Sunderland - SAFC Blog

Moyes on the Boys at Burnley: finding a plus from another negative night

January 17, 2017January 17, 2017 by Colin Randall

Malcolm Dawson writes: the manager has had some flak recently for his reluctance to blood some of our younger, more …

Burnley vs Sunderland Guess the Score as Rodwell admits supporting SAFC’s tough

January 16, 2017January 16, 2017 by Colin Randall

Jake: ‘let’s see if we can finally beat them’

This is a Guess the Score and Who are You? combined for the FA Cup 3rd round replay at Burnley.

Salut! Sunderland is not on a go-slow or work-to-rule or in any greater sulk than usual. It just seemed unnecessary to run yet another interview with a supporter of a team we will by tomorrow night have played three times since New Year’s Eve. There’ll be a reminder later in this piece of the refreshing thoughts of our previous Burnley interviewee, Andy Robinson, about the importance of the cup to him.

Moyes on the Boys after Stoke debacle: ‘just 20 dodgy minutes’

January 14, 2017 by Colin Randall

Monsieur Salut writes: people left their Stadium of Light seats in droves, Pete Sixsmith sent demoralised text messages and I ended up giving three-out-of-10s galore in my ESPN FC ratings. So what did David Moyes make of it? Well, he has either lost track of time or, when claiming SAFC matched Stoke for all but the first 20 minutes, meant to say the 19 minutes they took, starting in the 15th, to put the game out of sight …

Sixer’s Sevens: SAFC 1-3 Stoke City. With barely a whimper

January 14, 2017 by Colin Randall

Jake: ‘the curse Of Jack Rodwell is beyond a joke now. Maybe we should consider hiring an exorcist or witchdoctor or something’

Monsieur Salut writes: Is there no end to the pain to which Sunderland supporters are subjected by those rewarded handsomely to manage and play for the club? By the time Sunderland got started, 38 minutes into this miserable game, they were three down; it might have been four or five so easily had a well-organised but hardly exceptional Stoke City ripped though our slow, panic-stricken defence. Jermain Defoe scored with a clinical finish to pull one back but apart from one absymal miss from six yards by Jack Rodwell, even a marginally improved second-half performance offered few signs of hope.

David Moyes added his own contribution to a catalogue of individual failings by refusing to make a single change and, quite obviously, saying nothing at half-time to inspire a meaningful comeback. Pete Sixmsith’s seven-word verdict did undergo changes as the game wore on. I shall offer them all below …

Should Sunderland aim to be more like Stoke?

January 13, 2017 by Colin Randall

Monsieur Salut writes: Pete Sixsmith raised this question here several months ago. It occurred to me again as I wrote my preview of Sunderland vs Stoke City for ESPN FC – is Mark Hughes’s side, and the club itself, more or less what SAFC should be aiming to emulate? Why can they attract players with greater apparent ease than us, and how do they manage to get into the top half so often (OK, a bad start this season makes that a taller order for 2016-17)?

Wrinkly Pete’s Crystal Ball: the rocky road to 37 points in full

April 6, 2017January 12, 2017 by Colin Randall

This was essentially how Wrinkly Pete – a regular Salut! Sunderland contributor Peter Lynn – began his crystal ball-gazing look at Sunderland’s survival prospects. But we have now amended the sequence starting with Leicester (a), taking account of revised predictions, and will continue to do until thd bitter end. In the case of each match, he predicts the outcome and later comments on the reality. This file will be updated as the season draws to its merciful close …

Pop goes Wrinkly Pete again, charting SAFC’s escape even without beating Stoke

January 13, 2017January 12, 2017 by Colin Randall

Peter Lynn dips back into his collection of dodgy old hits for inspiration as he does some back-of-envelope calculations on what David Moyes needs from the second half of the season if Sunderland are yet again to avoid the drop. He even allows for the unthinkable, losing at home to Stoke on Saturday , as he steers us to safety…

I’m sending out an SOS, ‘cos I’m in so much distress

So sang Edwin Starr on his hit Stop Her On Sight and I am hoping that I will not feel the same as I begin my four-hour drive home, post match on Saturday.

If David Moyes, pre-match on Saturday, can get his team to realise that this is War, another of Starr’s hits, then we might get a win and make a further small (?) step towards safety.

Moyes on the Boys after FA Cup boredraw: deserved praise for Rodwell

January 8, 2017 by Colin Randall

Jake: ‘not much to write home about, boss’

Monsieur Salut writes: now that we’ve done away with the nonsenses of ‘Dear Colin’ at the beginning and ‘All the best’ at the end, e-mails from the manager have an impersonal and sometimes perfunctory look. But what else could David Moyes say about the drab affair that was Sunderland 0-0 Burnley, the outcome probably the worst of three options? I’ might have liked a fuller explanation of his thinking, when throwing on a defender for a midfielder as his only (very late) substitution, but there we go. I share his satisfaction at Jack Rodwell’s improved form (my man-of-the-match too) but this was another game best forgotten …

Defoe: West Ham’s insult, Premier interest and red lines Sunderland must impose

January 5, 2017 by Colin Randall

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ESPN FC ran a fascinating survey on whether their blogger for each Premier League club – Monsieur Salut does the honours for Sunderland with occasional stand-ins by Mr Sixsmith (think Colin Todd on the bench for Gareth Hall and you get the picture) – would buy Jermain Defoe and if yes, what they’d pay.

The brands – so many of whose supporters find it a struggle to locate “their” club by pointing to a map – all voted the same way: No.

Everyone else, save for West Brom, jumped at the idea.

The SAFC Burnley Who are You?: ‘I’d take FA Cup and relegation’

January 5, 2017January 5, 2017 by Colin Randall

When Andy Robinson*‘s ‘Who are You?’ interview was published before Sunderland played Andy’s club Burnley, we agreed he would also do the honours for the FA Cup game a week later. That game is almost upon us and Andy’s comments on the FA Cup, and what it means to him, will endear him to many readers just as did last week’s interview. As for the game at Turf Moor, Saturday, safe to say Andy enjoyed it more than us. He starts with his reflections on Burnley 4-1 SAFC – leading to his thoughts on this weekend’s match …