Aston Villa, M Salut decided as he walked away from the Stadium of Light, are not a team of thugs. Darren Bent is doubtless “one greedy b******” (there are sensitive souls looking in), though I quarrel with the “only” of the chant; Agbonlahor gives a decent impersonation of a man in training for an Olympics diving medal and Richard Dunne can act like an immature and unpleasant schoolboy, as he did after conceding the foul that led to our second equaliser. For all that, it was not a dirty match and both sides did try to play. But Pete Sixsmith wonders whether “mildly entertaining” football is what both sets of fans must accept as their lot …

Twelve months ago, I was sitting in a darkened room with a cold towel over my head as I tried to get over the 5-1 drubbing at Sports Direct Park. It was probably the worst result in my Sunderland watching experience and, to be honest, I still haven’t fully recovered from it.

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After each game, Steve Bruce e-mails Salut! Sunderland – and a few thousand others – on his immediate post-match thoughts. This is what he made of the game against Villa, a 2-2 draw that could have gone either way and in which we scored good goals but conceded possession and dominance too easily …

Dear Colin,

Well I can’t deny the spirit of the team. It’s quite remarkable the way they didn’t give up.

I do have to be honest and say that in the second half we didn’t do enough. When you’re 2-1 down with four or five minutes to play it was great get a wonderful set piece from [Sebastian] Larsson.

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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.

After the must-win, did-win game at Bolton, it was back to the Stadium of Light for Villa – and a decent game but only one point in a 2-2 draw. See Pete’s verdict below and come back in a day or so for his match analysis.

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 …

Oct 29 2011 SAFC 2 (1) Aston Villa 2 (1) … Determination and effort produced a fair result

Oct 22 2011 Bolton Wanderers (0) 0 SAFC (0) 2 … Team selection vindicated in impressive second half

Oct 16 2011 Arsenal (1) 2 SAFC (1) 1 Defended bravely but attacking options barely existed

Oct 1 2011 SAFC (2) 2 West Bromwich Albion (2) 2 Deserved point after a truly horrendous start

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

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 …

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Another busy week, another rough guide to Salut! Sunderland for those readers who cannot get here every day … please note that there may be delays this weekend in posting Bruce’s Banter and other post-match coverage. M Salut will be at the game, so will Mr Sixsmith and Ms Dawson and it will be case of who is able to get items posted first (bearing in mind that Sixer wouldn’t know how to) ….

Salut! Sunderland is about to undergo a makeover. It has been a long time coming but soon the home page will more closely resemble a newspaper format. This will bring the benefit of keeping especially good reads prominently displayed for several days rather than slipping ever further down before toppling off the bottom edge and plunging into the archives.

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To boo or not to boo. Pete Sixsmith climbs on to his Soapbox to explain why feelings may be running a little high when Mr Bent takes the field, and why he probably won’t join in any barracking …

See also: the Aston Villa fan preview – with the Villa-supporting head of the Methodist Conference

Do we boo him or not? It’s a question that has exercised some of the finest minds of this generation – Sobs, Peter Horan, Joan Dawson, M Salut, Russell Henderson, all of them the equivalent of Bertrand Russell, Freddie Ayer and Aristotle (who was a bugger for the bottle, I believe).

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For Methodists, the Rev Leo Osborn* is, as President of the Methodist Conference, roughly equivalent to Archbishop of Canterbury (though the church has no supreme authority). He lives in the North East but avidly supports Aston Villa, our opponents on Saturday. Leo may have regretted his instant agreement to be this week’s “Who are You?” guest when he saw how many questions we’d lobbed his way. We’re chuffed that he answered them anyway. Look out for his forecast of a Sunderland win and a challenge to Bill Shankly’s “life or death” quotation …

Salut! Sunderland: Up until last weekend, Villa had made a considerably better start than Sunderland. With what minimum and maximum expectations did you approach the season?

To be honest my expectations were extremely few. That is often how I feel at the beginning of each season anyway but, for reasons to which we will come, they were even less this season. Mid-table at best.

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Every decent football supporter was outraged by the Liverpool chief executive Ian Ayre’s repugnant call for changes to TV rights that would divert more and more money to a handful of “big” clubs. Jeremy Robson is surprised more attention was not given to another corporate threat to the national game, this time from Suits of the imported variety …

Ten of the 20 current Premier League clubs are foreign owned. This would have been unthinkable even a decade ago.

Of the current crop it was Fulham who were the first to be taken over by a foreign investor (Mohammed al Fayed), in 1997, when they were in the third tier. Much has changed in a short period (and that’s no pun or reference to our owner and chairman).

Why is this significant? What difference does it make where the money comes from?

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Image: addick-tedKevin

Happier days

Darren Bent may be true to his word and walk serenely back to the centre of the field without so much as a smile should he score for Aston Villa against Sunderland on Saturday. Most of the others in the ground will do a lot more than smile if he a) doesn’t score at all but misses every chance that comes his way b) ends up on the soundly beaten side and c) is sent off.

Sunderland supporters generally give a fabulous welcome to former players who gave their hearts to SAFC for several seasons – look up several, Darren – before moving on for readily understandable reasons. Think SuperKev; there is a minority of boo boys but they are simply drowned out.

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Monsieur Salut is back from froggieland and champing at the bit ahead of his SoL debut this Saturday (and two away games already pencilled in). Will the Lads send him away as happy as he felt at 10 to 5 on Saturday? …

It has already been pointed out here that even a win cannot stop the carping.

Two days after Sessegnon and Bendtner gave us three points at Bolton, the cauldon of negativity can be heard simmering away without any attempt on Salut! Sunderland‘s part to turn up the heat.

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The up-and-down world of the Sunderland supporter is, for now, up. Pete Sixsmith was not especially looking forward to an afternoon near Bolton but, while no one should be getting ecstatic about recording a second win in a season already 10 games old if you count the Carling Cup, he left the Reebok with the warm glow of encouragement …

That was better. Whether you are a Bruce In or Bruce Out person, it’s a relief to see another three points on the board and witness a second half performance that gives us some hope for the next few weeks.

Managers stand or fall by results and team selection. So far this season, Steve Bruce has had a poor set of results and has picked some teams which have not been universally acclaimed.

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