Courtesy: A Love Supreme

Steve Bruce had every right to rub the noses of media pundits in the mess of Stoke City’s collapse at the Stadium of Light.

Football, as Plymouth Argyle said in a club statement justifying the sacking of one of Bruce’s Sunderland predecessors, Peter Reid, is a results business.

One of those results – four-nil, without hint of flattery in the scoreline against a team that started the day fourth top, enabled Bruce to gloat at the expense not of Tony Pulis but of the sportswriters (and broadcasters, though he was careful not to mention this when speaking to them) who had predicted his imminent sacking.

The other result, Plymouth’s eighth successive defeat leaving them rooted to the bottom of League Two and facing a humiliating exit from the Football League, was enough to persuade Argyle it was time to dump Reid.

Courtesy: A Love Supreme

Back to Bruce. It does not matter how many times he or his players say otherwise: ours was, until yesterday, a rotten start to the season. The draw at Anfield was commendable, though the second-half rally would have been too little had Liverpool taken their chances earlier. The home defeat to Newcastle was bitterly disappointing, the draw at Swansea did little to suggest a team capable of challenging for a European place and the boys-against-men display at home to Chelsea stirred familiar concerns.

In none of the interviews I have seen or read does the manager so much as mention the feeble exit from the earliest stage of the Carling Cup, against a team newly promoted from League One.

But yes, he is entitled to argue that there was a loss of perspective. Four iffy league games and one cup flop do not amount to disaster. The dismantling of Stoke City was an impressive response to the criticism, all the more so because experience had prepared most Sunderland supporters for a decidedly nervous afternoon rather than a romp.

Equally, though, one grand victory does not represent a comprehensive turn-round. Bruce still has a lot of work to do if he is to win the hearts and minds of doubters, who can be found far from the fevered environment of tabloid newspaper offices and continue to voice reservations about some of his key decisions.

The Chelsea match was sufficiently depressing to have me wavering last week, especially when I reflected on where Gyan’s departure left us in terms of seasoned strike power. I had been firmly in the wait-and-see camp, if you can be firm about dithering in that way, and realised I was beginning to lean towards a need for action. I should have stuck to my guns – four, even five games is far too early to contemplate a potentially disruptive change – and have returned to them now.

But that is not an end to the matter.

Sunderland must now go on to show 4-0 yesterday was no flash in the pan, as 3-0 at Chelsea proved to be last season, but merely a start. It is imperative that we go to Norwich a week tonight and play as convincingly as we did against Stoke. Games against Norwich, West Brom, Arsenal and Bolton – the next four opponents – should be a run to produce a lot of points.

As for Plymouth Argyle and its chairman, Peter Ridsdale, can it be said that they deserve each other?

Monsieur Salut

I may be proved wrong. The Liverpool supporter who faithfully promised to produce answers by yesterday may still resurface (he’s been silent for a week). We don’t even know yet whether the match will be on. But Salut! Sunderland cannot start the season on a blank, so turned to a disloyally Red, as opposed to Red and White, fan in the family. Lets hear from Nathalie Randall* , a terrific little footballer herself …

Salut! Sunderland:
As I write, Kenny Dalglish has spent an estimated £100m in an attempt to get Liverpool back into the top four. More can be expected before we kick off but is he on the right track?

After our recent track record under Hicks and Gillette with spending millions and getting nowhere but in severe debt, I am a little sceptical of the amount we have spent on players like Downing, Carroll and Henderson. However I think the players we have bought is a promising sign for the future. I just wish we hadn’t spent so much to get them!

Jordan Henderson: we were torn between serious regret that we should be selling a home-grown talent and wonderment at the fee. Liverpool fans were divided, too; what was/is your take?

My take is/was – Henderson has potential to be a top class player but £16mill + for potential is a massive risk. The plus side is he is young and the right ideas are all there in his game so although maybe not immediately, he could be a top player for us.

What have you made of Liverpool’s pre-season, or do you buy the mantra that results don’t matter, it is purely about fitness?

