West Ham gone, Man Utd faltering. Forget formalities: Man City-SAFC final

Bid for a super Salut! Sunderland mug and help the charity of your choice between now and the Old Trafford second leg …

Man City 6 West Ham 0

Sunderland 2 Man Utd 1

It would seem the odds must be on a Man City vs Sunderland final.

From Abu Dhabi to New York, Spain to, er, Bishop Auckland, messages of congratulation have poured – or at least trickled – in to Monsieur Salut’s Facebook, e-mail and Twitter accounts. Sunderland are suddenly everyone’s favourite second team, just as we were in 1973 and just as Newcastle fans long to be all the time but never actually are.

But really, this is just an excuse for allowing Jake’s wild imagination a platform before anything as inconsiderate as a Premier defeat or Jan 22 at Old Trafford comes along to disturb our dreams. Was that prissy question mark (Wembley Bound?) really necessary, Jake?

And it’s more than that. Eric Bowers kindly donated a Salut! Sunderland mug, won for one of his many winning Guess the Score entries, in the hope of inspiring an auction for charity. A few readers responded with predicted scorelines and pledges to good causes; so far no one wishing to help charity has guessed right.

So this post is an auction. No need to predict anything. Just stake a bid of at least £10 and identify your chosen cause. I will kick it off with a tenner for Amnesty International and keep this at the top of the site’s home page until Jan 21, the eve of the second leg vs Man Utd.

I will modify the design of the mug should a supporter of another club stake the highest bid. The donation will be paid via Salut! Sunderland and M Salut’s decision shall be final.

Back to football. Never forget, we support our team, our club wherever it happens to be in whatever league or competition. We do not expect to win every game as a matter of right. We do not have “fans”, or not many, who could not hope to place Sunderland on the map.

Ha’way the Lads.