Monsieur Salut writes: one of the joys of editing Salut! Sunderland is the chance it offers to read the gems of Pete Sixsmith even before they appear before the public gaze. Book publishers should be now be forming an orderly or disorderly queue to snap up rights to his magnificent twin series, The First Time […]
Sunderland vs Manchester City. Checkatrade Guess the Score and Wembley memories

GUESS THE SCORE: The Checktrade rules are simple – no extra time but penalties if scores are level at 90 minutes. For the prize mug – whoever you support – you must correctly predict the score at full time and, if the teams are drawing, the winner on penalties (don’t worry about the shoot-out score). […]
Sixer Says: torn between two loves as Sunderland Under 23s visit Shildon

Monsieur Salut says: Shildon is where Pete Sixsmith and I grew up after unpromising starts to life (me in Hove, Pete in Leeds). My dad was secretary of the Northern League side for several years despite his funny Cockney accent. Pete still turns out to watch them as often as he can and lives close […]
Pete Sixsmith’s interesting day: Germany, Jack Rodwell and not an MOT. (Only two failures, then)

John McCormick writes: how could Pete Sixsmith have known that my car failed its MOT this morning? (Have you seen these new fail notifications? I got a big bold FAIL repair immediately comment, along with something advisory about my rear brake disks. That said, the Mrs went out in it this afternoon). I presume that’s […]
As the World Cup looms, we remember why Sixer just loved Brazil 2014

The World Cup is almost upon us. Time will tell what Salut! Sunderland’s contributors will make of it. All offerings welcome. Pete Sixsmith always comes up with interesting aspects and at least we have a handful of players to keep our interest up: Jordan Pickford (pictured by his occasional driver, this site’s great friend and […]
Sixer says: goodbye John O’Shea, Robbie Stockdale and Adrian Tucker

John McCormick writes: in this short piece Pete Sixsmith casts his eye over a couple of the more minor changes that have happened to our club in recent days. I say minor, that’s just in comparison to what else has gone on. We have lost three of the more successful, and more unassuming, people at […]
Sunderland’s new order: Stewart Donald, Charlie Methven and Benjamin the Donkey

Pete Sixsmith is on leave. In his place, Benjamin the Donkey interprets his thoughts … unless it’s Sixer in disguise As is well known around the area, we donkeys are noted for our cynicism and unwillingness to believe that, to quote the song, “Things Can Only Get Better”. The general consensus amongst we members of […]
Sixer and Orwell: from Benjamin the donkey to Donald the SAFC saviour?

Monsieur Salut writes: what might George Orwell have said of the takeover? Will a new manager give Jack Rodwell a cuddle and turn him back into the player he thinks he still is? Questions about the takeover abound and who better than Pete Sixsmith to delve into his old George Orwell paperbacks, and memories of teaching history to […]
George Mulhall: an appreciation

UPDATE: George Mulhall’s son, Neil, has written to Salut! Sunderland: “I would like to thank you for your lovely tribute to my father. It brought tears to my eyes reading it.” Neil and other relatives can be assured our thoughts are with them. Pete Sixsmith writes: on a day when the SAFC news feed went […]
You’re going to like this but not a lot as Maja does his disappearing act
Well it’s finally happened and Josh Maja is departing for pastures new as the following Twitter post from Nick Barnes confirms. To clarify: @stewartdonald3 has told me Josh Maja has played his last game for #safc. They had hoped they could keep hold of him until the summer but the player took his belongings and […]