Swansea City

Haway! It’s awards time again with Bournemouth, Middlesbrough, Swansea making early running

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Jake: ‘with thanks to all opposing fans who participate’

Monsieur Salut introduces our annual HAWAY awards, with thanks to the supporters of all clubs played by Sunderland in league and cup this season who contributed to the series …

Cinema does it with Oscars, BAFTAs, Cannes and the rest. Pop has the Brits and Grammys. Salut! Sunderland brings you the HAWAYS, honouring the best interviews with opposing fans – the Highly Articulate Who are You? awards.

We are delighted once again to have a trio of generous sponsors. The rough-and-ready shortlist is with judges but I shall extend the process this year to allow a popular vote, using the same criteria including the fact that my suggestions are intended as no more than a guide.

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Moyes on the Boys after Swansea cruise to victory: ‘SAFC deserved nothing’

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Moyes on the underperforming Boys

There really is little more to say. The best moments of the afternoon were 1) Rob Mason’s interview with Nick Barnes about being ‘let go’ by the club from his exemplary editing of the club programme (another rotten SAFC decision, but what a noble interview without a trace of bittneress) and 2) the sight of Bradley Lowery being carried on to the pitch beforehand by Jermain Defoe. For the rest, David Moyes got it right a couple of days ago – he and the players should have been hanging their heads in shame. Here are his usual post-match thoughts, …

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Sixer’s Sevens: SAFC 0-2 Swansea City. Bravo Rob Mason, shame on Sunderland

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Jake: ‘was that a whimper I heard? No it was nothing’

Monsieur Salut writes: Pete Sixsmith wondered at half time, Sunderland two down and looking like little boys lost, whether it was worth staying. He did. And continued to see a team devoid of leadership, character, flair or even – in many cases – passion. Embarrassing, Sixer said later. As bad as, if not worse than, anything he had seen in 53 years supporting our club. His seven-word verdict below is unchanged from half time, after which we had a clear penalty denied and a good chance spurned by Billy Jones but never truly seemed able to save the game …

Having led us to this sorry moment, our esteemed owner Ellis Short and his chief executive Martin Bain were watching from the stands. They, like the manager and players, should have been hanging their heads in shame – and not least because of their thoroughly rotten decision to get rid of the SAFC programme editor Rob Mason, a wonderful club historian and servant who deserved better than this shabby end (his pre-match interview with Nick Barnes oozed class, dignity and total lack of rancour) …

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Relishing victory at Hull and time to Guess the Score vs Swansea

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Peter Lynn, aka Wrinkly Pete

Monsieur Salut writes: talk about killing two birds with one stone. Peter Lynn has put away – probably smashed – the crystal ball that kept telling him we’d stay up. But he hasn’t lost the faith in an broader sense. He was at Hull and will, I imagine be at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.

So read on, enjoy Wrinkly Pete’s reflections – and then guess the score in SAFC vs Swansea. Anyone can enter and the first reader to predict the correct result will eventually get a prize. Usual prizes – a suitable mug or the Nick Barnes Matchbook mini-version, either producing a small donation to the Bradley Lowery appeal fund – – and usual rules …

Ah but there is a great prize and it aids the Bradley Lowery campaign

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Wrinkly Pete’s Crystal Ball: it may be causing hallucinations

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Peter Lynn, aka Wrinkly Pete

Peter Lynn, also known as Wrinkly Pete, has an an imaginary crystal ball that enables him to predict the outcome of each game and check how it affects his once-firm belief that Sunderland would survive on 37 points. That tally is now pretty much impossible but Pete still sees us finishing on 35. Probably not enough and there’s also a health warning: some of those predictions look a little optimistic – as well as pre-supposing that Hull and Swansea take no more than five and seven points respectively from their remaining games…

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Burnley Guess the Score and a Hull fan aids Bradley Lowery’s fund

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Jake: ‘is there any point in urging a special performance?’

Monsieur Salut writes: I had an itch to get this week’s Guess the Score out there, but an e-mail from a Hull City supporter exiled in Sri Lanka removed any doubt. You may recall that last week, despite Sunderland’s inactivity, we offered a mini-edition of Nick Barnes’s splendid Matchbook for the first to post correct scorelines in two games of interest to but not involving SAFC, partly because some unexpected advertising enabled us to do so and partly because the publishers, Tales from Red and Whites are paying £5 into the Bradley Lowery fund for each copy bought. So there were two winners – a Hull supporter and Bradley. Read on …

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Sunderland and Hull, Middlesbrough or Palace? Swansea or Bournemouth? Not WBA, as Leicester take off

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John McCormick
John McCormick: We’re  bottom and there’s now a gap

When I last reported in with the Salut Sunderland relegation watch we had had some recent wins but were still in the relegation zone, along with Swansea and Hull. (Swansea weren’t one of the clubs chosen in our start-of season poll but I included them in December on the grounds that some people did vote for “another club” and they  had begun to fit that bill after a decline).

That was only a month ago, just after the transfer window closed, since when new signings have had time to settle and new managers to generate – but maybe not sustain – a bounce. With a cup  weekend giving most of them a breather we have another chance to review  the situation.

But before I do, I have to congratulate West Bromwich Albion, who passed through our metaphorical barrier with ease. Would that we could reach such heights.

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Guess someone else’s score, help Bradley Lowery: Hull-Swansea, Bournemouth-West Ham anyone?

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Win the prize: help Bradley Lowery

 

Monsieur Salut writes: please see John McCormick’s fine piece on Barca 6-1 PSG. My view from France? The PSG collapse was lead item on the French lunchtime news, which I found shocking given there is also a presidential election campaign and a gruesome family murder in Brittany. I am quite pleased about PSG’s heavy defeat but only because I regard them as a fairly loathsome club and don’t (yet? really?) feel the same way about Barcelona. And now for some Salut! Sunderland housekeeping …

It boils down to an invitation to Guess the Score – in the absence of a Sunderland game – in either of the two matches affecting us, Bournemouth vs West Ham and Hull vs Swansea. Be first to be right in either case and you can either have the mini-version of Nick Barnes’s Matchbook, knowing a fiver will go to the Bradley Lowery fund, or – if, say, you support one of the teams involved – a mug reflecting your allegiance … in the latter case, Salut! Sunderland would pay the fiver into Bradley’s fund

Goes without saying that two first-to-be-correct scorelines = two prizes. You must have a UK delivery address.

14 Bournemouth P27 GD-15 Pts27
15 Leicester 27 -15 27
16 Swansea 27 -24 27
17 Crystal Palace 27 -11 25
18 Middlesbrough 27 -11 22
19 Hull 27 -29 21
20 Sunderland 27 -26 19

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