I’m slightly worried but we have been playing players like Cole and Poulson simply to up their profile and sell them so I am not unduly concerned. I recall seasons where we have awful pre-seasons only to perform well in the actual league. We have also missed some key players at times like Suarez.

What are your minimum and maximum expectations for the season ahead?

I would like us to get back into CL contention as a minimum but I am aware with so many good teams out there this will be a challenge. And finishing above Man Utd is always a bonus.

Are you happy that a dark period, in terms of Liverpool ownership, is behind you and what do you make of John W Henry?

I am still a little concerned as to where all this money has come from and whether it will return to bite back at some point because I recall we spent a huge amount under Rafa too. John W Henry seems to care about the club more than our previous owners and seems to have a good rapport with the fans but time will tell on that one.

Are you as excited at the start of a new season as you have always been, or has money, cheating and disappointment had an impact on your interest?

Always excited – its been a long summer with no football!

Following on from that, have diving, feigning injury and trying to get opponents booked or sent off become so commonplace that we should accept the as part of the modern game?

We shouldn’t be surprised when it happens but it doesn’t mean we have to like it. I love how Barcelona play, for example, but am constantly put off by the cheating when I watch them play. I’m sure we have our fair share of cheats (Suarez and Gerrard have both been mentioned) but I don’t like it and am critical when they do.

Who are the greatest players you have seen in Liverpool colours, who do you wish you had seen but didn’t and who should have been allowed nowhere near the colours?

Greatest player I have seen – John Barnes. Absoloutely mesmerising with the ball at his feet. Would love to have seen King Kenny play. As for who shouldn’t have played, I can choose from so many. Will go with Sean Dundee, Torben Piechnik, and Isthvan Kostma.

And what, presumably in second place after Istanbul, is your greatest memory of supporting the club? FA Cup final 1992, Liverpool vs Sunderland.

Being there as a kid with my dad. Great day out (for me!).

When you beat us in the 1992 FA Cup Final, our supporters noticed that your lot seemed quite blase about the whole thing, just another day at the office. Is that a reflection of the competition’s decline or just that you were playing lowly opposition?

I was too young to see it like that at the time, for me it was fantastic day (see above).

Name this coming season’s top four in order.

Chelsea, Man Utd, Man City, Liverpool

And the bottom three?

Swansea, Norwich and Newcastle

Where, if not already mentioned, will Liverpool and Sunderland finish?

Liverpool 4th or 5th. Sunderland 7th.

Is there any Sunderland player you’d have taken with or instead of Henderson?

Gyan.

What is your view of our club, and of Newcastle United?

Newcastle seem a club in decline, a clueless chairman, a manager out of his depth and they are selling their best players so I can see them stuggling. Morale will probably be low. Sunderland have made some really shrewd signings and I think Sessegnon could be a great buy for you this year so I think Sunderland can expect a more rewarding season.

Name one thing Liverpool FC or the football authorities generally should do to improve the game or the lot of ordinary supporters?

Harsher penalties for cheating.

Will you be at the Anfield match and what will be the score?

No as my dad as stolen my car so he can go and also failed to get me a ticket. 2-1 to Liverpool.

Nathalie Randall on Nathalie Randall:

I am Nathalie, the traitorous Liverpool supporting football playing daughter of M Salut. As a seven-year-old, I was transfixed by an Arsenal v Liverpool game, especially when watching John Barnes play. It was the start of not only my love for Liverpool but my love for the game.

Interview: Colin Randall

Image: addick-tedKevin

Periodically, Pete Sixsmith offers the Manchester United fans’ site Stretford End Arising an update on how Danny Welbeck is doing for Sunderland. Perhaps he should aid our chances of getting Danny permanently by always replying that he’s absolute garbage. Here, though, is his latest mid-term report …

So, after a long lay off in Manchester, we got Danny back into action. He came on as a second half sub at Ashburton Grove and almost scored a cracking goal. Had it gone in, Arsene’s face would have been a picture; not only beaten by one of the “little teams”, but through a goal by a Manchester United player. I think he would have ended up like any Spinal Tap drummer and spontaneously combusted.

