Sunderland

Who are you? We’re Fulham

by

tizzard

On May 4 2006, Sunderland beat Fulham 2-1 in the last home game of the season, with Kevin Ball as caretaker manager. We were already doomed and all that was at stake was avoidance of the added humiliation of becoming the first team in English league history to fail to win a single tie at home all season. We do not have to go back quite as far now as we did then for the last Premier win (home or away): it was, of course, Nov 21 when we beat Arsenal and thought ourselves in clover.
Is Sunday to be our day? James Alexander Tizzard*, our undercover, non-Lily Allen Fulham fan discovered at the Cottage Corner fansite, thinks we will have to wait a little longer for our next victory. We should wish his team well tonight at Shakhtar Donetsk in the Europa League – and hope they’re too knackered to muster much of a challenge on Sunday …

Salut! Sunderland: As a Sunderland fan, I was embarrassed by our first half performance at Craven Cottage, and I know you all felt it was a 3-0 win dressed up as 1-0. Were you surprised at how bad we were?

At the start of the season, Sunderland looked like a side capable of pushing for Europe. The past two seasons you had dominated the games at our place so it was particularly suprising to witness such a poor first half display.

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Forget Arsenal, forget Nov 21 – Feb 20: concentrate on Fulham

by

lily2


In the coming days, we’ll be hearing from a Fulham supporter – two, if Lily Allen’s publicity people pass Salut! Sunderland‘s questions on to her.
But for Sunderland supporters, it’s time to come to the aid of the club. Our fans deserve better than they’ve had to endure this season – and for most preceding seasons – but they also have a part to play in kickstarting the revival, says a (temporarily) mellowing Colin Randall …


Right. The defeat at Arsenal, hardly unexpected, is behind us. The terrible run of defeats and draws since we beat the Gunners in November is in the past, too. We’ve had our say, expressed our bitter disappointment and raised legitimate questions about the club, its management and its direction.

But that’s it. We now enter a spell of games at the Stadium of Light – four home ties with just one scheduled trip, a match at Aston Villa that their probable FA Cup progress tonight would put off – in which a combination of ability, commitment and – yes- luck would give our season a decent lift off.

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Gloom descends over the post-Arsenal dinner party

by

niall


Arsenal fans** will probably not care a hoot, but this part of Salut! Sunderland hopes they have a championship to toast at the end of the season. As for us, the next few games, mostly at home, will define our season, admits Steve Bruce. In how many recent years have we heard a similar refrain? Is it time for Sunderland AFC – and perhaps especially Niall Quinn – to realise the extent to which our collective patience is being tested? …

Whatever they are not, Sunderland fans are realists.

No one looked at the arrival of Ellis Short as owner, or Steve Bruce as manager, and thought: “That’s it. A top four place is there for the taking. This season.”

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Soapbox: Bennett the bottler (ask any Arsenal or SAFC fan)

by

soapbox


Steve Bennett, not Salut! Sunderland‘s favourite referee by a long shot (even when we get his name right – see comments), so comprehensively annoys opposing sets of fans that he probably feels he must be getting something right. While Gooners bleat that he allowed our ruffians to hack away at their cultured elite, Sunderland supporters point to his failure to dismiss Fabregas for as clear a second yellow offence as could be imagined. Pete Sixsmith intensifies the war of words …

That’s the weekend games over, and incredibly, we have only dropped one place in the Race To Get Out Of The Premier League And Into the Championship Table. This is clearly not good enough, and Bruce must ensure that we lose the next four games so that we can join the Doncasters, Bristol Citys and Watfords of the footballing world.

If the world were turned upside down, that would be a distinct possibility. There appears to be a lemming like rush to get out of the top league as all the bottom eight teams bar one, lost – and that was West Ham, who beat Hull City, a fellow struggler.

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Arsenal-Sunderland Observed

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The Observer again asked Salut! Sunderland to sum up the game and Pete Sixsmith was ready and able to build on his seven-word Sixer’s Sevens verdict (“Seen worse, but the slide goes on”).

Let’s start, though, with a Gunner’s view:


Louise Cowburn, Observer reader:

It was quite a good match especially after the other night, but it was a bit frustrating as usual. 2-0 was a fair enough scoreline but we had so many chances we should have put away more, although Sunderland just defended and defended. Eboué was absolutely fantastic and the crowd was behind him all the way; he looked a great player. Walcott was really classy but I wish he could finish, while Bendtner got a goal, which was great, but you sense the crowd expect more from him. He doesn’t seem to have the pace or the magic to play up front for us. Fabianski’s name got a big cheer when it was read out which was great.

The fan’s player ratings Almunia 7; Eboué 9 (Denílson 89 n/a), Vermaelen 8, Silvestre 7, Clichy 6; Ramsey 7, Song 7, Fábregas 8; Walcott 8 (Sagna 78 n/a); Bendtner 7, Nasri 8 (Rosicky 72 n/a)

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Soapbox: Arsenal here we come (be afraid)

by

soapbox


Earlier in the season, it seemed we could pick up points against the top teams while underperforming against the rest. Now we just underperform against everyone. Or can we snatch victory – even in the shape of a draw – from the jaws of much predicted defeat at the Emirates tomorrow? Pete Sixsmith prepares for a long day ..

