Melissa Rudd’s interview looked a winner in Salut! Sunderland’s Haway awards – Highly Articulate Who are You? works for us to produce the acronym – when it appeared before her club, Norwich City, came up to Sunderland and deservedly took a point. Her bad luck was threefold: two later entries that our judges collectively found to be even better, plus the Canaries’ relegation. Commiserations, Melissa, and thanks again. Your consolation as the final results are announced is to have your golden words reproduced below – and to collect her choice of prize as now described:
Melissa may choose between a year’s subscription to the great football magazine When Saturday Comes or a choice of WSC tops. If she visits http://www.wsc.co.uk/, she will get an idea of the options.
From our main sponsor soccerpro.com’s range. Our winner chooses items to a total value of $200 from soccerpro products
WAY has grown to HAWAY, simply because it seemed an appropriate acronym for Salut! Sunderland‘s annual Who are You? awards to those judged to have contributed the most interesting responses in the Who are You? feature that precedes every Sunderland game. It doesn’t matter too much whether we make this the Hello and Who are You? awards or dream up some other first words starting H and A. Our Oscars are, henceforth, the Haways.
From our main sponsor soccerpro.com’s range. ‘If only I could have that,’ sighs the Man Utd candidate
Few outside Hull – apart, maybe, from Brian Kerrigan, a former colleague of mine in Abu Dhabi who is from Cape Breton and knows of Humberside only because it was the birthplace of his favourite guitarist (Mick Ronson, if memory serves) – expected them to beat Arsenal in the FA Cup final. They got close, but not close enough.
But what about the real honours of the 2013-2014 season, the WAYS, or Salut! SunderlandWho are You? awards for 2013-14?
So another season just about over and, along with it, our relegation near-miss and this generally good, occasionally great series. Salut! Sunderland salutes the great band of opposing supporters who have given their time to answering our questions. The awards are coming soon; the judges have had a shortlist selected by Monsieur Salut since before the Man U game. But they are not bound by it and may well choose one of the last three ‘Who are You?’s, which have been uniformly excellent, among their winners. And now let’s welcome back Jim White*, who sits on the board of the Swans Trust (Twitter address: @swansinfo) and knows his stuff inside out …
The first part of the MUFC vs SAFC ‘Who are You?’ appeared yesterday –
https://safc.blog/2014/04/the-manchester-united-vs-sunderland-who-are-you/ – with Pete Molyneux* telling us about that Ta Ra Fergie banner protest of his, back in 1989. United had gone five minutes, maybe even six, without winning, so he had good reason to be cross. He later mellowed and has a book to prove it. Here are Pete’s responses to questions that did not concern that banner. Stand by for some terrific thoughts on the club we support. Pete has a very soft spot for Sunderland …
Pete, with nephew Simon and Fergie, at Dumbarton away 1991
Front cover of the book
The (in)famous ’89 Banner
Back cover blurb
Colin Randall writes: Pete Molyneux** is a Manchester United fan with form. Cast your minds back to 1989. Pete was fed up. Now we think we know all about Being Fed Up. It has a different meaning among United fans – they’d lost a home game, for heaven’s sake – but Pete felt it all the same. And he declared his unhappiness by unfurling a banner proclaiming “3 YEARS OF EXC– — USES AND IT’S STILL C*** … TA RA FERGIE” at Old Trafford.
There were no asterisks, of course, but I always worry about the sensitivity of others. In any event, both – Pete and Fergie – stuck at it and were richly rewarded as United expectations of winning everything in sight was rewarded by, well, winning lots. And last year, the book of the banner – Ta Ra Fergie – The Legacy of the World’s Greatest Football Manager* – appeared.
It surely makes all the amends needed. Pete seems a great bloke and has done us proud with these answers ahead of MUFC v SAFC on Saturday. I think it makes sense to start with his description of the banner protest, plus his thoughts on matters closer to our own hearts and run the rest tomorrow. The ‘rest’ includes great thoughts on, memories of Sunderland …
Phillip Nifield seems a decent character. He and Monsieur Salut pursued the same, now dying trade; he found life after newspapers so must remember to send a begging letter. But he’s always been a Cardiff fan, with lots of memories as you’ll soon see. Surely he’d be grudgingly happy for us to win. Surely we will anyway. No chance. Phillip, a board member of the Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust, expects the result that will please no one – a draw …
Improbable as survival remains, with the club three points adrift at the bottom and six short of a position of safety with just five games left, Poyet’s own self-respect has to make him want to summon superhuman powers of motivation. Until relegation is mathematically conclusive, he needs to drag every scrap of effort and passion from his team.
He can start by digging out a video recording of a recent Chelsea vs Sunderland Premier game. Not the 7-2 home win in January 2010 that might well have been 12-2, but the same fixture of the following season just 10 months later. Without top scorer Darren Bent, given no hope by pundits, Sunderland waltzed to a 3-0 victory, easily the best result of Steve Bruce’s short managerial reign. And when Poyet has finished drumming into his squad how that game was won, he can produce more recent footage of the 2-1 League Cup win in December, on Sunderland’s road to Wembley.
Salut! Sunderland content may be all over the place in the run-up to the Chelsea game. Sixer’s Etihad Soapbox (yes, he went in the end) arrived early and has been posted but there’s still Keir’s Player Ratings, Guess the Score and goodness knows what else to fit in. First, and maybe therefore out of sequence, let’s welcome back – after a few seasons’ absence, if memory serves – Ray Knight*, a solid London trade unionist, good bloke by all accounts and possessor of just one character defect. He supports Chelsea. It’s a great read all the same, with some priceless gags …
Mark Barber*, secretary of the Manchester City Disabled Supporters’ Association and our ‘Who are You?’ interviewee ahead of Man City vs SAFC, still reckons we’ll score first through Adam Johnson. If you want to know how often he thinks they’ll reply, you’ll need to read on. Check out the Q+A at https://safc.blog/2014/02/manchester-city-v-sunderland-who-are-you-come-back-niall-and-reidy/ and you’ll see it’s come down by two without being good news. Nor is his assessment of whether we can bounce straight back from relegation. Here is a mixture of Mark’s latest thoughts and those he expressed before the postponed game ….
Melissa may choose between a year’s subscription to the great football magazine When Saturday Comes or a choice of WSC tops. If she visits http://www.wsc.co.uk/, she will get an idea of the options.