A couple of weeks later (our March fixture list was almost non-existent), he started against Liverpool as a wide midfield player, pushing on.

Steve Bruce was probably too cautious and with hindsight, may well have played him as the second striker with Asamoah Gyan. It was no surprise when he went off after an hour, looking dead on his feet.

It was a real bonus when he recieved his England call up and he almost scored, just failing to get on the end of a teasing cross from Matt Jarvis. He must have stood and wondered at the superb goal that his team mate Asamoah scored at the end.

He will play an important role as the season comes to an end. Bruce wants to keep him, either as a loanee or as a permanent member of the staff. Danny has some heavy thinking to do. Would he have got into the England squad on the basis of a handful appearances in the Old Trafford First XI? Will he play regularly next season if he returns? Does he want to become a hero in the North East and form a partnership with Gyan? Will the Ghanaians tap him up for their national side?

As Johnny Nash said, there are more questions than answers …

It’s often said that being a Sunderland supporter is never dull.  Just when we might have thought we were heading for a straightforward, mid-table finish, we have the low of Newcastle followed by the high of Chelsea.  Luke Harvey reflects on an amazing fortnight, and applauds our players’ resilience in bouncing back.  

I could write reams and reams on my emotions and thoughts after the amazing destruction of league leaders Chelsea. None would truly convey all my feelings and none would be as good as Sixer’s succinct seven word round up, but the victory over Chelsea is easily as amazing as the Newcastle result was terrible.

The focus and commitment from the team was second to none. From beginning to end we looked in control of the situation, and even with a slender 1-0 lead Chelsea never looked like mounting a serious comeback – although I didn’t rule out the possibility until Welbeck made it three.

As already said elsewhere on this site: we were magnificent from front to back – and all without our talisman Darren Bent, proving we weren’t just a one-man team. With results since the Newcastle debacle looking very promising, it seems like Gyan and Welbeck have quickly formed an understanding up front – although surely Bent’s place in the team won’t be in jeopardy when fit.

While the £13m Ghanaian may be taking most of the plaudits up front – although I’m unsure where I stand on his dancing skills (I won’t complain to seeing them a few more times this season) – the rest of the team are deserving of equal praise.

Phil Bardsley, hardly at the forefront of your mind when you think of defenders excelling this season, has stood out as a trouper as far as I’m concerned. Even against Newcastle, the first twenty minutes he put himself about like nobody’s business and even against a star-studded Chelsea squad remained solid.

Two wins and a draw, regardless of the opposition, doesn’t clear all the Sunderland names from the nightmare at Newcastle, but it does go some way to gaining back our pride. Make no mistake, a 3-0 away victory against Chelsea is great – amazing in fact – but losing 5-1 to our biggest rivals is a wrong that will take a lot to right.

Fortunately the team has bounced back brilliantly. With wins over Manchester City and Chelsea, and draws with Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool nobody can argue that we don’t deserve to be in the rather lofty position of sixth.

The chances of us ending the season there are rather slim. We’ve been tested against the biggest opponents in the league but it’s our form against the rest of the teams – the Evertons and the Fulhams of the league that will tell us more about our likely finishing position.

It’s easy to say that football academies just don’t work. However, the whole issue is far more complex than do they or don’t they.

Do you remember the excitement surrounding the signing of Claudio Marangoni some thirty years ago? An Argentine signing for Sunderland. He might as well have been from outer space. It was virtually unheard of in living memory at the time to sign a foreigner, ie non British player. Everyone can remember Claudio, because of the stir he caused. His performances were in stark contrast to the fanfare of his arrival. Everyone remembers him. Can anyone immediately recall the identity of the second overseas player or indeed the third? Moreover can anyone recall how many overseas players there have been at Sunderland in the intervening years. A countless number, yet Sunderland have probably had far less than the average number of imports.

