Pete Sixmsith once again steps down from the Soapbox to make way for Bob Chapman, whose pre-match pint was taken with a man who’d willingly forked out £30 for Stoke versus Sunderland after baulking at nearly six times more for a Barcelona game a few days earlier. Bob considered it a decent point even if results at Palace and Burnley dumped us in the bottom three …
For Rob Hutchison, our master of the one-word assessments, the 1-1 draw at Stoke City was ‘much improved’. Our problem lies in the next three words: ‘improvement on what?’
Monsieur Salut writes: a draw at Stoke would normally seem acceptable. But wins for Hull and Leicester – also away – dumped us in the bottom three, so it felt more like losing. The next three games – Southampton and Leicester at home, Everton away – will decide our fate. Pete Sixsmith gave the game at Stoke a miss, opting to follow events at the Britannia on the radio while watching Shildon, his home town as it is mine, keep Northern League title hopes firmly alive with a 3-1 win against Durham City. So the seven-word verdict is not his but a supersubs’s. Listening from afar, I imagined my fellow-SAFC supporters all over the world mixing jubilation and trepidation as Wickham punished Bergavic’s first-minute mistake. Adam’s equaliser was probably the most predictable goal of our season. We had chances to regain the lead but a draw was probably a fair outcome …
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It’s fair to say the headline was designed to attract supporters of all the relegation-threatened clubs, not just ours, so be aware that they may well be influencing the early No vote on SAFC’s chances of survival (whatever our own feelings!) …
Not everyone who supports our favourite club – I nearly wrote “only club” but retain a very soft spot indeed for Shildon AFC – lives in Sunderland or the North East.
Even those who do may not see the Sunderland Echo or Shields Gazette as often as they should. And we do not all, always, follow what the local press is saying online.
So every now and then, it seems a good idea to draw Salut! Sunderland readers’ attention to a piece that seems to capture our thoughts or put present circumstances in some reasonable order.
Despite the air of resignation that has drifted into the tone of comments posted by Salut! Sunderland perceptive band of readers, the overwhelming majority of us fervently want one outcome to the season, safety for SAFC.
Actually, quite a few would quite like another outcome, too, the relegation of Newcastle United, but the 35 points Toon won before they decided winning and drawing are not really much fun will probably be enough assuming they don’t get hammered in each remaining game and pick up another point or two.
Even after a break – not internationals to blame this time, but Arsenal’s FA Cup semifinal – Monday is far too too early to be starting the customary sequence of interview/preview/score predictions.
Our nerves are raw enough without unnecessary reminders of what could rest on the outcome of Stoke City versus Sunderland. Wherever you are in the world, you can almost hear Mark Hughes’s early team talks about where and how we may be vulnerable.
But the game is coming and so are the usual Salut! Sunderland features.
No Sunderland to endure and Pete Sixsmith was spoilt for choice. SAFC Ladies’ third game in the Women’s Super League – a spirited comeback from a goal down to beat Bristol City 2-1 – and Shildon’s Northern League title bid (a win ) beckoned. But Sixer looked north of the border for his Saturday football fix …
The day went well. Trains ran on time, the weather was fine and the football was a trifle stilted but at least I got to see a home game where half of the home support didn’t leave before the hour mark.
Pete Sixmsith‘s love of football goes beyond the unrequited loyalty he bestows upon Sunderland AFC. He holds a wide-ranging view and, like the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, he always gets his
manmatch. From Bishop to Blyth, Sherburn to Shildon, Crook to Coxhoe, he’s there when it matters.And this week, as Sunderland aren’t playing (and how is that different from other weeks? you might ask) he’s here to give us the lowdown on what’s going on in the Northern League .
As yet another Sunderland season crumbles, leaving us our now-customary last few games for a desperate attempt to pull back from the abyss, Julian Smith* is a supporter watching – and now writing – from afar. He’s out in Dunedin, on NZ’s South Island and home to reputedly the world’s steepest street, Baldwin St, whose gradient may replicate the uphill task facing Dick Advocaat. Monsieur Salut is preparing an apology for the appalling headline pun and this will appear in Fenwick’s window alongside the bare backsides of anyone who predicted a comfortable season …
After the Crystal Palace calamity I now think there’s probably a two-thirds chance of being relegated. Six points will give us a shot, but I cannot now see Sunderland getting them.
Tons of words have been and written and spoken about the wretched Sunderland collapse, the latest in a season littered with disappointment. Peter Lynn was among the unhappy Sunderland fans present and, as always for him, it had involved a major effort to get there from the West Midlands. Days later, he puts the mistakes of John O’Shea into perspective and ponders the lack of managerial stability he feels contributes to the SAFC malaise. He says he wrote it ‘to get the Palace nightmare out of my system’ …