John McCormick writes: It was M Salut himself who got me going, but only after Malcolm had chipped in with his two-penneth (one penneth before, one penneth after). Both described goals they had or hadn’t scored in the “comments” area of a short post about the naming of George Honeyman as captain, and the spark behind their reminiscences was a phrase used by one of our readers, Brian, in a comment of his own.
So I’ve chipped in with my best (almost only, though I did score twice in a University intramural league and had a third disallowed) goal and we hope you’ll do the same to liven up the dull days between the announcement of fixtures and the actual getting to them. No prizes, I’m afraid, just the honour, the glory and the adulation that will no doubt come from our readership as they recognise you as a true hero of football.
No Pete Sixsmith at White Hart Lane. The early starts for the Durham branch bus, the cost of a pint in London and the limited prospects of seeing Sunderland raise their game have done for him and trips to most matches in the capital. Monsieur Salut – ticket for WHL burning a hole in his wallet after work intervened – has learned not to count on the excellent but lesser spotted Bob Chapman, which almost certainly means we’ll see a report from him, too, this time. A place awaits you, Bob! Step forward our one-word ratings man Rob Hutchison, who worried about the 3-5-2 system, feared the worst as Spurs gobbled up possession and peppered our goal with efforts and ended up disappointed we hadn’t taken gilt-edged chances that nevertheless came our way. But he’s happy with Jermain Defoe’s arrival…
Rob Hutchison declares:‘3-5-2 delivers the same result. Sort the system out and it sorts the season out.’ Then he delivers his one-word verdicts on the Lads, proving himself a much kinder judge of Danny Graham than was Keir Bradwell but using the same adjective for three of what would usually have been the back four and a slightly harsher one for the fourth. Rob omitted Will Buckley so M Salut has guessed at that one …
Pete Sixsmith was for once missing from a Sunderland match, so missed a game that ought to have been saved but ended in cruel disappointment. So the seven-word verdict is supplied by a supersub, Monsieur Salut (the bonus word, making it eight, has been eliminated and a late offering from Sixer himself added). After all the excitement caused by Jermain Defoe’s signing, Sunderland made the worst possible start, a big John O’Shea deflection diverting Jan Vertonghen’s shot into the net with Pantilimon stranded after Sunderland failed to clear a free kick. Despite a great Seb Larsson equaliser, the ball was far too easily conceded late outside the Spurs penalty area to set up a lightning counter-attack that Eriksen converted in the 88th minuted And would you believe it: our two best chances of rescuing the the game and possibly even winning it fell to Danny Graham? He was twice denied by Hugo Lloris …
Jan 11 2015 Tottenham Hotspur (1) 2 SAFC (1)1 *Useful Defoe debut ruined by familiar failings or, from Sixer: Other results make this defeat less damaging
Jake: ‘that’s hard to take’
Jan 17 2015 Sunderland (0) 0 Liverpool (1) 1 Selection and tactics raise questions about Poyet
Jan 10 2015 FA Cup 3rd Round: SAFC (1) 1 Leeds United (0) 0 Scraped through after a shocking second half
The headline was going to be ‘Gareth Bale is not diver, says Tottenham’s Spitting Image joker’, implying that this was a view only a writer of comedy could hold. Reports of Jermain Defoe’s rumoured, imminent signing – closely followed by other rumours that his pay demands will scupper it, and of course bearing in mind we are often used as bargaining chips by players/agents with other clubs in mind – inspired second thoughts, not least because our Spurs WAY volunteer, David Sapsted*, also mentions him.
As well as coming up with gags for Spitting Image, and about G Bale, Sappers is a veteran news hound – we worked together at The Daily Telegraph and he once, as news editor, ordered me to take an early cut so I could drive to Leicester in time for a midweek match (we lost) – and a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur (plus, for reasons we do not know, assorted other ‘second’ teams. Here is his irreverent look at all things White Hart Lane …
So, I awoke to an interesting e-mail from my friend Lesley Ciarula Taylor, from the Toronto Star newspaper, which was reporting that Sunderland had signed Jermain Defoe from the Canadian club.
The story had been in that well-known fountain or truth and wisdom, The Sun, and tweeted just before I’d turned in; it was an exciting proposition but no one else seemed to be reporting it and at least one SAFC fan on Twitter was pouring scorn on the source (‘I wouldn’t wipe my a*** with that rag’).
Quaking in their boots in expectation of a heroic bounceback from 8-0 – or breezily confident, after coming from behind to beat Anderlecht on Arsène Wenger’s 65th birthday, of adding to our woes? We’ll soon enough find out which Sunderland and which Arsenal turns out. Nigel Payne*, our Arsenal ‘Who are You?’ interviewee, is a sports marketing consultant and well-known figure in horse racing (co-owner of the 1998 Grand National winner Earth Summit, chairman of the Professional Jockeys Association and a former communications chief at Aintree). Expect strident views on Wenger, warm thoughts on Sunderland and Poyet … and an eccentric score prediction …
Unlike our 13-year-old pundit Keir Bradwell, Pete Sixsmith is not a contender for Young Blogger in the Football Blogging Awards. While he awaits a suitable category for long-in-the-tooth stalwarts, he’ll settle for votes for the site. But Sixer’s passion for the game at all levels takes him to the occasional Under 21 game. This is what he saw when SAFC’s youth took on Spurs last night …
John McCormick writes: It was M Salut himself who got me going, but only after Malcolm had chipped in with his two-penneth (one penneth before, one penneth after). Both described goals they had or hadn’t scored in the “comments” area of a short post about the naming of George Honeyman as captain, and the spark behind their reminiscences was a phrase used by one of our readers, Brian, in a comment of his own.