The point is this. Thirty years ago, our first team was all British. Mainly English and Scots. In the ranks that Marangoni joined back then there were a host of local lads who played regular first team football at around that time Mick Henderson, Joe Bolton,Tim Gilbert (RIP), Rob Hindmarch, Gary Rowell, Kevin Arnott, Shaun Elliott, Wilf Rostron (signed but never mind), Alan Brown, as well as Stan Cummins (who was a signing rather than home grown). There are doubtlessly a lot of others. These lads were either home grown by us or other English clubs. Go back a few years earlier or move a few years later and the same demographic appears.

That’s no longer the case. We currently have (and I have surely missed some), 1 Belgian, 2 Ghanians, 2 Paraguayans, 1 French, 1 Dutch, 1 Argentine, in our squad. The only home produced player appearing regularly is Jordan Henderson. Critics of the academy system have rightly condemned the shortage of first team players produced over the last 20 years with some justification. Kieron Brady had a promising but short lived career, Michael Bridges, Dickie Ord, Jordan Henderson, Micky Gray, Grant Leadbitter, Craig Russell are the most successful. Over a 20 year period there are a few more but the numbers are not large. If you are worried now then you should be because the numbers of graduates from the academy making the grade are likely to fall even further.

There is so much money in football these days that it’s just too easy to sign a player for monopoly figures. The young prospect who might take a year and a half to develop into the finished product gets three games to prove himself. There’s just no time and no patience, because the cost of failure is so high. Get relegated and any asset of value will be sold, including the promising youngster. The bigger clubs swarm like vultures at burgeoning talent. John Bostock was developing very nicely at Crystal Palace. He made his debut a few weeks shy of his 16th birthday and played only four games before Spurs snatched him from the club that had spent time and effort developing him. All they received in terms of a fee was an immediate payment of 700k for one of the brightest young prospects in the English game. Since joining Spurs he hasn’t played a single first team league game but has appeared nine times for Brentford and in four games for Hull at the start of this season. Prior to going into administration, Palace’s then owner tried to sell the club, so incensed at being so short changed as he saw it by the outcome of the tribunal as well as the attitude displayed by both Bostock junior as well as his father.

It’s questionable about whether this is the care and nurture that a young player needs. Furthermore is 700k adequate compensation to Crystal Palace who spent seven years developing his talent, and ended up going into administration at the tail end of last season? I don’t think so on either account. Bostock is still only 18 years old, so he has time on his side. The Crystal Palace youth system is a good example to look at because they have had what seems like a production line for youngsters who have broken regularly into their first team for many years. Victor Moses (since signed for Wigan), Sean Scannell, Nathaniel Clyne, James Comley, Keiran Djilali, Nathanial Pinney, Kieron Cadogan and Lee Hills are examples of the success of the Crystal Palace academy. In 2009 of nine second year students, seven of those players were offered professional contracts, with five being given first team debuts by then manager Neil Warnock. The policy has been to recruit all the best players from within a five mile radius of Selhurst Park. The huge urban population of south London provides a great many options. The Football League rules only allow clubs to sign players under the age of 12 who live an hour’s drive away. Between the ages of 12 and 16 that increases to 90 minutes. The academy status allowed them to play against PL sides such as Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, West Ham, and Fulham. Had they down graded to a Centre of Excellence they would be battling it out with QPR, Millwall, Gillingham and Brentford.

In Sunderland’s case the 60 and 90 minute radius would take you part way to Belgium and Holland. Very few kippers or haddock have made the grade at a PL club (apart from Billy the Fish. Ed) Geography counts against Sunderland, and it’s just too easy to think that the academy system isn’t working. Like any system it has to be managed and part of a wider plan. The league rules was an issue that Roy Keane raised during his time as Sunderland manager. It’s not clear whether the club has developed a strategy to deal with this geographical anomaly, and I’m not at all sure what the implications might be for clubs in sparsely populated areas with fewer league clubs, such as in East Anglia, or in the West Country. Crystal Palace despite being in London, do not possess the same financial clout as their capital city rivals, so they have worked hard to develop a successful academy which is dependent on the establishment of an effective scouting network in their own backyard. Add that component to their commitment to youth and history of blooding youngsters and you can see why it has reaped such huge dividends.

