Late news just in from Lance Hardy, author of the acclaimed book on Sunderland’s momentous FA Cup Final victory over Leeds United in 1973.

He will be signing copies of the book at the Stadium of Light official club store between 11.30am and 1.30pm on Sunday – that is, before the match against Man Utd – with four heroes of our Class of 73: Jim Montgomery, Dick Malone, Dave Watson and Dennis Tueart.

If you came to Salut! Sunderland to read about Lance’s book signing, now help yourself to a spot of site navigation. See, for example, the list of recent items to your immediate left and you will get an idea of our extensive build-up to Sunday’s game, our last at home and United’s last chance – slender as events at Anfield may make it – of holding on to the Premier League title.

And then come back tomorrow to read about our planned awards to fans of Sunderland’s opposing teams who, all season, have supplied their own thoughts on forthcoming games against us.

The last contribution of the season will not be eligible for an award because it will come not so much from a Wolves fan as from someone connected to the club – and ours – in a different way. That narrows it down a bit …

In the second part of his look at Manchester United’s season, Sunday’s game and the meaning of life, Justin Mottershead gives Sir Alex a vote of confidence, tells of a recent encounter with Denis Law, makes passing mention of George Best and berates Salut! Sunderland for remembering David Bellion but inexplicably overlooking Mr Bruce or Mr Evans among men linked to both clubs …

SEE PART ONE, including Justin’s match forecast, BY CLICKING HERE

Salut! Sunderland: Would the Carling Cup and nothing else this season, if it came to that, represent abject failure in your eyes and would that be the time for Sir Alex to stand down?

In short- yes and no. Yes winning the Carling Cup alone is not a successful season at United no matter how you look at it and no Sir Alex should stay on until he believes he’s no longer physically up to the job. He’s always managed to bounce back from a poor season and I’m sure he’ll do the same this time round.

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To the surprise of absolutely no one, Darren Bent has been named as Sunderland AFC’s official Player of the Year (meaning season).

Voters at the club website put him streets ahead of anyone else in the squad. He had already been chosen by SAFC Supporters’ Clubs as the player of the season.

Salut! Sunderland is delighted for Darren.
The question put to us this week by the independent Manchester United site Republik of Mancunia was: “Who has been your best player this season?”

Our answer:

Simply no contest. Without Darren Bent’s goals we’d be in trouble. No opponents, however grand, can rely on him not to score and to say, as some do, that he has no game beyond scoring goals is to overlook the function of the striker.

We are also deeply chuffed to see Craig Gordon finish second. He has had so many detractors since coming to the Stadium of Light, burdened by a £9m price tag that he did not create (other than by being very good at his job), that the honour must give him immense pride. His performances this season, and especially since his return from injury, fully merit the supporters’ acclaim.

Lorik Cana came third and it would be terrific to see him return, for the last two games, to the sort of form we valued so highly in the earlier part of the season and which must have swayed the minds of voters.

Jordan Henderson’s Young Player of the Year award was probably as obvious a choice as Darren Bent’s. His progress this season has been astonishing: how often have we seen a local lad progress through the youth system and so quickly be talked about as a fabulous Premier League prospect? He, too, was supporters’ clubs’ choice.

Two fans also won something in the poll: Jay Bulmer and Peter Hindes were selected at random to make the presentations on the pitch before Sunday’s game against Manchester United.

The awards in quotes – with due credit to the official site:

Darren Bent:

“What an honour. It’s a fantastic prize and to be picked by the fans is the icing on the cake. I’ve enjoyed every minute of my first season here and it just keeps getting better and better … Hopefully I can get more goals before the season’s out. Moving to Sunderland has been great for me and I’m enjoying my football. Once again, I have to say thanks to the Sunderland fans and everyone at the club.”

Jordan Henderson:

“I’m over the moon – to be voted for by the fans is a great honour … I’ve got so much to thank the gaffer for because he is the one who gave me my chance in the first team. The players have helped me out as well, as has Blacky [Eric Black] and the staff – they’ve all been brilliant all season.”

Colin Randall

* T-shirt image reproduced with thanks to A Love Supreme

No Sunderland player will need lifting for this one. We have played well against all the top clubs at home this season – and we came within an ace of winning at Old Trafford. Free from relegation stress, playing for pride and a top 10 finish, we can confound the received wisdom that this is an away banker.
Salut! Sunderland came across Justin Mottershead, United fan and football blogger*, when he named Kieran Richardson, just entering his best form of the season, in his worst Premier League XI. Who better, then, to star in our last-but-one Who Are You? feature of the season? Justin sees Kieran scoring the winner (sadly an own goal) but accepts that even this wouldn’t be enough to take the title back to Old Trafford …

Salut! Sunderland: So let’s get this out of the way: who will end up as the top four, in order, and – somewhat easier now than when the question was posed – bottom three?

