Sunderland

Middlesbrough vs SAFC Guess the Score. FA Cup: opportunity or hindrance when bottom?

by
Jake: ‘should we win for the morale or bow out to concentrate on survival?’

Now that the players have presumably recovered from having supped far too many soft drinks on New Year’s Eve to be able to compete with Barnsley next day, there is that annual (for us) dilemma: do we really want to add an FA Cup run to a challenging fixtures list?

Monsieur Salut’s heart says yes, the head isn’t so sure.

Tuesday night’s result from Reading has, after all that ludicrous hope inspired by Sunderland’s win at Forest, dumped us at the bottom of the table.

Instead of being 19th, the prize had we beaten Barnsley, we look more likely to have to make do for another season without one of our favourite Who Are You? interviewees, Bernard Ramsdale, whose beloved Wigan will replace us in the Championship unless matters improve.

Read more

Nottingham Forest Who are You?: ‘if you drop, it’ll be good for you…’

by
Jake’s take

John McCormick writes: a midwinter journey to one of the proper clubs. Founded 1865, occupying the same ground during three different centuries, and they had the sense to take on the best manager we never had. And then it all went wrong.

But it looks like it’s going right again as we welcome Forest season ticket holder Dan Watts, founder of Talk Forest TV and spotted for us by our own Pete Sixsmith, to give us the lowdown …

Read more

Sheffield United Soapbox (another Sixer substitute): a shamefully feeble surrender

by
Sixer’s soapbox has yet another temporary occupant. The suffering’s the same


Monsieur Salut writes: Pete Sixsmith is making his return to post-Santa duties in a gradual sort of way, a Sixer’s Seven here, that smashing series on The First Time Ever I Saw Ground/Team there. I could hardly decline his invitation to step in with the Soapbox from Bramall Lane, painful as it is to write anything about what happened there on Boxing Day …

Anyone who has supported Sunderland home and away, even if their opportunities are limited, knows the wretched feelings of embarrassment inflicted by truly awful displays. When it’s away from home, the embarrassment is made all the more acute if snatched conversations between opposing supporters are overheard.

“Just coming away from the match,” said one man into his mobile phone as people made their way back towards Sheffield city centre. He added almost as an afterthought: “We won 3-0 but mind, the other team were absolute rubbish.”

Read more

Salut! Sunderland’s Christmas stocking fillers: three strikers and three competitions

by
Relaxing in his Jesmond grotto after another gruelling day at work

As Salut! Sunderland wishes everyone – or nearly everyone – a merry Christmas and a happy, healthy new year, it seems right to mark the festive occasion with not one, nor even two but three competitions.

Which one shall we mention first first: Guess the Score, a guide to the popularity of our own Sixer – aka Pete Sixsmith, Santa and Sunderland support par excellence – among all he has befriended or taught, or a tale of three strikers? Sixer wins the toss of this three-sided coin.

Read more

Sheffield United vs Sunderland Guess the Score: blunt the Blades

by
Another competition, another prize

It’s a frantic time for Salut! Sunderland over Christmas, with games on Saturday and again on Boxing Day followed by the visit to Forest next Saturday.

Everything that should appear on these pages will appear, so please keep coming back and checking for updates.

Christmas greetings to all Salut! Sunderland readers, contributors and editors. You’ll see the seasonal compliments more fully when you pop into the site on Christmas morning.

Read more

Sixer’s Sevens: Sunderland 1-1 Birmingham City. Not the result SAFC needed

by
Jake: ‘it’s not always pretty’

Malcolm Dawson was back in the East stand seat of Pete Sixsmith, absent again on Santa duties, to see Sunderland drop back into the bottom three after a disappointing draw against the bottom club, with Bolton and Burton both winning. The instant verdict is therefore his, as will be the substitute Sixer’s Soapbox in due course. Gary Bennett, analysing with Nick Barnes, thought it a poor game where poor defending again cost us a goal. He questioned the decision-making by, in particular, Lewis Grabban in chances before and after his (Grabban’s) equaliser and cited a glaring creativity gap that perhaps Aiden McGeady might have filled …

Read more

SAFC vs Birmingham Who are You?: supporting the Blues through thin and thin

by
Their Kevin Ball
Kevin Ball – Sunderland Legend

Colin Randall writes: Just as our Kevin Ball deserves a free season ticket for life at the Stadium of Light, their – Birmingham City’s – Kevin Ball* has earned one to Salut! Sunderland after all his visit to this illustrious series. But think about it: who would you turn to, if looking for candidates, other than someone bearing that name? So Kev’s back for the much-copied Who are You? (I always imagine our confreres at other sites making a painstaking note of all our interviewees before flattering us by imitation). Enough of that: from deepest Devon, the Bluenose version of Kev answers out questions once again …

Read more

Why Chris Coleman can keep Sunderland up

by
Chris Coleman. Source: Steindy , 10 November 2016 (UTC) via Wikipedia

No sooner had we said the bookies may have to think again about Sunderland as relegation fodder than we begin to see signs that the odds might soon start lengthening. One win is not enough to get pulses racing too fast but there’s no denying the massive fillip that would result if we could add a win against Birmingham City to Chris Coleman’s highly encouraging start as manager. Daniel Webb, who knows about such matters, analyses the prospects …


After claims that the club was “rotten to the core”, Sunderland were all of the best bookmakers’ favourites for a second relegation in a row – up until recently.

However, a lot of us got our hopes up when Chris Coleman was appointed manager. After all, who better to take charge of a struggling team than the man who led Wales – WALES! – to the semi-finals of Euro 2016? If anyone can help us, it’s Coleman, right?

Yet while our results have improved, we’re not out of the woods yet. So can the Welshman actually pull us out of trouble, or are we just fooling ourselves?

Read more