The sale of Martyn Waghorn has prompted a great deal of debate on both the nature of modern football as well as the purpose and success of the academies. Although the two cases seem to be miles apart. 3M was paid by Leicester to secure the services of a player widely regarded as one of the best strikers in the Championship last season. That’s quite a hefty fee compared to the 700k compensation received for Bostock. The Bostock case illustrates the success of the Palace academy whilst demonstrating the challenges that a less wealthy club face when they face the Premier League predators. In the case of Waghorn, the consensus view is that he was sacrificed albeit with some reward to effectively part finance his own replacement. Twenty or thirty years ago, Martyn Waghorn would have been a regular in Sunderland’s first team. Not today. In an ideal world, Waghorn could have been loaned for the season to virtually any club in the Championship. He would have improved any one of them. He would have come back at the end of the season stronger and more polished than he left. Unfortunately that was not to be.

For this season at least, the outcome for both players is likely to be the same. They’ve both dropped down a division, where great things will be expected of them. Unfortunately, neither will grace the first team of the clubs who taught them their trade. The question which remains of course is whether an academy can be judged as failing if it produces good young players, even if they end up playing for someone else. These two cases show that it’s a thin dividing line between success and failure. The challenges, threats and opportunities faced by the academies differ as much as the clubs themselves differ. Each has a unique situation to which it must adapt for its own survival as well as the host club.

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In the end, it was a more comfortable victory than the late Uruguay flourish suggested. A wicked sort of justice had been served by the hint of van Persie being offside at the moment Wesley Sneijder hit his shot to make it 2-1.

Uruguay have no moral high ground to occupy. People are right to point out here that Luis Suarez reacted openly and on impulse, not as a stealthy cheat, when he saved the goalbound Ghanaian effort with his hands in the quarter final (and no sane voice has been raised, so far as I know, in defence of his subsequent gloating).

But the fact remains that Ghana and not Uruguay should have been in tonight’s semi-final. There is indeed a great case to be made for giving referees discretion to award goals in such circumstances (see comments to this previous piece).

Had that been the case, I would have wanted Ghana, John Mensah and all, to go through to Sunday’s final. As it is, all those pundits who hailed the end of Europe as a footballing power have egg all over their faces, unless they can now conjure the name of a non-European, indeed non-EU country that will be vying for the 2010 trophy.

I do, however, echo the words of the French commentator who brought me coverage of tonight’s game on TF1 and said, as the rather folorn figure of Diego Forlan departed from the action at 3-1: “Bravo, Monsieur Forlan, bravo. C’etait un Mondial exemplaire.”

Colin Randall

The old maxim goes “After the Lord Mayor’s Show comes the dustcarts”. Presumably the dustcarts are there to pick up the rubbish left – and there was plenty to pick up after this apology of a Premier League game.

Last Saturday, we warmed to two teams who appeared to be able to make passes, create chances and right royally entertain a big crowd.

This Saturday we had to endure two teams who had difficulty in making accurate passes, created a handful of chances and drove a full house at Mockney Castle Park to frustration and boredom.

West Ham deserved to win the game because they wanted it a lot more than we did. Never mind the fact that Sunderland had sold their ticket allocation and that fans had had to make early starts to get there, there was the feeling amongst the travelling support that our players knew they were safe from relegation and that the gravy train would continue to call at their stations next year.

The Hammers knew that if they lost, they would be in serious trouble and that relegation would be a probability rather than a possibility.

They responded by playing in a way that relegation teams have to adopt if they are to avoid visits to Doncaster, Scunthorpe et al and scrap and chase and harry the opposition.

It worked. They stopped us from moving the ball around. Henderson was double and sometimes triple marked. The narrow pitch meant that Malbranque could not get as wide as he would have preferred and there was always a committed West Ham defender there to prevent the ball breaking to Bent and Campbell.