Chelsea, United, Arsenal and Spurs. Pompey, Burnley and Hull.

Chelsea will win then title because Liverpool reserves will lie down and die, like Benitez and everyone else associated with the club wants them to. Spurs will get fourth just so Kia Joorbachian can sell Tevez to someone else in Europe and wipe the smile off the bitter blues faces.

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Yes, we are underdogs for Sunday. No, we do not deserve to be treated as if incidental to the natural order. On paper, it’s an away win but on a big day for reputations to be reinforced, an outstanding Sunderland display could bring a result. Pete Sixmsith reports …

So we approach the penultimate weekend of the Premier League season. There are two games left until the curtain closes on an interesting, if non vintage season.

Last year it was all about who goes down (Newcastle – hee, hee) while this year, according to the media the entire Premier League season will be decided at Anfield, where Chelsea need to win to go into the last weekend and a home game against Wigan to take their third PL Championship.

However, if Chelsea lose at Anfield, the title will go to United as they will obviously win their final two games against Premier League makeweights like Sunderland and Stoke City – that’s if the entire Stoke side haven’t had a mass fight in a field in the Potteries, watched over by bullet headed men with straining at the leash Staffys.
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We begin our build-up to Sunderland’s final home game of a season that started well, promised much, floundered a lot and finally regathered momentum to guarantee our highest Premier League finish since 2001. Salut! Sunderland offers its own welcome to Manchester United …

Chelsea may have all but killed the title race dead by the time Sir Alex Ferguson’s team takes the field to do battle with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. A win at Anfield earlier the same afternoon will leave the Blues needing only to beat Wigan at home the following Sunday, assuming United beat us, to ensure top place. A team that has rammed seven goals past three other Premier sides should surely regard that as a simple task against the only one to concede nine in a game.

Everyone, of course, expects United to beat us. It’s a given. For everyone, that is, except two groups of supporters, one determined (Sunderland) and the other merely hopeful (Chelsea).
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When you’ve waited all season for a second away win, having raised far too many hopes on the opening day, you should perhaps not be too choosy about how it comes. Pete Sixsmith offers warm commiserations to Hull City, now doomed, and acknowledges our competence but finds plenty to moan about in the quality of refereeing, our lack of goalscoring power from midfield and the colour of political posters on Yorkshire farmland …

I’m really sorry that Hull City are about to exit the Premier League. It’s a proud city with a radical heritage personified not by William Wilberforce, but by Lil Bolocca, a true working class hero, who campaigned tirelessly against the rapacious trawler owners in the 60s, when the loss of a trawler was usually met with a shrug of the shoulders by the fat cats in charge.
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It has become almost the stock phrase of every fan who doesn’t support Chelsea. Whatever they think or thought of Manchester United or anyone else, they especially hate Chelsea.

In truth, the attitude predates the moneyed years of Roman Abramovich, whose £7.4 billion fortune puts him in second place (ie after Lakshmi Mittal) among the wealthiest characters in Britain. There was always a feeling that despite its fashionable name and location, there was something spivvy about the club. Going to the Bridge was almost always an unpleasant experience.

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Several times a season, Britain’s best newspaper, The Observer, recognises quality elsewhere and comes to Salut! Sunderland, or rather to Pete Sixsmith, for a match summing up. So did Pete witness a game in which our stars, released from the least relegation concerns, produced an away win with free-flowing total football? Not exactly. Pete saw an away win – at last – but it was painful. But let’s hear from a disconsolate Hull first…

RICK SKELTON HullCityOnline.com:

It was a bit of a wimper-ish way to go down. We started appallingly, and Sunderland could have had three in the first 10 minutes. Then we missed the penalty, lost Altidore – who was stupid to react and deserved to get sent off – and the second half was a non-event. We had plenty of the ball but we haven’t broken anybody down in two seasons. We’re in trouble now – there’s going to be a CVA or we’ll go into administration, and I’m certain we’ll start on -10 points next season. I wouldn’t mind Iain Dowie staying as he seems to empathise with the place but will we be able to afford even him?

Player ratings: Duke 7; Mendy 7, Gardner 6, Mouyokolo 8, Dawson 6; Barmby 6 (Fagan 62 6), Boateng 8 (Cullen 75 7), Bullard 5, (Cairney 46 7) Geovanni 7; Altidore 4, Folan 6
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Colin Randall descended into the matchday bunker to listen to commentary via the official club site (with occasional silences), watch here-one-second-gone-the-next streams and wait for those much more reliable text updates from Pete Sixsmith …

Georges, the fishmonger, told me after our great France-England badminton clash (I won), that during a six-month stint as a trawlerman in the UK, he caught a boat to Kingston. It soon became clear that he hadn’t sailed up the Thames but into what most people called Hull.

The way this game started, Hull City might as well have been Kingstonian FC, given the ease with which Sunderland created chances.
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