Malcolm Dawson writes….Is PDC’s hard line approach to discipline making life tough for himself? Few of us have been overawed by Stephane Sessegnon’s performances this season, but most of us would have preferred him hungover to the ineffective Ji. The manager was also evasive when asked about Gardner’s absence and despite signing 11 players over […]
Sixer’s Sevens Crystal Palace 3 SAFC 1: no honours at the Palace

Sessegnon’s drinking spree and Altodore’s hamstring provided both Ji and Wickham with the opportunity to silence their doubters at Selhurst Park. This and another poor first half performance saw an early return to action for Steven Fletcher. He scored of course, but to no avail. As is usual Peter Sixsmith sums up our day in […]
Crystal Palace: Guess the Score, meet SAFC fans aged 12 and 65

Don’t worry – we’ll reach Guess the Score in due course. Just scroll down if you get bored … Two things have struck Monsieur Salut with particular force this week. One was this refreshingly upbeat comment from a 12-year-old Sunderland supporter, posting at the Blackcats e-mail list, after being enthralled by the last quarter of […]
Crystal Palace v SAFC ‘Who are You?’: pixie (SuperKev) and pikeys (Charlton)

Ryan Cunningham* was the first to respond when Salut! Sunderland put out a pre-season appeal for warm, witty, wise or just garrulous Palace (and Cardiff and West Ham) fans to volunteer for the “Who are You?” hot seat. Here, he shows himself to be a passionate Palace fan, overjoyed to be back in the Premier, […]
MK Dons Soapbox: master class in retention and passing. Guess who from
If the ghost of the English poet and playwright William Congreve will pardon yet another distortion of his most famous line, hell hath little fury like Pete Sixsmith watching Sunderland against lower league opposition in the cup. That was for 75 minutes of Sunderland v MK Dons. Suddenly, imminent humiliation was pushed aside, anger turning […]
Le Parole di Paolo: SAFC 4 MK Dons 2 – papering over the cracks?

Malcolm Dawson writes; There I was stuck in Lytham St Annes, supposedly helping with the running of a Bridge holiday, with one headphone tuned into Radio Newcastle and the SAFC text commentary on the screen of my laptop. Every now and then I had to get up and do some work and as is usually the […]
Sixer’s Sevens: SAFC 4 MK Dons 2. Where did that come from?

What is it about Sunderland? That’s what poor old Nick Barnes was asking on BBC Radio Newcastle just before he spilt tea down Simon Pryde’s back. Other teams put out much-changed teams for the Capital One Cup and still romp to victory against lower league opponents. Sunderland fail, even against other weakened sides. At half […]
Sixer’s Travels: Southampton, heartening news of Jody Craddock and back in time for Blackburn

Pete Sixsmith‘s Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset odyssey took in Sunderland at St Mary’s, of course, but also a visit to Salisbury and a reminder of the sort of person Jody Craddock is. Our former centre back is now living in Christchurch where he donated one of his paintings to a relief fund in honour of […]
West Brom, Sunderland, Norwich fans ‘are most stressed’ on the road, Man City the surliest
So new research says football fans are a menace behind the wheel when there’s a match on the radio and our teams are playing. And guess who is up there among the worst culprits. Us in second place, behind West Brom but ahead of Norwich supporters in terms of how stressed we become while listening […]