They showed little creativity other than getting the ball up to Carlton Cole as quickly as possible and for the first thirty minutes, Turner had him pocketed. Then Cole began to get on top of our skipper and the game began to swing towards the Hammers.

In the second half, it was Cole who set up the winner for Ilana with a good header and he looked a decent player for forty minutes.

I have an issue over the goal though. The referee, Mike Smith (he of the Liverpool beach ball fame) had pulled Turner out of his defensive position to tell him, in his role as captain, that if Meyler committed another foul, he would be booked. Turner then had to get back into position to pick up Cole and the fact that he was not as close to the forward as he would have wished, may well be down to the fact that he had been pulled out by Smith.

It’s an observation, not an excuse and I wonder if the referee’s assessor had spoken to The Beach Ball Kid at half time and suggested that he be a little more demonstrative with his decisions. Whatever, we gave away a sloppy goal and it was uphill from then on.

Bent fell over when in an excellent position – would he have done if he had been wearing proper studs with little nails attaching them to the sole of his boot – and WHU brought on Franco, who proceeded to fall over every time he got anywhere near the ball. Somehow, I don’t think Ron Greenwood would have approved of him!!

So, yet another disappointing trip and we have two games to try to improve on our wretched tally of a single away win. It was a long journey home with the Walkman and Neil Warnock’s autobiography to keep me company on the coach. It’s an entertaining read in which Warnock charts his many promotions, clubs and disagreements with all and sundry. I picked it up for 90p in Borders’ closing down sale, and his observations on Gary Megson, Stan Ternent, Graham Poll and Steve Bennett kept me entertained and amused as we rolled up the A1.

A raw Monday night and a match of spectacular mediocrity at The Stadium of Light has Pete Sixsmith wishing he could have been occupied with more mundane matters

Monday night at Sixsmith Towers is usually a time for domestic duties or for popping over to Darlington to see an art house film like Pan’s Labyrinth, I’ve Loved You So Long and Sex Lives of the Potato Men, all classy movies with intense acting performances from the likes of Kristin Scott Thomas, Marion Cottillard and Johnny Vegas. I like a bit of culture, me.

Domestic duties usually mean doing the ironing, listening to Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie on Radio 2. Shirts are neatly folded, trousers are pressed and socks are correctly matched up, as the contents of the basket are transformed from a tangled mess into a tidy pile, ready for the airing cupboard. Ironing is a kind of therapy for me; you get to see the results of your labours, which is a reward in itself.

However, this Monday, the delights of getting a crease in a pair of pants was replaced by watching possibly the worst and almost certainly the most worrying game I have seen at The Stadium Of Light. Thirty five thousand fellow sufferers had to sit through 90 minutes of alleged football from two teams who made any claims that the Premier League is the best in the world look as risible as a promise from John Terry to keep an eye on the Missus while you are away.

It really was awful. Both sides seemed to think that lumping the ball up field might produce something. We were the biggest offenders. and that is why it was so worrying. Where was that crisp, attacking football that we saw in August and September? What had happened to the penetrative through balls from Reid and Malbranque that took us to within two minutes of a famous win at Old Trafford?  

Last night, absolutely nothing. Reid gave ample evidence as to why Trappatoni prefers the far more prosaic but far more effective Glen Whelan in the Ireland midfield. A collection of misplaced passes, over ambitious through balls and miserable crosses had the crowd ( and Kenwyne Jones) shaking their heads in despair. The fact that he lasted until the hour mark says everything about the lack of options on the bench. Malbranque ran around a lot.

The back four did ok and at least managed to keep a clean sheet. But they were up against Stoke City, whose forward line is as subtle as an Alan Partridge interview. Kilgallon looked decent, tackled efficiently and hoofed the ball into the stands whenever he had to. Ditto Turner. What a quick thinking, fleet footed forward like Rooney or Arshavin might well do to them is frightening.

