Salut! Sunderland is very close to announcing the 2015 winners of our annual Haway awards – in other words, fans of other clubs who contributed Highly Articulate Who are You? interviews to our regular pre-match feature.
The shortlist supplied to our judges – see it here – has been whittled down from 13 to five. From Aston Villa, Burnley, Everton, Newcastle and Stoke – listed alphabetically – will come our top three.
Just to tidy things a little, let Salut! Sunderland record the last pair of Guess the Score winners of the season, with thanks as ever to our Weardale-based, Mackem-owned sponsors, Personalised Football Gifts.
Mike Thomas, a Chelsea supporter, correctly predicted the Blues would exploit tired legs, burst our survival bubble and win 3-1.
“I wish I had been blessed with enough confidence having made my prediction to back it up with a few quid at Corals'” he writes, as if the Chelsea mug is not reward enough. “Please pass on my thanks to Sunderland Supporters who attended – I thought they showed class throughout.”
The end-of-season reviews continue to flow in. Ken Gambles is another of our writers with a wealth of experience of watching Sunderland, good and bad. It’s fair to say he felt cheated at times in the season he now reviews, but at least he found one huge positive. All the reviews in this series can be seen at https://safc.blog/category/end-of-season-reviews-2015/ …
Bob Chapman brings down the curtain on what we hope has been another season of fine, incisive reporting from each Sunderland game, the best of it combining analysis, observation and humour (the latter quality is remarkable, given the feelings of dejection that all too often haunt the Sunderland supporter’s life). Pete Sixsmith has explained his absence from the final two games, leaving Arsenal to his younger brother Michael and Chelsea to his pal Bob, a frequent understudy. Salut! Sunderland thanks all contributors for one more season of triumph over failure, hope over despair …
John McCormick writes: regular readers will know that I’ve been tracking the progress of SAFC and other at-risk clubs by means of my “dodgy numbers”. I’ll look back on how they all fared some time after Pete Sixsmith finishes the end of season reviews, with a view to selecting teams and methods for next season’s relegation watch.
In the meantime, here’s a by-product of my tracking exercise, a chart detailing our climb to safety and the key events of what turned out to be a long hard slog. Click for a clearer view …
John McCormick writes: when the fixture fairy first waved her wand I thought I might struggle to make more than a handful of matches. It turned out I was right; over the season pre-booked flights, rearranged games, competing demands and a pregnant daughter all took their toll. So, too, did my lowly position in the loyalty points league. Our away support is so good that there are loads of fixtures where I can’t get tickets in my own right and, sometimes, even the best efforts of stalwarts such as Pete Sixsmith aren’t enough, as became clear from game one; Burnley away was the first target I missed.
In fact, I only managed three games. Even so, in a season when we did little, they all stood out for some reasons.
Pete Sixsmith awarded himself another day off from actually travelling to an expensive away game, settling for Barnes and Benno and updates from around the country on Premier League’s final day. The big question remains: is this as well as a Chapman Report from Stamford Bridge or instead of one? …
After the excitement tension and ultimate relief of last Wednesday comes a time for cool reflection. Sunderland didn’t peer once again over the precipice because of rank bad luck. Survival was a close-run thing and we need to consider why there was yet another desperate battle for dear life in the last few games. Peter Lynn has some answers some will find spot-on, others a bit too finger-pointing. See the full End of Season Review series at https://safc.blog/category/end-of-season-reviews-2015/ …
Think of the London and Southern England branch of the SAFC Supporters’ Association and it is impossible not to think of its co-founder, Ian Todd, an exile in the capital since the 1960s and a man who has invested frightening amounts of time, effort and money into supporting Sunderland and helping others do so. It was fitting that Salut! Sunderland should turn to such a home-and-away regular to contribute to this series of reviews of the season just ended …
This was a typical end of term affair. For Chelsea, the equivalent of sweets and board games was in saying …