We hardly need an excuse to want to see this. If you were lucky enough to be there, that is Luton, the context it gives the afternoon’s events is superb. No one was at both games yet you see how they both developed, ending with ecstasy for us, disappointment for Birmingham and gloom for Preston.

Thanks to nsyncstar4live, Dale9393 and all the other fans who post these priceless snippets to places where I can find them.

It may not last, but football supporters are mucked about so much by mass media, the game’s ruling bodies and other business interests that I am overcome with feelings of “so what?” each time one of them yelps about infringements of intellectual property.

Thanks also to Pete Sixsmith, whose service from every game since Salut! Sunderland was launched in January, coincidentally at the start of our romp through the Championship, has been faultless.

He has things to say in the next day or so about his experiences as a Sunderland fan.

There are also many more Celebrity Supporter interviews to post to the site. It doesn’t matter when they are seen by individual visitors; one of my main purposes in creating the site was to build up an archive of that material, some of which I fondly believe is of value to followers of SAFC.

And I have updates from Kate Adie and Joe Simpson, plus feelers out to others.

So Salut! Sunderland will remain active, if less busy, during the close season.

Like everyone else, and despite that sense of pessimism instilled in me, I cannot wait for August. But stick with me in the meantime and there should still be plenty to read.

It is not often that a football supporter, even one who writes for a living, is given the best part of a page in a national newspaper to rattle on about his team. But I was convinced such an article would be of interest to people in Ireland, so sent off e-mails to the Irish Examiner (which is always associated with Roy Keane’s home territory of Cork), Irish Times and – because of the handy coincidence of a Sunday game to decide the championship – the Irish Mail on Sunday.

If no one had responded from any of those papers, I would have kept trying until I was down to the smallest, most parochial weekly rag in the land. That’s on top of approaches to radio stations, which led to a brief appearance on BBC Radio Ulster, where I naturally took care to mention Jonny Evans.

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From THIS

Coca-Cola Football League Championship

Aug 28 2006
Team P W D L F A GD PTS
23 Sunderland 5 1 0 4 6 9 -3 3
24 Hull City (21) 5 0 1 4 3 8 -5 1

To THIS

May 6 2007

Team P W D L F A W D L F A GD PTS
1 Sunderland 46 15 4 4 38 18 12 3 8 38 29 29 88
2 Birmingham 46 15 5 3 37 18 11 3 9 30 24 25 86
——————————————————————————–
3 Derby 46 13 6 4 33 19 12 3 8 29 27 16 84
4 West Brom 46 14 4 5 51 24 8 6 9 30 31 26 76
5 Wolverhampton 46 12 5 6 33 28 10 5 8 26 28 3 76
6 Southampton 46 13 6 4 36 20 8 6 9 41 33 24 75
——————————————————————————–
7 Preston 46 15 4 4 38 17 7 4 12 26 36 11 74 *

Immediately preceded (August 27) by this thoughtful article about Roy Keane’s slim chances of success:
KEANE MIGHT NOT HAVE WHAT IT TAKES

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