Sunderland

The Things We Do For Love: Roker Park, spirit of ’66 and all that

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Ask Jeremy 'Clock Stand Paddock' Robson where Sunderland play and he'll say 'Roker Park'
Ask Jeremy ‘Clock Stand Paddock’ Robson where Sunderland play and he’ll say ‘Roker Park’

Next Tuesday, December 13, is the deadline for stories, anecdotes and random thoughts on the things we do for our love of SAFC (or others do to accommodate that love). The prize is the print of Roker Park you see above, supplied by our generous sponsors http://www.wearedorothy.com. We have already had some excellent entries which can be seen at the earlier posts: https://safc.blog/category/salut-competition/ – and they keep trickling in. Here is Peter Lynn – Wrinkly Pete – with some lovely memories of times gone by …

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Sunderland’s star striker: ‘a player I always hoped Liverpool would sign’

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... just that little bit extra
… just that little bit extra

Is there a team in the land in which Jermain Defoe would not score goals? Probably not. Is our extraordinary little striker just not fashionable – or young – enough a footballer to appeal to the Peps, Joses and Antonios and the brands they manage? Maybe. We’re just lucky we have him. And Monsieur Salut’s daughter, Nathalie Randall, who has an irrational love  of Liverpool, relegating Sunderland to second place in her affections, wishes he earned his living at Anfield …

I’ve always been a big fan of Jermain Defoe. My dad thinks its only because I fancy him but he’s too short for me..

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Paddy McNair’s injury blow: Jason Denayer on the pain of watching from the sidelines

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Jake: 'wishing Paddy a strong recovery'
Jake: ‘wishing Paddy a strong recovery’

Another week, another injury, this time Lynden Gooch who will be out for up to three months after damaging an ankle ligament playing for the Under 23s last Monday. Before that, it was Paddy McNair, whose season ended with the injury picked up in the win against Hull City. Rachel Johnson* returns to our pages to report on mental challenge McNair faces as he battles to regain fitness …

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From France with love: for Chelsea, Arsenal but Sunderland and Burnley too

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Remi Carlu:
Remi Carlu: ‘maybe Sunderland need to go down’


It came out of the blue. A message from a Twitter user plugging Heristage, ‘the only French-language site dedicated to English football’. The message directed me to a long and superbly detailed analysis (in French but at this link) of Sunderland AFC’s ‘Bank of England’ era, that period of the 1950s that older supporters identify as the trigger for our decline.

Heristage turned out to be the work of Rémi Carlu*, a young, half-French/half-English lover of the game as played here, the country of his mother. He’s currently studying back in the UK and happily agreed to explain himself. Rémi doesn’t support Sunderland – he favours Chelsea (mmm…) – but cares enough about his chosen project to have researched us thoroughly; he also thinks, I’m afraid, that we should accept relegation in return for rebuild …

But all his views are fascinating, all the more so coming from a semi-outsider. I commend this to you as a great read …

 

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Sunderland vs Leicester City Guess the Score. Beatable champions

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See these (above) and other Art of Football prints by clicking anywhere on this caption


Two good wins followed by a logical defeat at Anfield after we’d held out well for 75 minutes and even had two good chances to go ahead.

The positive way to look at our last three games is not to think in terms of two-steps-forward-one-back but to see each of them offering signs that we can break free of the bottom three.

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Club of 92: Manchester rambler acclaims Pickford, Defoe, Victor and the SoL

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Shaun
Shaun Best: ‘out of the dark’

NB: what follows is a light-hearted read on what is otherwise a grim day for football. Salut! Sunderland declares its sympathy for all those killed in or bereaved by the Colombian air crash, whose victims include players and officials of the Brazilian top flight club ACF, or Associação Chapecoense de Futebol. As a Manchester Utd supporter, our guest writer will be well aware of his own club’s association with aviation disaster.

There are train spotters, bird twitchers and philatelists. And then there’s the Club of 72, whose members collect football stadiums, not to dismantle and take home but to visit. As Shaun Best – already familiar with the 72 Football League grounds – prepared to tick Sunderland off his to-do list, he was wondering who would be the manager by the time got there. We were winless and seemingly broken beyond repair. Then a funny thing happened: we won a game. Let Shaun take up the story of his newest collector’s item, the Stadium of Light …

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Bob Cass RIP: snooker with the Lads on eve of Leeds final

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Bob Cass: Darlo boy made good
Bob Cass: Darlo boy made good

Monsieur Salut writes: Norman Giller, at Facebook, kindly gave permission for Salut! Sunderland to reproduce these words, from the Football Writers’ Association (FWA) website, marking the sad passing of a man whose name was and is synonimous with the reporting of football in the North East. I met Bob Cass only once, on the pitch at Roker Park when SAFC held an open day for the media after reaching the 1992 FA Cup Final (I had spomehow persuaded someone at the Telegraph to let me cover it). But until other forms of media began to replace print, it was impossible to have grown up the NE and like football without being aware of Bob and his work …

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Liverpool Who are you?: ‘5-0 to us, but SAFC making survival possible’

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Gareth Roberts
Gareth Roberts, left, with Eric Meijer, who achieved cult status among Liverpool fans despite being at Anfield for only a short time

Gareth Roberts*, editor of the ‘leading independent voice on Liverpool FC’, The Anfield Wrap, comes up with a scoreline prediction none of us will thank him for. But he also answers our questions with an informed and informative manner, defending Jurgen Klopp in his spats with the media, acclaiming the two Jordans, doubting Mignolet’s Anfield future and, naturally, going for Liverpool to win the title …

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The Liverpool Guess the Score: a real test of SAFC’s mini-revival

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Bobby Kerr and the FA Cup, May 5 1973
Bobby Kerr and the FA Cup, May 5 1973

Thanks to Jermain Defoe, Victor Anichebe, Jordan Pickford and our temporary Guess the Score sponsors Art of Football – see their outstanding range of SAFC items at http://art-of-football.com/collections/sunderland and navigate from there for non-Sunderland art – we have a very satisfied winner.

Phil Davison, a Mackem exiled in Mexico, plumped for a 3-0 home win mainly because so many scorelines had been taken by other entrants. Watching the opening stages on Saturday, live out west, he wondered whether he might have taken leave of his senses, as Hull dominated the game and had the better chances.

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A daughter speaks: Anichebe turns on the Stadium Lights

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1992 and all that: Nathalie in red, her dad in, er, a gruesome away top
1992 and all that: Nathalie in red, her dad in, er, a gruesome away top

With her old man away in Budapest and relying on Pete Sixsmith’s very gratifying texts from the Stadium of Light, it would have been unfatherly to turn down Nathalie Randall‘s offer to write a piece on the match. She follows the style used by ESPN, where Sixer did the honours for the Hull game. Nathalie probably wants a Liverpool win this coming weekend, but she has a soft spot for her dad’s team, too …

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