Sunderland

Who are you? We’re Blackburn Rovers

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rovers

The Rovers Returned in the nick of time. We were beginning to fear Dan Clough* – great surname and he runs the Rovers Return site – was not going to get back to us with the answers to the customary Salut! Sunderland questions. It being Christmas, he’d completely forgotten. But here they are, including his thoughts on Sunderland (essentially “none, I’m afraid”) and Alan Shearer (“true Rovers legend”); and given how often we played Blackburn Rovers last season, each time getting a Rovers previewer, it is probably a small wonder that there was anyone left to interview …


Salut! Sunderland: Miserable about your form so far this season or just happy to be out of the relegation zone?

A mixture of the two. Things started reasonably well but recent form has been desperate and, with no signs of our away form improving at the moment, things are starting to look bleak. It’s good not to be in the relegation zone, but after a few bad results we are well and truly in the relegation battle at this moment in time.

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Soapbox: how to be the perfect host

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If I wasn’t impressed listening to Sunderland v Everton on TalkSport, imagine what it as like as viewed from my row in the East Stand. Pete Sixsmith was there …


Ah, Christmas. The time of year when friends come together, to eat drink and be merry, to enjoy wonderful hospitality – and to end up at the Stadium of Light, with 46,000 others, watching Sunderland extend the hand of friendship to relegation threatened Everton, by allowing them to do exactly what they wanted to do for an hour.

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Another early Darren Bent goal, another feeble surrender

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How can Sunderland 1 Everton1 be other than a disappointment? Here are some early thoughts on two more points squandered at home…

Stan Collymore, sharing the TalkSport commentary, thought it a cracking game. He also warmly praised the referee Martin Atkinson for a mature, relatively whistle-free performance that allowed play to flow.

So what!

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A good day to sign up for Sunderland

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Are the fans of Leeds, Norwich City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Bristol City, West Ham, Spurs, Nottingham Forest and Southampton really more passionate than Sunderland’s?

Most of us would put ourselves ahead of at least six of the nine clubs currently placed above Sunderland in the Sky Sports 92 Fans’ League. Some would put us at the top. Even neutrals would eliminate a few of the others.

Today is a good day to show how passionate we are. A big Boxing Day gate – all tickets sold apparently – has a duty to blow the ball out at our end and suck it in at Everton’s.

And here’s a reminder of what the 92 project is about (an adapted version of Salut! Sunderland’s original posting on the subject, plus the clip that shows you how to register and take part:


Imagine it. You support Chelsea, Arsenal, Man United or Liverpool. You’ve followed them for ever, or rather since you were old enough to work out they were quite good and won a lot. You may even have been to the city where they play.

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Who are you? We’re Everton

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ToffeeWeb, the much-admired independent site for supporters of Everton, has a hard centre but softer heart. Lyndon Lloyd‘s instinctive response when approached by us to preview Saturday’s clash between Sunderland and Everton was to say : “Sorry, we don’t do these things. No time.” He relented because of the trouble we’d taken to hunt him down. The algebraic equation of that hunt would be Relatively Uncommon Name + Facebook = Found. But thanks Lyndon*, and Salut! Sunderland wishes you and your site a very happy Christmas marred only by disappointment on Boxing Day …

lyndon

Salut! Sunderland: After all that praise for David Moyes, we are now hearing the voices of disappointment. Is it time for change?

It depends on who you ask! There are some who have long been infuriated with his conservative tactics and the propensity for his teams to fall back on the long-ball game in times of adversity, but you can’t argue with his record at Everton on a shoe-string budget.

Three consecutive top-6 finishes and, so far, the record of the only team outside of the so-called Sky Four to have cracked the Champions League places this century speak for itself and I don’t think it would do us any good right now to disrupt the consistency that we’ve enjoyed the last seven years.

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A Christmas football wishlist. 2 (J-Q): St Niall unbans fans, Keano out

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For the second part of our letter to Santa, we name a few more of the things we’d like to see over the coming months. Come up with the best or funniest alternative wish for any letter – as judged by Salut! Sunderland – and we’ll send a tenner (up to one prize for each of the three parts of the series) ….

J is for Joan’s cafe, named as the venue for a Jedward concert after the nearby Stadium of Light is judged too big considering the likely turnout. Tickets narrowly fail to sell out.

K is for Roy Keane, who leaves Ipswich “by mutual consent” in May as relegation confirmed. When Grant Leadbitter and Carlos Edwards send text messages in commiseration, Keano replies saying: “I refer you both to what I told Dwight Yorke when he sent a similar SMS after I left Sunderland.”

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