Jones had a sound game and was extremely effective in his own box, making some fine headers. Unfortunately, the quality of our crossing was so wretched that he hardly had a chance to show his prowess at the other end.

There is no craft and no guile in this team. The central midfield works hard and Cattermole was probably our most effective player for an hour. He should have seen Whitehead sent off for the kick that was aimed at him and he covered a lot of ground before he tired in the last quarter. Cana managed not to pick up a yellow and looked happier having his sidekick back with him to resume their Regan and Carter bad cop bad cop partnership in the middle.

But it is a real worry that in 90 minutes we did not create one worthwhile chance. Stoke had a couple but Whitehead fluffed his and Kenwyne cleared the other off the line. We look bereft of ideas and if I had any optimism about the rest of the season, that was dispelled by 10.00 when this wretched impersonation of The Beautiful Game  was finally put out of its misery by Howard Webb.

Saturday is another crucial game which may lift us out of this torpor. But I won’t be there to see it; I have the sweet smell of success in my nostrils and I’m heading for St Ives with Shildon, weather permitting. It’s sure to be an improvement on last night.

The last time I saw Sunderland’s first team play was 28 days ago on January 3^rd when we swamped the Heroes of Holker Street 3-0. Since then, due to weather, long and unwanted away trips and ESPN, I have had to get my football fix elsewhere, and I have thoroughly enjoyed switching from one type of football narcotic to another.

 This enforced absence from watching the red and whites while gritting my teeth and shaking my head has coincided with the flowering of Shildon into potential FA Vase winners. Last week they won at Roker Park, Stotfold to go into the last 16, next week they play at St Ives in Cambridgeshire (of which more later), while yesterday they had a convincing 3-1 win over the current Vase holders, Whitley Bay.

I played a part in this emphatic victory. While returning home from the shops, laden with ham, sausages and mince from Godfrey Card’s splendid meat emporium, I assisted the Shildon chairman, Brian Burn, in a 9.00 am preliminary pitch inspection. My dedication was such, that I even took my ear phones out, thus missing Miss Alma Cogan’s wonderful rendition of Lennon and McCartney’s Eight Days A Week on Sounds Of The Sixties.

 We both decided that it would be playable if the sun came up and melted the frost and if the referee was not one of those who would be intimidated by Injury Lawyers 4U and their ilk. Take a bow, Mr Jackie Traynor of Stanley, who declared the pitch fit and allowed a rousing game to go ahead in front of a crowd in excess of 300.

It was one of two games on in the region (three if you count the Smoggies thrilling 0-0 draw with a Bristol City side whopped 6-0 at home in midweek) and it was a credit to the Northern League. Both sides have long trips next weekend (Bay go to that well known footballing hotbed, Chertsey) and their players may have had that on their minds as they were comprehensively outplayed by a Shildon side full of confidence and good football.

Walking home, I tuned into James Alexander Gordon for the third week running and heard his immaculate Gaelic tones give out a series of results that made our position no worse than it was at 3.00 pm, with the added prospect of Burnley dropping points to Chelsea. After a warming cup of tea, a couple of muffins dripping with Benecol  and a quick peruse of my leather bound collection of Big And Bouncy, I was then seated in front of a roaring gas fire to watch the events from Turf Moor unfold.

Aren’t Chelsea the ultimate unlovable side? I mean, everything about them is unsmiling and ruthless. They seem to play football without any sense of enjoyment. It’s as if it’s almost an accountant’s exercise in accumulating money while doing something you are very good at.

John Terry personifies that. He’s a good player, but there is an arrogance and a stiffness about him (allegedly Wayne Bridge’s ex will testify to the latter) that makes him a player you cannot like. Lampard is the same – unsmiling, ruthless, a typical product of the English public school system. Anelka, for all his glorious skills, plays football without any sense of enjoyment.  The owner seems devoid of emotional involvement in the club; compare him with Quinny who clearly feels every victory and defeat for Sunderland.

