Week after week, Ian Porter's detailed reflections on each Sunderland match provide superb analysis for subscribes to the Blackcats list, home of some of the most intelligent comment on our club to be found anywhere. In the third part of our end-of-term report series (Pete Sixsmith now reverts, as intended, to the fourth part), Ian* identifies the 1-1 draw at St James' Park, in a game we ought to have won by half time, as a key turning point in a season that had another tremendous show of guts and consistency from Danny Collins (pictured) but also stuttered – and nearly fell very heavily – after earlier spells of promise …

The season started with a mixture of optimism and pessimism.

Kenwyne Jones missed the start due to a serious knee injury suffered while playing for Trinidad & Tobago against England.

Roy Keane was in the market for players capable of taking us to the next level. Strangely, his targets were four players from Spurs: Chimbonda, Malbranque, Kaboul and Tainio. We were also linked several times with Darren Bent. However, Liverpool took Keane and Spurs decided to keep Bent until a suitable replacement could be found.

Among supporters, Kaboul didn’t inspire, and Spurs supporters didn’t rate him, and it was a relief for many when he eventually chose Portsmouth. Similarly, Chimbonda, had fallen out with the supporters over his attitude. On the face of it, Malbranque and Tainio seemed good signings.

The other addition was Diouf from Bolton. His arrival met with a mixed reception. Many supporters disliked his attitude and didn’t really rate him as a player.

David Healy joined from Fulham with a reputation of a prolific goalscorer at international level, but an indifferent club record at Leeds and Fulham. After the first game of the season, the really inspired signing that supporters were looking for arrived in the shape of Djibril Cisse, on a season-long loan with us having first refusal on his permanent signing – and there was a headed goal on his debut at Spurs.

The defence was supposedly bolstered by the return of George McCartney, and the signing of Anton Ferdinand, with the January loan signings of two central defenders, Tal Ben-Haim and Calum Davenport, potentially signalling the end of Danny Collins’s role as either central defender or left back.

Funding for the season's signings was credited to Ellis Short, resources from the Drumaville consortium having dried up as a result of the recession in Ireland.

Probably the most satisfying home win of the season was the 2-1 victory over Newcastle. Our new crowd favourite Cisse gave us the lead before Newcastle equalised against the run of play but midway through the second half, we took the lead again, courtesy of a stunning Kieran Richardson free kick.

The game also saw the return of Kenwyne Jones from injury, bringing widespread anticipation of a deadly new strike force. But as the season progressed, nothing could have been further from the truth.

In December, after the Bolton 4-1 home defeat, speculation was rife that Roy Keane was on the verge of resigning. After a few days of considering his position, and following discussions with Niall Quinn, he finally decided to resign immediately after a conversation with Ellis Short.

Roy didn’t think Short, or anyone else for that matter, had the right to question his signings, where he lived or how much time he spent at the training ground.

Despite a supposedly impressive list of applicants for the vacant manager's position, first team coach, a reluctant Ricky Sbragia, was appointed to the hot seat, seemingly his reward for a relatively successful run of games post-Roy Keane, and the support shown for him by both players and directors.

Among his first moves were to sell Chimbonda and Diouf – highlighted as disruptive influences and having had disputes with Keane – and send several other players out on loan until the end of the season.

After a reasonable run of results, Premier League survival was beginning to look achievable, with some quarters both inside and outside the club starting to talk about Uefa qualification.

Throughout, Danny Collins remained in the team, a result of injuries to other players, his versatility and ultimately his own consistent, totally committed performances. Collins went on to win the supporters' player of the year for the second year running and also the official player of the year award.</strong

After a 1-1 draw at Newcastle at the beginning of February, the results began to stutter and the goals dried up alarmingly. The chances of Jones and Cisse forming a prolific partnership seemed more remote than ever – but many people, including Sbragia, believed it would only be a matter of time before they would “gell” and we would climb the table again.

Just how wrong that belief turned out to be! Only similarly bad runs of results for other teams around us kept us out of the relegation zone, with only one win in the final 13 games. At one stage, we were actually playing with the same midfield formation that got us promoted two years ago though

There's a lot winning going on: our friends at A Love Supreme have just collected their second successive award for football fanzine of the year, Sunderland "won" the right to stay in the Premier and here – at last – are Salut! Sunderland's winners in the great Who Are They? awards …

Forget George Orwell, tracing the progress of the same breadcrumb each day on the breakfast table at his lodgings. The Road To Wigan Pier is a marvellous book, but Salut! Sunderland has discovered that the town provides shelter and inspiration for another writer of distinction.

Step forward Bernard Ramsdale, "landlord" of Ye Olde Tree and Crown, the Wigan Athletic fan site and clear winner in our awards for the best contributions to this site by opposing fans during the 2008-09 season.

Bernard, picture below, wins a copy of the customised Wigan Athletic book, kindly donated by Getting Personal. If the excellent Sunderland version of the book is any guide, he will be content with his prize.

