The WAY awards: tension mounts as Hull, Norwich and Manchester United lead the pack

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! Sunderland Who are You? awards for 2013-14?

The final results will be announced on Monday but Hull are in with a great chance of being named the winners, chosen by our panel of judges from all the “enemy camp” interviews published before Sunderland’s 49 competitive games last season. First prize is $200 worth of clobber from the US sportswear suppliers soccerpro.com.

But then, at 2-0 up, Hull City were in with a great chance of winning the FA cup and look what happened. Is there still scope for one of the chasing pack – Norwich, Man Utd, Kidderminster, Stoke City, Tottenham and Swwansea – to sneak ahead of Raich Carter junior, son of Sunderland’s very own Raich Carter, one of the best of his or any other generation of English footballers?

Raich’s interview can be seen at https://safc.blog/2014/03/hull-city-vs-safc-who-are-you-raich-carter-juniors-divided-loyalties/.

Melissa Rudd’s Norwich-supporting Q+A, also highly rated, is at https://safc.blog/2013/12/safc-v-norwich-who-are-you-the-worst-keeper-ive-ever-seen/. Pete Molyneux’s flag-flyiong for Man Utd supporters is to be found at https://safc.blog/2014/04/the-manchester-united-vs-sunderland-who-are-you/.

As indicated last week, there has also been the threat of a late spurt by one of the less fancied candidates – Anthony Ashton (Tottenham Hotspur), Simon Curtis (Manchester City) or Jim White (Swansea City).

Monsieur Salut has had his break in Sorrento. In Amalfi, the face of a young waiter at a beachside cafe lit up when the names Fabio Borini, Vito Mannone and Emanuele Giaccherini were recited to him. “You’re a supporter of Sunderland!” he exclaimed.

He gets no prize for that guess. But there are goodies awaiting the Who are You? winners – first, second and third placed with a special editor’s prize for A N Other.

The prizes:

Second-placed candidate will be invited to choose from the current range of Campo Retro tops, among which are several additions to mark the imminent World Cup (but harking back, as is Campo Retro’s attractive way, to previous tournaments). Look out one day soon for a “road test” of the Belgian shirt by our old friend Sobs, aka Paul Dobson,

For the third-placed candidate, there’s * a year’s subscription to the much more than half-decent football magazine When Saturday Comes, or a choice of top. Check out the possibilities at http://shop.wsc.co.uk/index.php?page=shop.browse&category_id=10&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=67

* And the winner of a special editor’s award will receive a World Cup top from Philosophy Football, frequent supporters of Salut! Sunderland promotions and purveyors of clobber with messages. We are still not yet entirely sure which one they are offering) will be Monsieur Salut’s special prize, going to a close fourth-placed candidate or someone else seeming to have a pressing case for recognition.