Monsieur Salut

Needless to say I have removed the image that originally graced today’s item in support of Steve Bruce’s criticism of Titus Bramble.

How can Salut! Sunderland use the slogan “a site better” if that site promptly becomes inaccessible for hours on end?

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Is it a breach of Salut! Sunderland‘s policy of getting fully behind the Lads before matchday to support Steve Bruce’s comments on the Titus Bramble affair? I don’t think so.

Bramble has been suspended pending a club investigation into those aspects of the early-hours Yarm incident that concern club discipline. He therefore plays no part in the approach to West Brom at home tomorrow.

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Salut! Sunderland rules are clear: as matchday approaches we set aside all carping and get 100 per cent behind the team. It is an important game for both clubs (seem to remember saying the same last season) and we are delighted to welcome David Walford*, a West Brom fan found for us by his SAFC-supporting neighbour Ken Gambles …

 

 
Salut! Sunderland:
Four defeats, one win and a draw so far and you’re second bottom of the league. But it was a tough start: do you feel optimistic or fear the worst from the season ahead?

All Albion fans are pessimists by nature so, of course, I fear the worst but would probably still do if we were top.

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From our friend Addick-tedKev

Thanks heavens for the principle of Innocent Until Proved Guilty.

When Sky Sport quotes Cleveland Police as saying “a 30-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of sexual assault and possession of a Class A drug”, that 30-year-old male is Titus Bramble.

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Salut! Sunderland does not believe in kicking a man when he’s down. Neither Pete Sixsmith nor Colin Randall, who broadly cobble this thing together, has so far joined the crowds gathering in the Tuileries to knit as Madame Guillotine does her work. One more bad result and that could well change. Others are made of hardier stuff; one more bad result would already be too late for our regular contributor and confirmed tricoteur, Jeremy Robson …

Those of us over a certain age have lost count of the relegation battles fought and lost as well as a few that we managed to win to avoid the dreaded drop.

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If you have come here looking for rays of hope, an upbeat prediction of brighter times ahead, turn away now. After watching the team that destroyed Stoke fail with a whimper at Carrow Road, Pete Sixsmith despairs of our version of Premier League football …

Our last three away games have been against clubs who have recently been playing in the third tier of English football. We have failed to win any of them.

All three (Swansea, Brighton and Norwich) are managed by bright, imaginative young managers who clearly think very deeply about the game and get the maximum out of relatively limited players.

If we look at last night’s game ( and believe me, I don’t want to see any of it ever again|), we had a fluid and flexible Norwich City, managed by the up and coming Paul Lambert, against a plodding and predictable Sunderland side, managed by Steve Bruce, a man who may well be heading for a lengthy spell on the golf course.

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Crisis, what crisis? That was the question after Stoke. But one game on, we’re back to where we were, unable to muster a proper fight against a promoted team and probably fortunate to be beaten only 2-1. It felt like a wretched, wholesale surrender. Against this unattractive backdrop, Steve Bruce had to come up with something for his post-match e-mail …

Dear Colin,

We didn’t play well enough. We played well for the first 10 minutes or so, but the night was littered with mistakes.

We surrendered possession too easily and gave the ball back to them too quickly for me.

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This is where Pete Sixsmith captures the glory and shame, hope and despair, excitement and ennui of the Sunderland matchday experience. When, rarely, Pete is absent or delayed, a supersub does it for him and the seven-word verdict is preceded by an asterisk. Pete’s full analysis of the game will usually appear within a day or two.

Unfortunately, Pete’s duty tonight was to report from Carrow Road where, listening to BBC Radio Newcastle but not finding a reliable stream, I was grateful at first that his phone seemed to be out of action. We appeared to have been out-thought, out-fought and outplayed for most of the game, failing even to put Norwich under serious pressure after getting a goal back near the end. Far too easily brushed aside, as Gary Bennett suggested. Then Pete’s phone sprang into action, and the message was gloomy; M Salut will not be waiting up for Steve Bruce’s post-match missive.

The full Sixer’s Sevens archive – see link below – sums up what all Sunderland supporters feel, from darkest gloom to sublime elation, in the words one who is usually there …

Sept 26 2011 Norwich City (1) 2 SAFC (0) 1 Absolutely no positives to take from this

Sept 18 2011 SAFC 4 (3) Stoke City (0) 0 What a difference the right selection makes

Sept 10 2011 SAFC (0) 1 Chelsea (1) 2 Comical defending hands Chelsea their regulation win

Aug 27 2011 Swansea City (0) 0 SAFC (0) 0 Uninspiring game. Both teams look like strugglers

Aug 23 2011 Carling Cup 2nd Round: Brighton & Hove Albion (0) 1 SAFC (0) 0 Abysmal team selection got what it deserved

Aug 20 2011 SAFC (0) 0 Newcastle United (0) 1 Totally outfought in dismal second half display

Aug 13 2011 Liverpool (1) 1 SAFC (0) 1 Came back well, better side second half

To see Sixer’s Sevens in full, click here. If an asterisk precedes the comment, the words that follow are the work of someone else because Pete is for once absent from the game or his verdict has been delayed …

** Want to write to the club about what you’ve seen, heard or read about the way things are going? Do it with the Salut! Sunderland engraved pen. Yours for just £2, post-free in the UK, by clicking here

With abject apologies to those who followed the link earlier and reached a dead end – we are still trying to work out who to blame. This is the Pete Sixsmith travelogue-cum-match preview. Lots about Norfolk, and a little about football, as Pete attempts to make all working people envious of his mixture of football, travel, culture and, um, the Barron Knights in a prelude to Sunderland’s return tonight to Premier League action …

Maybe I have already mentioned this, but I am no longer “at work”.

Forgive me for repeating it, but it does give ample opportunity for watching football, including tonight’s clash at Carrow Road.

Not for me a whole day on a coach, arriving back bleary-eyed and dry-mouthed and off to work a couple of hours later. Instead, I set off on Saturday for a short break in a county that I thoroughly enjoyed on my last visit two years ago and which seems to improve with time.

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The long break between games made it a quietish week, but there is still plenty to look back on if you missed a daily dose of Salut! Sunderland …

It was good to have an upbeat Bruce’s Banter, the e-mail Steve Bruce sends out after each game. Click here to see what he had to say about the 4-0 win against Stoke City. He mentioned some big individual performances but stopped short of naming names.

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