Some of the readers who have signed up as Friends of Salut! Sunderland have mentioned that they like the special Wembley and Bust Safe mug they received in return. You see the mug’s design here, capturing the flavour of the site on one side and the flavour of last season on the other.
While walking from the Leigh Arms to Goodison Park Pete Sixsmith and I discovered we shared a tenuous connection through the Willy Russell play “Our Day Out”. Written in the seventies, it’s the story of a group of inner city Liverpool kids who are taken to Conway castle by their teacher. Some of the people they meet along the way form some harsh opinions. Perhaps it has a message for Mr. Halfon that one shouldn’t be too judgmental when meeting people from elsewhere.
Pete Sixsmith didn’t quite qualify for Mr Robert Halfon MP’s tribute to ‘scumbag football hooligans’, missing out on the Covent Garden riot (implies Mr H) or good-natured gathering (said the cops) and travelling down on the Durham SAFCSA branch charabanc. This is his wonderful account of a great occasion we wouldn’t let defeat spoil …
One that was made earlier. Nic, left, with Claire, from outside the Fulwell
Nic Wiseman was co-creator and co-editor of the short-lived, much-missed SAFC fanzine It’s The Hope I Can’t Stand. Like Monsieur Salut, he went from having no ticket to being able to help others and wishing he could help more still. This was his day
For me, yesterday was a massive dose of re-affection for the club, its fans and being a Sunderland supporter.
Every so often, we get the sniff of beer money for the wonderful fellow Sunderland supporters who toil cheerfully at the Salut! Sunderland coalface to produce artciels and images out of the goodness of their hearts. This is such an occasion and Monsieur Salut reckons it’s the turn of Goldy and Gareth, the podcast wizards, to profit. Let Dan Fitch* take up the story …
Pete Sixsmith: getting the first round in on Sunday?
John McCormick writes:
Dennis Tueart was on local TV today, with a clip of his 1976 League Cup Final goal against Newcastle (and I have to say he looked a lot older and he’s lost weight), but that’s all I’ve seen about the final. Maybe both Manchester teams not doing well in Europe has muted the North-West TV bosses. I’ve been busy, of course, making arrangements for the weekend. Venues and times, phone numbers to exchange and confirm, and also organising a ticket for the Palace match.
John McCormick writes: in 2014 M Salut began a series called “Countdown to Wembley”. Although the date stamp above says 27th Feb the piece below was actually something he wrote on 27th January, just four short years ago.
How many managers since? How many trials and tribulations since? But along with the grief we managed a Wembley appearance and six in a row.
So it hasn’t always been bad, and with Chris Coleman on board it’s surely time to remember just what we have done in recent years, to look to the future and to continue to keep the faith …
A warm welcome back to these pages to Simon Curtis*, an exile in Portugal who still manages to get to numerous City games. His visit here in late 2012 won second prize in the annual ‘Who are You?’ awards, one judge – Jeremy Robson – hailing ‘the finest Who Are You? article which has ever appeared on the pages of Salut amidst the best series we have ever had the pleasure to read here’. And ahead of the league cup final, Simon offers another hugely entertaining read with great reminiscences of the impact Sunderland had on him in ’73 …
Cup final week, even if technically not, so let’s go early with Guess the Score – and let’s also have a bumper entry …
A Caribbean cruise? No. Tickets for the World Cup Final in Brazil? Not quite.
That’s the bad news. The good is that the League Cup final Guess the Score is not just any old win-a-mug competition, and nor is it one of those prize-free duds.
