mutiny of Knysna and then bringing his country into further disrepute with an act of gross discourtesy as France tumbled out of the World Cup. The players have been punished; now it’s his turn …

France also had a weekend off for internationals and probably wishes it hadn’t after yet again failing to score (in Friday’s 1-0 defeat by Belarus in Paris). But the big news is the dismissal of by the French Football Federation of Raymond Domenech for his part in  the scandal of Les Bleus in South Africa.

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