It is that time of year. Salut! Sunderland is preparing to make its annual HAWAY awards, honouring the best of our “Who are You?” interviewees among opposing supporters. The interviews ahead of each match often reach the highest standards (the answers, I mean with due modesty, not the questions) and we are delighted to offer awards to the best as voted by our panel of judges.
Malcolm Dawson writes…..last year Marcus Procopio, as Aussie as pie floater, vegemite and snags and tomato sauce joined our happy …
It’s time again for Salut! Sunderland writers, regular or occasional, to look back on a season that carried the now customary threat of relegation before bursting into life with another of our extraordinary late escapes. The reviews will appear pretty much in the order they are received – feel free to have a go if there’s something pressing on your mind – and end with the thoughts of our indefatigable chronicler Pete Sixsmith. Accordingly, we start with associate editor John McCormick …
This has nothing and everything to do with being a Sunderland supporter. My old colleague Charlie Whebell is a West Ham fan, though he’d never pronounce the H, as you’ll see below. Tonight he’ll be at what we call Upton Park and ‘ammers call the Boleyn – but only in spirit – as his team bids farewell to the old place with one last game, against Man Utd. He’s actually thousands of miles away in Abu Dhabi, where every Premier League game is screened, so will miss nothing except the incomparable feeling of being in the ground itself. He wishes he could be in the East End and probably considered using up his annual free flight home to make it happen.
These thoughts, posted by Charlie on Facebook, will resonate with anyone who remembers leaving Roker Park, anyone whose memories go back to an era before purpose-built stadiums, good as our version undoubtedly is, and also anyone who just values the idea of being utterly passionate about your club and whatever corner of the world it was where you were born or grew up or have an unbreakable bond with …
Monsieur Salut’s football-playing daughter Nathalie Randall, born in Bristol, brought up in London, reckons she could earn some paternal approval …
Malcolm Dawson writes……the sun is shining on Weardale this morning, a song thrush is belting out its tuneful, if somewhat …
For our second Who are You? interview ahead of SAFC v Chelsea, we extend a friendly hand to Denise Hone*, a Chelsea fan who has graced these pages in the past. Her site is Chelsea Den and you can see her tweets at https://twitter.com/thechelseablog
| 17 |  |
(17) | Newcastle United | 36 | 8 | 9 | 19 | 39 | 64 | -25 | 33 |
| 18 | |
(18) | Sunderland | 35 | 7 | 11 | 17 | 40 | 58 | -18 | 32 |
| 19 | |
(19) | Norwich City | 35 | 8 | 7 | 20 | 35 | 61 | -26 | 31 |
| 20 | |
(20) | Aston Villa | 36 | 3 | 7 | 26 | 27 | 72 | -45 | 16 |
| POS | LP | CLUB | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS |
|---|
Is this the most significant Guess the Score in the history of Salut! Sunderland running the competition? Yes, I hear some reply, but only since the last “most significant” one or until the next.
Think about it, though. As a result of our failure to pick up points when they have been there for the asking, we are now looking at a table that may well require us to take seven points from the remaining three games. I fully expect Aston Villa and Spurs to offer the flimsiest of resistance to Newcastle and that’s not even taking account of what Norwich might do with, like us, three games left.
The club is in crisis and up for sale. Not Sunderland … Olympique de Marseille.
Monsieur Salut currently finds himself a shade closer to the Vélodrome than the Stadium of Light. And this little story concerns us as well as them.
This, redirected from the original and now abbreviated version for a boring technical reason, is the full interview with Gary Gowers, a Carrow Road regular since the age of six, editor of NorwichCity.MyFootballwriter.com and the Norwich City voice at the Metro newspaper. Thanks, Gary, for some great answers …