Soon after Salut! Sunderland published its tale of woe, bemoaning the failure of our Man City “Who are You?” interviewee to come up with his promised answers, along came an old friend, Martin Haworth, a City fan based in the North east.
Look him up in the site’s search facility. Martin is a past WAY award-winner. He is very welcome back on these pages.
Here are his quick responses the small selection of questions we did publish:
Salut! Sunderland‘s “Who are You?” series has a strong record of success in attracting warm or witty or wise – and sometimes all three – interviewees from the ranks of opposing supporters. But there are blips as we saw a couple of times last season when QPR and Bradford City fans went AWOL after promising answers to our questions.
This is a quick posting to invite Salut! Sunderland readers to guess how tomorrow’s League Cup game against Man City …
VOTE for Salut! Sunderland at this link: http://www.footballbloggingawards.co.uk/vote-now/
At the last count 2,917,743 people had visited Salut! Sunderland since it was launched at the start of 2007.
Correction: we’ve had that many hits, which does not of course mean individual visitors. Unless everyone who ever came here stomped off after the first look and kept a promise never to return, the 2.9m must be divided quite a lot to arrive at the true number.
There are not many reasons why we should wish to read much about yet another disappointment. But if they come to these pages, there is one very good one: the likelihood of a report of the match, and much more besides, from Pete Sixsmith. For Sixer’s work alone, you should vote for Salut! Sunderland in the Football Blogging Awards – do so at http://www.footballbloggingawards.co.uk/vote-now/ – in the established football blog and football club blog categories. But in the meantime, back to those south coast blues and what Pete made of his long trip and his little break with Pete Horan – oh, and the wretched game, too …
Monsieur Salut writes: Pete Sixsmith had a great time in Weymouth, enjoying the lovely Dorset coast before the time came to venture with his travelling companion, Pete Horan, to Dean Court. Two down in eight minutes, our play an utter shambles, we seemed to be heading for the sort of result seen just under a year ago when M Salut met up with the two Petes before the Southampton massacre. ‘Outclassed by a sharper, fitter side,’ said Sixer at half time. ‘Finished 2-0 – in serious trouble now,’ came the final verdict; see his customary seven-worder below and begin fretting.
All week, it has been an almighty struggle to persuade anyone to read Salut! Sunderland, this after weeks of sky-high visitor figures and an encouraging if losing performance at home to Spurs. Maybe those disinclined to visit these pages knew something we didn’t, or something we didn’t want to admit. It got a lot better, but only very briefly, once Sunderland realised football can be a game between two sides, not one pitted against statues, and a wretched linesman’s decision robbed Jeremain Lens of a perfectly legitimate headed goal. But the fightback quickly petered out and with yellow cards scattered around by the never very SAFC-friendly Kevin Friend, it came as no surprise when Kaboul collected a second booking and saw red …
See the caption in Jake’s image. It’s true. That’s what our supporters relentlessly chanted throughout Jozy Altidore’s dark, goal-free days with Sunderland. As we look to Defoe, Borini, Lens and the rest to deliver the goals he couldn’t, a Co Durham exile in Toronto, Bill Taylor, has had a chance to track Jozy’s progress since the move to Canada …
Steve Menary* is a Bournemouth supporter who also writes about the game – among other things – for a living. He is cautiously optimistic that the club’s first Premier League season will not be the last. But he feels both teams may have to settle for a draw on Saturday …
Salut! Sunderland has been banging on for years about diving, the feigning of injury, unprofessional attempts by players to get opponents booked or sent off and other forms of cheating. The issue is raised with every “Who are You?” interviewee and I can think of only one or two who said too much fuss was made of it.
But should we really accept that British players are largely blameless, or that they were until they caught the nasty habits of Johnny Foreigner?
Sixer’s travel plans are sorted. Weymouth with Pete Horan (where’s that Defoe piece, Pete – Ed?) by Thursday, Bournemouth Saturday, somewhere – doubtless involving football – on Sunday, back Monday. But can he come home with three points?
There was much to give us hope in the Spurs match. As Mick Goulding has pointed out (see comments at https://safc.blog/2015/09/sixers-tottenham-soapboxdefeat-but-new-boys-and-borini-earn-their-spurs/#comments – Ed), Yann M’Vila really is the business in midfield. Borini will get stronger and sharper. O’Shea and Kaboul looked solid and Lens, from the beaten side, was man of the match (for M Salut and for others).