So, Saturday sees my first Sunderland away game of 2010. Having missed Chelsea (too expensive), Portsmouth in the Cup (preferred Roker Park, Stotfold in the FA Vase) and the midweek excursions to Goodison and Fratton Parks (thanks, PL Computer), I am back on the road at 6.30 am tomorrow, armed with Walkman, Guardian, book, reading light, pies and sandwiches, heading for Ashburton Grove in order to watch the third best team in the Premier League play the thirteenth.

Do I travel with any degree of optimism? Well, you have to hope, but I can’t really see anything coming of it. We have a reduced midfield and a defence that leaks more readily than an embittered civil servant. Recently, we have slung away eight points because of shoddy defending in the last 10 minutes. Had we held on for two of those games, we could be looking upwards at Fulham rather than downwards at Wolves.

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Remembered: Arsenal (P Danson as 12th man) 2 Sunderland 0

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highIt started as a harmless gag on the Blackcats list. E-mails from the list’s subscribers – located in various corners of the world – have been suffering delay or gone missing or arrived out of sequence .. you name the problem and the list has had it.

On the west coast of America, an exiled Mackem thought he’d get his verdict in early on Arsenal in case the loop crashed altogether or contrived to exclude some of its subscribers before we even had a chance to record another defeat.

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Prime Minister drawn into women’s football scandal

by

gordonbrown

It had to happen sooner or later. Gordon Brown has become embroiled in the scandal over the exclusion of Sunderland Women’s football club from the proposed Super League of eight teams – despite being current Premier League leaders, FA (Women’s) Cup finalists last season and a team containing nine international players at different levels.

The FA has been maintaining the apparent fiction that no decision has yet been made, even though the club says it has been told – by, presumably, the FA – that Sunderland’s strong case for a place has been brushed aside on commercial and marketing grounds.

Among the many football supporters outraged by this latest piece of discriminatory nonsense from the FA were non-Sunderland fans, including Wull Rowan from our good friends at FootballUnited (futd.com).

Will decided to start a petition with the aim of shaming the FA into making the decision that would surely strike any neutral observer as decent and fair: offer Sunderland WFC a place.

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Who are you? We’re Arsenal (and Barca, Brazil and Argentina!)

by

arsenalv.hull


The tension is beginning to build. Sunderland have a strong strike force and, on paper, a semi-viable defence but no one knows quite how Steve Bruce will fashion a midfield from depleted ranks. Arsenal have problems, too, from injuries of their own to question marks over some of Arsène Wenger’s players (though Sod’s Law decrees that the hapless, fumbling Lukasz Fabianski would have a blinder if he played against us). We turned again to New York City and Fatima al Shamsi*, a rare Man City-loathing Emirati (above, left, with her sister Alyazhah), for a few more nuggets of wisdom from the world of gloryseeking Goonerworship. Fatima is charitable about SAFC, pragmatic about cheating, unladylike about Barcelona’s Ibrahimovic and restrained in her match forecast …


What about Arsenal’s season? Are you still right behind Arsène Wenger or do you feel you need someone else to move you on? I take it you’ve been following your Gunners from afar.

Unfortunately still watching them predominantly on my laptop although I have made a few trips to sports cafés whenever we’ve had an 11am kick off (NYC time). I like to be behind Arsene but our starting 11 against ManU was a horrible choice , although to be fair I’m not too sure what our alternative options could have been given the state of our injuries and such. I’m starting to get frustrated (about time too) but despite that, I still have faith in our crazy French man. What we do need is to get a decent experienced player to help pull the talent we already have all together – and I don’t count Sol Campbell as one, despite his goal against Porto this week. also more importantly we need to look into some decent goalkeepers neither Almunia nor Fabianski play convincingly enough to be part of a top team.

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Who are you? We’re Arsenal (and we’re right at the top!)

by

emirates


How many Salut! Sunderland readers scroll down the right-hand sidebar and then click on Soccerlinks? If you do, you’ll know that since the technical glitch that put us in something like 565th place, we’ve climbed back up to the top 100 and, when things are busy here, get as high as 35th. For this week’s Who Are They? candidate, we went straight to the top of the charts to find Chris Borg*, whose site, The Gunning Hawk pulls in an average of more than 5,000 visitors daily. Chris makes it all sound so easy. Sunderland’s task in trying to avoid defeat at the Emirates on Saturday is a long way from easy. Is our only hope that Porto soften them up? …

So, an easy one to keep your slender title hopes alive. I take it you couldn’t have wished for any better fixture, after beating Liverpool to stay on course, than us at home …

On paper, it is an easy game but one not to be underestimated. After all, you’ve got Bent up there, third in the top scorer list and our backline has been pretty shaky in recent appearances.

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