He annoyed us by starting without a forward and nearly nicked a point. A Song renamed Cattermole might have been sent off. But it all went to script in the end (as it might have done a lot earlier). Steve Bruce‘s post-match e-mail regrets missed chances, but points to positives …

Dear Colin,

We had an awful start, just like the West Brom game, but again we showed enough resilience and fight to get back in the game.

It’s just a shame that [Robin] Van Persie, a world-class player, came up with piece of magic at the end. He is worth the entrance fee alone.

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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.

Today? Going one down in 28 seconds was not quite was we expected. Nor was the distinct possibility that Van Persie might have had three more in the first 15 minutes. Starting without a forward – sorry, Steve, Sessegnon is a great little player, but he is not an out-and-out forward – seemed another wrong decision. And what happened then? Larsson struck a sublime free kick to equalise and Sunderland finished the second half on top. But despite dogged resistance in the second half, Van Persie replicated Larsson’s skill as a taker of free kicks. 2-1. Pete Sixsmith’s verdict is the one that counts: he was there. From the most unpromising of starts, and a selection decision I deplore, I thought we did produce the decent, heads-held-high performance Pete had demanded (though his judgement may be harsher). Oh, and had a certain Song been called Cattermole instead, his three yellow card offences would undoubtedly have turned to red.

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 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

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

The second week of a non-football fortnight, as it has been for those who care little for internationals, has been a busy old time at Salut! Sunderland. Here is a resume for readers who do not visit the site every day, starting with something that isn’t in the headline but should be …

Jonathan Wilson is widely acclaimed as one of the best football writers around. You can read him in The Guardian, in his own books (his Brian Clough biography is due out soon) and, as of this week, Salut! Sunderland.

A truly magical piece of writing, about an unbreakable attachment to Sunderland AFC passed down from one generation to the next, appeared first at the SB Info Plus website but was reproduced here with the permission both the writer and the site. Several people who read it were, like me, deeply moved by Jonathan’s words.

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Arsenal v Sunderland. We’ve heard from an Arsenal fan (click here if you missed it). But what exactly do we want from this traditionally difficult game? Pete Sixsmith has a modest shopping list …

On Sunday morning, the alarm clock will be set for 3.45am and I shall be waiting at Thinford Roundabout for the coach at 5.15, ready for a sleepy trip down to Ashburton Grove.

It’s a long day, we won’t get home until 10pm and there is every chance that it will be a defeat, heavy or otherwise. So, what do I want from Sunday?

* I want to walk away from Asburton Grove with my head held high after witnessing a determined and gritty Sunderland performance that makes me proud to follow one of the oldest and most distinguished clubs in Europe.

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Well, when not bragging about the Salut! Sunderland exclusive - Sunderland, the play, wowing Parisian theatregoers – we were on a hunt for a Gooner. Piers Morgan haughtily turned us away last season, so we asked Mike Amos, Shildon lad but Arsenal nut (his dad was a Londoner, but then so was mine so he should still rethink his allegiances). Sadly Mike, newly retired from close on half a century at the Northern Echo, admitted he had lost touch a little with matters Arsenal. A case of “I know I am, I’m sure I am, I’m Arsenal till half time”. Rupert and Monty were too busy finding each other (for those familiar with the Emirates public address system). So Mike’s son, Owen, a BBC journalist who doesn’t really think the Gunners will go down, stepped up from the bench …

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Salut! Sunderland has been asked to give a little space to a fund-racing project bringing together the football charity Street League and the table football people Foosball UK..

Street League sets out to deliver “football and employability programmes to some of the UK’s most disadvantaged young people” and claims “countless success stories” working with 16-25 year olds who may be unemployed, not in education or training or had trouble with the courts or substance abuse.

Regular sessions for jobless young people are held at City Space in Sunderland and Temple Park leisure centre in South Shields, as well as many other parts of the North East where Sunderland supporters are less likely to be found.

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Whatever the French can do, the English do better. Or just differently.

You heard earlier this week about Clément Koch’s black comedy for the Parisian stage, entitled and set in Sunderland and owing something to his observations while a student at Durham.

Since Salut! Sunderland‘s piece appeared – see here – it has been in The Times and Independent and on the Today programme – Sunderland apparently described there as being on Teesside – as well as on Ready To Go and the Newcastle pages at not606.com

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Only tiny glimpses of Johnny Crossan, from after his SAFC days, in this clip of a 4-1 home defeat of Man City by Chelsea. In one of them he acts as peacemaker after Mike Summerbee appears to stamp on Eddie McCreadie. But it has been a privilege to run the interview with him, not least because although Johnny played with Colin Bell, Mike Doyle, Summerbee and other City stars, it is his time at Sunderland that he remembers most fondly …

A great pleasure it has been to bring the thoughts of Johnny Crossan to readers of Salut! Sunderland. My thanks to the many people, including those too young to have seen him play, who have visited the site to read about him. This is the final instalment.

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With thanks to www.therokerend.com

Where were we? This is the second part of the Johnny Crossan interview. There will be a third, coming soon, and the first can be seen here.

The amount of time Johnny was willing to give up for a piddling little fan site was quite astonishing. But before we resume the full sequence of questions and answers, I have something that needs a special mention up high.

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This is a headline from the BBC website today:

Reputation preceeds me – Sunderland midfielder Cattermole

I wouldn’t mind betting Lee has already been in touch to complain. Perhaps a yellow card is in order for someone in Auntie’s team.

More seriously, the world is clearly coming to an end if the BBC has made illiteracy a condition of employment.

The link, which includes an interview in which Lee insists he is not a dirty player but a victim of his reputation, is here. The headline may well be corrected as time passes.

Monsieur Salut