Walsall

Salut! Sunderland’s welcome to George Dobson – a big midfielder and what’s more, we paid for him

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George Dobson:a great photo, reproduced with the kind permission of safc.com

Monsieur Salut writes: at around 8pm, I switched on my phone after landing at Stansted, noticed the signing of George Dobson had been announced and prepared to write our usual welcoming piece on the train into London. Fat chance. The sun had come out and there were no trains. Nor any notice to that effect obviously visible in arrivals so passengers had to traipse all the way down to the platform only to be sent back to the terminal to queue for National Express tickets and then traipse one floor back down to locate the coach station. It was a grim ride into the capital. Probably unfair to blame Brexit but I’ll doubtless find a way. But here’s the delayed welcome …

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Salut! Sunderland’s HAWAY award-winning entry and two noble gestures from Bristol Rovers and Walsall

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Doug Shields before Rovers 0-4 Doncaster. ‘The only time I smiled that day.’ Click on the photo to see all Who are You?s in the season just ended

Monsieur Salut writes: by tradition, Salut! Sunderland reproduces the Who are You? interview that has won our top HAWAY award. There is a twist, and a much-appreciated one. Doug Shields, a Bristol Rovers fan and the author, said he would prefer his prize to go to ‘a decent charity in Sunderland’. The runner-up, Richard Hall (Walsall), immediately made a similar gesture, asking for a replica top to go to an inner-city Sunderland school, perhaps as a prize for its summer fete. There you have it: football’s antidote to the shame brought by lowlife hoodlums running amok in Portugal in pretence of supporting England.

I shall offer an Art of Football print – the Sunderland range can be seen here and is superb – to the newish Sunderland fans’ museum and am open to suggestions as to the school. If I receive more than one approach or recommendation, I shall draw a winning school at random (provided it broadly fits Richard’s geographical preference). Thank you, genetlemen …

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Salut! Sunderland’s HAWAY awards: Bristol Rovers, Walsall and Rochdale take the honours

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Jake: ‘thanks to all who participate’. Click this image to see all of this season’s interviews


The season is over and Sunderland couldn’t quite get across the finishing line. But there were positives, says Monsieur Salut, despite the failure to achieve what everyone wanted and the club needed.

Salut! Sunderland‘s modest contributions to the season’s brighter aspects included a good deal of fine writing for which credit is due to Pete Sixsmith, Malcolm Dawson, John McCormick, Wrinkly Pete, Rob Hutchison, Bob Chapman, Paul Summerside, Bill Taylor, Lars Knutsen, John Marshall and whoever I have overlooked.

And then there were the Who are You? interviews, in-depth interviews with fans of opposing teams before each game.

Our fellow League One clubs proved a tremendous source of wit and wisdom as the interviews mounted up. It is now time to offer some rewards to those responsible for the best of them.

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The Salut! Sunderland Haway awards: Peterborough, Wycombe, Rochdale and Bristol Rovers in the running

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Jake: ‘thanks to all who participate’. Click this image to see all of this season’s interviews


It has become a bit of a stuck old gramophone record, Salut! Sunderland‘s pride in a tremendous season of Who are You? interviews with opposing supporters.

Judging is at an advanced stage for our HAWAYs – annual awards for Highly Articulate Who are You?s – and with only a couple of sets of votes still awaited, front-runners are emerging.

League One has been a goldmine for the series (not forgetting our cup-game interviewees from other divisions)

As Monsieur Salut put it when writing to the judges: “I could have put them all in a hat and drawn three at random, so good have so many of the interviews been.”

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Sixer’s Sub’s Soapbox: Walsall can’t hold on as Sunderland close the gap

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This is one Jake made later (his original, sent when he had to pop out, had the scoreline at 1-1 which he said, I hope you won’t have to use’)

Pete Sixsmith reported windy weather before trotting off to the SOL yesterday and Walsall duly put the wind up Sunderland, who produced yet another shaky start. It turned out well enough in the end, with four of the top six drawing and the seventh-placed club losing, to once more put us in control of our own destiny.

With no game between now and the Checkatrade Trophy final, the Salut! Sunderland team will no doubt be racking their collective brains trying to think up articles that will keep the readership ticking over. By contrast the past few weeks have been pretty hectic and in order to give Pete a bit of a break and allow him some time off to enjoy his other interests, Deputy Editor Malcolm Dawson once more borrows the soapbox to report on yesterday’s game against our visitors from the West Midlands.

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Sixer’s Sevens: Grigg strike eases patchy Sunderland past Walsall for three mighty points

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Back home, after a long time on the road, with a depleted squad and a serious need to keep in touch with the top two, which suddenly looked doable once again, especially after Gillingham twice equalised against Luton, Pete Sixsmith wearily texted the early Walsall goal to absent friends. Then Cattermole smashed in an equaliser off a defender and our illustrator Jake decided head to go out so sent a banner with 1-1 as the final score. Benno was full of praise for Luke O’Nien, getting stuck in all over the pitch. But it was the introduction of Wyke that turned the game as he did himself and Will Grigg a great deal of good, his assist setting up Grigg for a fine finish and winner.

Pete will send his full report in due course. For now, here’s his instant post-whistle text, and Jake emailed to say he’ll send a suitable graphic later, just to make a good day that little bit better

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Walsall Who are You?: ‘genuinely shocked Sunderland are not running away with League One’

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Monsieur Salut writes: we heard a little from Darren Fellows* after the first of our earlier games against his club, Walsall.

This time, his answers arrived as both of us nervously awaited Tuesday night’s fixtures. We managed a draw at Barnsley, a result that was good in isolation but left us still chasing the top two, while Walsall did us no favours, beaten at home by Pompey. Over to Darren, who thinks we should be doing  so much better this season than to risk having to accept a playoff place.

It’s another interesting set of answers, though Will Grigg’s friends may want to keep it from his eyes …

 

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Sunderland vs Walsall prize Guess the Score. Playing catch-up on Luton and Barnsley

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Monsieur Salut says: we will go early with Guess the Score for this Saturday. Pete Sixsmith’s Soapbox from Barnsley will not be with us until later in the day and we also need to check whether our headlines are being ‘grabbed’ by the newsnow.co.uk aggregator (Sixer’s Sevens seems to have avoided their radar last night) …

A draw at Barnsley can hardly be described as two points wasted. Sadly, coming after the disappointing stalemate (and very nearly defeat) at Wycombe, the reality is that automatic promotion is looking a lot less likely.

We can but hope that Sunderland will at last stamp some authority on League One and find winning as easy as Luton Town, nine points clear of us at the top. Even then we need them or Barnsley to falter.

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