Throughout the season, Salut! Sunderland received incisive, entertaining or warm articles from fans of other clubs. Finding candidates for the Who Are They? feature before each of Sunderland's game was the hardest part; once recruited, they rose almost without exception risen to the challenge.

Of the three three judges, two placed Bernard in first place and the third had him as runner up to Julian Boodell from Stoke City.

Julian accordingly finished in second overall position, ahead of the third-placed Mark Collar, the only shortlisted candidate from outside the Premier League (he previewed our League Cup game at Nottingham Forest). Read on for news of a special youth award – for Danny Warbrick of Bolton Wanderers.

Congratulations to all three, but also to the fans of Bolton Wanderers (Danny Warbrick), West Ham United (Ciaran Byrne) and Chelsea (Jerry Evans), all of whom picked up support from the judges.

This was how each judge voted:

Ian Todd, founder of the London branch of the Sunderland AFC Supporters' Association and a national council member of the Football Supporters' Federation:

1 Julian Boodell (Stoke City)

2 Bernard Ramsdale (Wigan Athletic)

3 Mark Collar (Nottingham Foerst)

Ian wrote: "I must say I found it hard and chopped and changed my order on re-reads. In particular, I found the fact that the questions varied from club to club offered a greater advantage to some writers than others. As far as the reasons for my choice go, I have been swayed by those who have benefited from a knowledge of relationships between the two clubs and an appreciation of some of the wider issues in football. My order of choice therefore related to the extent to which the writers included that in their pieces."

Pete Sixsmith, top writer at Salut! Sunderland:

1 Bernard Ramsdale – "should win for his name alone, but any post that makes me laugh, has a reminder of the great mudslide and shows great knowledge of football and human nature is bloody excellent in my book. His comments on the RL team are priceless"

2 Ciaran Byrne – "seemed a pretty smart guy and I liked his rant against Wembley and all that the modern game has become"

3 Julian Boodell – "must take guts to follow Stoke when you are called Julian; really liked his style and the fact that he had followed Stoke for so many years. Very good stuff"

Colin Randall, editor of Salut! Sunderland:

1 Bernard Ramsdale – "a natural wordsmith, a diamond football supporter in the broadest sense and a willing contributor who gave us not one match previews but also a second, each of great quality"

2 Mark Collar – "a fitting representative of a club with many similarities to Sunderland and obvious potential for a return to greatness"

3 Jerry Evans (Chelsea) – "a lovely, old-fashioned and entirely sportsmanlike read"

A Special Salut! Sunderland Youth Award goes to Danny Warbrick (Bolton) for a preview that demonstrated exceptional maturity for a lad of 16.

Julian receives a Philosophy Football "Against Mod

Salut! Sunderland was asked, but two thirds of it was going to the match and Setanta couldn’t stump up the fare to get the other third from the south of France to London.
When the offer was relayed to members of the Blackcats list, Stephen Worthy* leapt at the chance and spent Sunday afternoon in the studio with fans of other relegation-haunted teams, including a certain Newcastle United.
Here is a blow-by-blow account from Stephen – aka Griff, a rock, motoring and former SAFC fanzine (It’s The Hope I Can’t Stand) writer – of a special way of seeing us to safety, Toon safely doon and a Mag safely home …

I’ve made some bad decisions in my time. Like the time I turned down a girl at school for a date; she went on to become a top international model.

But when the Salut! Sunderland editor put out an e-mail last week asking if someone wanted to become the Sunderland representative on a Setanta Sports News fans’ panel for the last weekend of the Premiership season, it sounded like a good gig. At first.

Yet, as the day grew closer, I started to have the kind of cold, clammy 6am premonitions that I used to have leading up to exams. Fool, Worthy, I thought. What if Sunderland do go down? And what if the Mags stay up in our place? Was the world ready for the first act of footballing hari-kari to be committed live on national television?

I was joined by supporters from the three other relegation candidates to watch feeds on a bank of TVs of all four games involving our teams, while Setanta’s plummy-accented presenter, with a name that sounds like a gentlemen’s club, Ashley House, switched to each of us in turn asking for updates and bombarding us with questions. It’s kinda like Soccer Saturday without the arrogant, know-nothing ex-footballers.

In fact, there was one footballer on the show, but I’d never call him arrogant or know-nothing. At least not to his face. That’s because it was the legendary Spurs, Chelsea and Rangers hardman, Graham Roberts. He’s still got a stare that can crack walnuts. At the start of the show, he filled me with more dread.

“I tell you who I most fear for today,” he opined, before looking towards me. “And it’s Sunderland.” The beginnings of a wry smile broke on Graham’s mouth while an icy chill shot down my neck.

Thankfully, as we now know, in this particular instance, Graham didn’t know what he was talking about either.

Very soon, it was the Newcastle fan, Ben, who was the one with his head in his hands as the near misses on Steve Harper’s goal totted up. Then Gibson scored his cracker for Man United’s Third XI and the Hull fan sat next to me, Richard, groaned audibly.

