Just when we’re all down in the dumps, Pete Sixsmith rides along on his white steer to cheer us up a little. A wave of nostalgia swept over Sixsmith Towers after Salut! Sunderland‘s associate editor John McCormick alerted him to a showing of the 1973 FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough. Sixer revelled in the reminder of his best day out as a SAFC supporter … …
Monsieur Salut writes: here’s another Guess the Score. Pete Sixsmith may or may not enter but is already fearful of another home defeat, sensing that Preston North End are simply too well organised for us. As each matchday passes, the exercise of predicting results looks more academic. The point may soon come at which not even blind faith and predictions of SAFC-winning scorelines can any longer make a difference to the way things will end up in May …
Salut! Sunderland is not about to wash its hands of Sunderland AFC, or even to wash its hands of the labour of love running this site entails.
A harsh reader would say Bob Chapman brings it on himself. A drive up from the Home Counties for the Villa game weould have been enough to put off most people but four days later, he was enduring more dross from the worst Sunderland team he has seen in 54 years of following the club home and away. If only the team could play football as well as the likes of Bob and Pete Sixsmith write, we’d be out of sight at the top of the Championship. But how both of them would love to be able to report on a day out with old friends, supping good ale and recalling bands from the 1960s and 70s, without having to describe how it was all spoilt by SAFC …
Monsieur Salut writes: Ian McCullough* is a seasoned sportswriter and a friend of a friend (John Crowley, who has also occupied this hot seat). He supports QPR but has a soft spot for Sunderland and will be at Saturday’s match with a Mackem pal. His assessment of QPR’s decline could as easily apply to us.
Ian’s team has hardly had a great season but, on 40 points against our rock-bottom 28, can be fairly sure they will not finish last. Our relegation rivals are doing their best to give us a chance but it is not, so far, a chance our team seems able to grasp. Can Saturday provide enough respite from the unfortunate atmosphere when home games go wrong to enable them to play with rare assurance and pick up three points? John O’Shea talks of there still being 30 points to play for but the supporters desperately need some encouragement from Chris Coleman and whoever he can turn out.
Welcome Ian (@IanMac08 at Twitter), even it feels like intruding into private grief …
In the depths of our despair, it seems beyond belief that interest in one small corner of Sunderland AFC’s world should suddenly perk up.
But in the wake of Tuesday night’s surrender to Aston Villa, Salut! Sunderland’s Facebook group gained three new members. Not spammers, hookers or chancers – we get applictaions from them, too – but from self-evidently genuine Sunderland supporters. We’re now nudging 750 and none, as far as we know, are hookers.
Maybe Chris Coleman should print this out, fold it with something harder curled inside and rap it over the heads of our players and, if he happens to be passing in the corridor, Martin Bain.
Let it be made clear that grandparents cannot be held responsible for what happens, provided lawful, between their sons and daughters and their grandchildren.
So Barry Emmerson must not feel personally culpable because his son, Martin, took 10-year-old Abigail, known to Salut! Sunderland readers, to her first Sunderland game after a recent dip in enthusiasm. The game Abigail chose was Villa at home … she describes the experience here while walking home with her dad after the score went to 0-3. And now Barry, responding to Pete Sixsmith’s eloquent portrayal of death barely warmed up, tells of the anguish it left him feeling
Monsieur Salut writes: Paul Summerside tends to post his thoughts at the Salut! Sunderland Facebook page (and how I wish all of its 740 members came here at least once a day or even once a week). Sometimes, I pick on them and reproduce here, with scant editing. Sometimes, I’m a bit pushed and add them as a comment. And sometimes, I’m so pushed I do nothing. But this seems the perfect accompaniment to the sheer if despairing brilliance of Pete Sixsmith’s report of the meek acceptance of a Villa stroll. As you’ll see, Paul is one of those already voting ith his feet …
Beyond shocking. That is Pete Sixsmith‘s withering verdict on the latest chapter in the nightmare that is Sunderland AFC. At …
Monsieur Salut welcomes anyone who has missed Salut! Sunderland‘s comprehensive buildup to tonight’s game and offers pointers to the best of that coverage…
Approaching the home game against Aston Villa, kicking off a few hours from now, the Sunderland Echo speculated that SAFC’s survival propsects may well depend on winning this match or the next one, at QPR on Saturday. If pushed, I’d say we probably need to win both or at least emerge with four points.
The crisis has reached those desperate proportions.
Confidence remains in short supply as another failure to win a game not only exposes our limited powers of resistance but confirms our desperate short-term outlook.
As Mick Goulding and others have pointed out, here and elsewhere, a draw at in-form Millwall, while creditable enough if viewed in isolation, simply isn’t good enough in our current parlous state.
