Back to work. Sunderland v Hull City is the first of three games against clubs whose own supporters would probably settle for the top half of the bottom six. Gary Clark epitomises the Tiger spirit of Hull. He wrote a book about the road to the Premier, From Boothferry To Wembley, and now has copies of the follow-up, This Is The Best Trip We’ve Ever Been On, available on Paypal or by Googling Gary Clark Hull. Better still, he also writes for Salut! Sunderland, but at such great length that we should really split his epic into two parts …

As widely predicted by those stalwarts in Hull, the Tigers finished 17th in the Premiership last season, a position achieved on the last day of the season after the last ball had been kicked.

Everybody else had us relegated in August. We kept our rightful place in the top flight by gaining one more point than Newcastle, who lost on the last day via a solitary, wickedly deflected goal at Villa Park. Which was hard luck on them. But they had been rather s—- all year and probably deserved to go down more than we did.
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The next three Premier games seem not just winnable, but the sort of matches we must take maximum points from if the SAFC owner Ellis Short is to get his wish of a top 10 finish. Colin Randall aims for gold …

Salut! Sunderland is settling slowly into this, its new home. It is not a commercial enterprise so we can afford to be philosophical about how long it is taking to build the links and other features in the sidebars that were a popular attraction at the old site.

Steve Bruce suddenly finds his rebuilding project – Sunderland AFC – has a little more urgency.
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