Something of a veteran of this programme, he got out a bag of wine gums and passed them around. Maybe it was an attempt to stop the gloating from across the table, where the Middlesbrough fan, Andy, and Ben the Mag sat, by occupying their gobs for a couple of minutes.

People have asked was I nervous?

If you are talking relegation then yes, although it would take until half-time, with Sunderland v Chelsea goalless, before my mood was lifted.

But I wasn’t nervous because I was on TV. The studio isn’t much bigger than an average sitting room. Besides the round table we were sitting at there were five LCD TVs and four TV cameras with autocues on, all operated remotely.

There were none of the clichéd studios of old with runners and production staff milling around.

It really was a bit like being down the pub watching the match, minus the booze.

And then Villa scored. Well, Newcastle did, didn’t they? There was little more than mild interest in the four supporters when United took the lead at Hull. But when Duff deflected Barry’ shot past Harper, we all jumped up in unison. Apart from Ben The Mag. I really was starting to feel sorry for him. No, really I was.

As the seconds ticked by like the timing device on a 100lb bomb ready to explode in two of our faces, the Boro and Mag fans became, respectively, increasingly resigned and animated.

I was getting plenty of air time because of the five goals in our match and had Graham Roberts agreeing with me about Ricky Sbragia’s lack of charisma and motivational powers. At one point he suggested it was time for me to open the champagne. Pity. I was driving home later.

With 10 minutes to go, and despite a late Newcastle rally, it had become clear that none of the four teams were going to draw, let alone win.

Ben was trying to avoid my gaze at all costs. Andy had long given up of a Boro revival and was wearing the smile of the condemned man who knows the trapdoor is about to open. I started to formulate my thoughts, especially about the Toon’s demise, ready to unleash them in the final summary.

As it turned out, I didn’t need to air them. One by one, the four games fizzled out. It was a bit like being in a bookies when the final whistle sounded at Villa and Upton Park.

Cries of “Get in!” and “Come on!” mixed with whimpers of distress, shoulder-shrugging and ripping up of paper.

Andy, the Boro fan, put his hand on Ben’s shoulder and then launched into an anti-Newcastle tirade that any Sunderland fan would have been proud of. “For years we’ve had to put up with that lot up the road telling us how massive they are, how much better they are than us. Well, good riddance…”

“I’d like to add my commiserations to Newcastle United and its fans,” I added at this point.

“You’d like to,” interjected Ashley (House, not Mike), knowing where I was going with this, “but you can’t, right?”

Spot on, of course. Ben The Mag was ashen-faced and was facing a three-hour train journey back home to Newcastle after watching his team relegated. In London. On TV. Could anything get worse?

Well, how about, as he stood waiting for a taxi on the Gray’s Inn Road to take him to King’s Cross, if a car pulled up alongside him? And in that car was a bloke in a Gary Rowell Hat-Trick At St James’ Park replica shirt, offering him a lift? And how about if the car was a convertible so everyone could see us in our shirts, although one of us wanted to just hide?

Come on, it was the least I could do. As Ben jumped out at the station, he left his wallet on the passenger seat. If I was really evil, I could have driven off with it. But I called him back. He’d been through enough.

“Cheers mate.”

“Safe journey back, Ben. See you in a couple of seasons, eh? Maybe…”

PS

Just when I thought the day couldn’t get any better, I have some highly amusing news from the day. Graham Roberts was unable to shake hands with his right so I asked why and he told me he had been in a Spurs v Chelsea Old Boys charity boxing match on the Friday night, and that he’d injured it in a bout with Kerry Dixon. I asked if David Speedie – along with Jimmy Hill, arguably a Sunderland fan’s primary bête noire – was involved. He was – and had been rushed to hospital with several broken ribs after a bashing from Spurs’ Steve Sedgeley. Further proof that somebody up there really loves us.

*The griff on Stephen Worthy Fifth-generation Sunderland fan, despite the fact that his grandfather grew up in Southampton and that, like his father, he was born and brought up in Surrey. He remembers regular stays at his auntie’s in Seaburn when he went up to home games and walking on the beach in the snow with an incredulous West Ham-supporting mate before a game at Roker Park against the Hammers in 1993. His fave moments watching the Lads include being part of a crowd of 48,000 at Sunderland’s promotion winning victory in 1980 (also over West Ham) as a 10-year-old and losing his voice for two days after standing on the Kop at Hillsborough during the FA Cup semi-final win over Norwich in 1992. He has been a journalist for 16 years. He once wrote for the top kids’ football mag Match and the late, lamented Sunderland fanzine It’s The Hope I Can’t Stand and now writes each month about motoring for Car magazine and about music for titles including Mojo, NME and The Guardian. He and his wife Lara have a 15-week-old son, Raffi, who will be indoctrinated in the ways of red & white at the earliest opportunity.