Jake: ‘thanks to all who participate’. Click this image to see all of this season’s interviews
The season is over and Sunderland couldn’t quite get across the finishing line. But there were positives, says Monsieur Salut, despite the failure to achieve what everyone wanted and the club needed.
Salut! Sunderland‘s modest contributions to the season’s brighter aspects included a good deal of fine writing for which credit is due to Pete Sixsmith, Malcolm Dawson, John McCormick, Wrinkly Pete, Rob Hutchison, Bob Chapman, Paul Summerside, Bill Taylor, Lars Knutsen, John Marshall and whoever I have overlooked.
And then there were the Who are You? interviews, in-depth interviews with fans of opposing teams before each game.
Our fellow League One clubs proved a tremendous source of wit and wisdom as the interviews mounted up. It is now time to offer some rewards to those responsible for the best of them.
Olivia Hutchison’s great pre-match shot. The players’ shots, sadly, couldn’t match her standards
Monsieur Salut writes: back in January, before one of those games against Charlton we probably should have won but didn’t, our Addicks ‘Who are You?’ interviewee, Richard Justham, told us: ‘I think you will win the league. You have a squad not just a team and would have more pulling power than the rest of us in the January window .. if you wanted to sign – let’s say – Tom Eaves from Gillingham to help you over the line I am sure you would have both the finances and prestige to do so. Partly for this reason I suspect you will brush away Barnsley, Luton and Portsmouth’.
Well, we know what happened instead. Here is Richard’s Charlton perspective on the playoff final, what went wrong for Sunderland and what will happen next …
Pete Sixsmith’s peerless analysis of only Sunderland’s second season in the third tier is deliberately timed to coincide with the moment Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur kick off in the Champions’ League final in Madrid (OK a bit early to make sure). Just felt right …
Colin Randall, aka Monsieur Salut, writes: week after week, men and (less often) women report for newspapers, radio and television on football. Some are extremely gifted, other are less so but perform their duties to the best of their abilities. Bosses, as ever, will get away with not paying people if they can but by and large these writers and broadcasters receive salaries or fees for their efforts.
On sites like ours, usually with very limited income and sometimes with none, the work is willingly done for free. We are fortunate to be blessed with excellent contributors; just take a look at the articles from Malcolm Dawson, John McCormick, Bob Chapman, Ken Gambles, Wrinkly Pete, Lars Knutsen, Bill Taylor, John Marshall and others too numerous to mention. Jake, alias John Clark, chips in with neat illustrations.
Pete Sixsmith towers above all but the very finest of the professionals with his outstanding combination of footballing and general knowledge, natural eloquence and wit. As a journalist, I have been edited as frequently as I have edited others, among them some important others. Pete’s prose never needs more than the lightest of touches.
His material reward is next to nothing, save for the rather rare share of modest advertising revenue and the odd – and also rare – freebie.
Salut! Sunderland‘s audience can number a few thousand on exceptional days but more typically hovers somewhere in the high three figures. Sixer richly deserves to be read by many more. Here is his review of the 2018-19 season, another piece of splendid writing to close the series …
For Wrinkly Pete, otherwise known as Peter Lynn, in this penultimate instalment of Salut! Sunderland‘s annual series of end-of-season reviews, promotion would have been premature, exposing Sunderland to a challenging time in the Championship. He may be right, though most of us probably wanted to go up all the same.
But Pete refuses to see another League One season as too much of a hardship. He has enjoyed himself in the one just ended and most of all at away games.
Pete Sixsmith concludes the series tomorrow with a magnificent appraisal of our season. It is timed to appear just as Liverpool kick off against Spurs in Madrid so you’ll know where to turn should that event fall below expectations …
Rob Hutchison sees Sunderland away games a lot, a fact of life for many exiled down south. This is how he rated the season, ending lamely but exceeding his expectations after successive relegations. Check out best away days of the season as nominated by Rob’s son Louis and daughter Olivia at this link …
Four fifty five pm on Sunday and it was done.
The season faded away in a whimper that was oh so Sunderland, snatching a defeat from the jaws of hope and optimism. I shut down social media and left the moment the whistle sounded, could not get out of there quick enough. Cut to an hour later on a train back to Ruislip filled with mixed supporters.
Rob Hutchison is a regular visitor and contributor to these pages and his end of season review appears at this link. His daughter Olivia and son Louis are also known to our readers and have complemented their dad’s thoughts by recalling their best days on the road with Sunderland in the season mercifully ended …
In our latest end-of-season review, Paul Summerside pinpoints negatives but dwells on the progress made in a disappointing season just ended – positives that he feels should stand Sunderland in good stead for next season provided we learn how to manage our strengths and weaknesses …..
In the build up to Sunday’s playoff final vs Charlton, I was chatting with my daughter, who is currently revising for her GCSE mocks.
We discussed the possibility of defeat and its consequences.
“It’s like your mocks, they are an exam to find out your strengths and weaknesses,” I said. You’ll get another chance next year. That’s when it REALLY matters.”
Another former Sunderland player has passed away. Harry Hood was not one of ours for very long but played well and achieved a decent goals-per-games ratio. Pete Sixsmith tells his story …
The sad news of the death of Harry Hood filtered through as I was making my way home after Sunday’s latest disappointment. He wasn’t a great Sunderland legend, but he did have that title at Parkhead, where he was a revered figure amongst the many fine players who have worn the hoops of Celtic.
Pete Sixsmith with his (and my) great pal Pete Horan’s elder daughter Clare
Monsieur Salut writes: it wasn’t in truth so different from what many of us expected. If you’re not sufficiently older than 46 to have seen our last win at Wembley, as opposed to being a babe in someone’s arms, losing comes naturally.
This was awful. We didn’t even huff and puff very much. Gifted a goal, we retreated as if to defend for 85+ minutes what would have been the most bizarre winner in playoff history. And soon surrendered that marginal early dominance.
Did we proceed to create a chance, beyond the tame Grigg header? No. Did the supersub work? Yes, Charlton’s ex-Sunderland man Jonny Williams, who was instantly a threat; not the probably semi-fit Aiden McGeady, remembered mostly for dangerously losing possession. Did our neat little passing triangles by the touchline ever lead to anything better than a passback to McLaughlin? No. Did our centre backs distribute well or make defensive headers go anywhere near fellow-Sunderland players? You already know.
It could all go right as it did when we last lost to Charlton in a playoff final. Equally, it could be a turbulent summer in and around the club. We’ll see. Hats off to our marvellous support (long-suffering is now a given, an adjective that doesn’t need to be inserted each time) and apologies to my granddaughter, Maya, aged 10, for making this her first outing as a Sunderland supporter.
One last shout-out for the Lads at Wembley tomorrow – or last but one since another piece, by Lars Knutsen, is now scheduled for later today – means, this time, one last sing-out (there’s no music from Lars).