Terry’s arrogance rubs off on the fans, and they respond by calling him JT. I have always had a downer on people who use initials. It stems back to my Bright College Days when the PE students referred to each other in this way, probably because remembering a whole name was beyond their intellectual capabilities. The day Sunderland managers and fans refer to one of our players like this is the day I hang up my season card for ever.

Which leads me in to a moral dilemma for next week.  Do I go to St Ives or The Stadium? I rarely miss home games. The last one was three years ago, when I went to watch Shildon at Retford and I ducked out of the visit of Luton Town. This one is a serious problem as both games are important. If we win on Monday, then victory over Wigan would shoot us back up the table and give us a couple of weeks to sort things out for the rest of the season.

On the other hand,wearing my groundhopper’s hat (and trainers and ill fitting trousers), when will I ever get the chance to visit Westwood Road, St Ives? My entirely selfish hope is that the game is called off next Saturday and is then played the week after, enabling me to do both – although if we lose on Monday (surely not!!), Cambridgeshire gets the nod.

Talking of Monday, I hope that the returning players get a good reception. We didn’t see enough of Delap to pass judgement, but Collins, Lawrence, Higginbotham and particularly Whitehead, all did well for us. Dean was outstanding in our two promotions and I struggle to remember many more whole hearted player  than him in all the years I have been suffering the Lads. Clubs qualities are measured in different ways; one is in the way they welcome back former employees. We like to think we are a decent club, so any jeering of the aforementioned or of Peter Reid, would mark us down as bitter and twisted – a good beer, but not a good attitude.

Finally (at last, they all cheered), we are at the end of the transfer window and we can expect some frantic deals going through today and tomorrow. Rumours are rife about Robbie Keane coming in along with a fire sale signing from Palace. No doubt Barrow Boy Harry from Dahn the Lane will be involved. He’ll probably sell us Keane and then buy him back in the summer a la Chimbonda, Defoe, Crouch and Kaboul. In fact, he is probably at this moment, disinterring the remains of Danny Blanchflower in the hope that he can turn out in midfield against Villa next week. On that gruesome, but entirely plausible thought, let’s hope for a convincing win on Monday – we need it.

OK Father Christmas, père Noël, Papá Noel, 英国、法国的圣诞老人, Άγιος Βασίλης – this completes Salut! Sunderland’s Christmas wishlist. We’ll leave your usual bottle of beer and cigar by the Christmas tree …

R is for Roker Park. We wake from the dream to find ourselves back on/in the (much modernised) Fulwell, Clock Stand Paddock, Roker End, wherever it was we used to stand (or, for those who already did in those days, sit). The Stadium of Light’s great and all that, but can you actually fall in love with the East Stand?

S is for Salut! Sunderland which reveals, in late January, that a consortium including Sir Tim Rice, Lord Puttnam, Gina McKee, Alan Price, Steve Cram and Kate Adie has purchased the site. Press speculation suggests a selling price of at least £1.99. “It won’t change our lives,” says Mr Sixsmith.

T is for the trophy we’d all like Sunderland to win (haven’t decided which one; Barrow (h) is too close to call to allow us to count just yet on it being the FA Cup)

U is for the unbridled joy we feel on winning that trophy (see T); seeing Steve Bruce win three manager-of-the-month awards in a row (see B); finishing sixth (also see B) and watching Bordeaux and Newcastle’s promising seasons fall apart (see L and G).

V is for a collective V-sign to the Football Data Co for its preposterous denial of the freedom of fanzines to say who their teams may be playing on coming matchdays.

W is for the World Cup. Paulo César da Silva started the thought process, the red and white stripes clinched it. Santa should note that our team for South Africa is Paraguay. Let England do well, of course, but that’s too easy; Salut! Sunderland backs Paraguay unless and until they come up against England.

X is for The X Factor. X being for draws, we’d like an x or better from Man United (h), Chelsea (a), Arsenal (a), Man City (h), Liverpool (a), Aston Villa (a), Spurs (h) – plus lots of 1s flor home wins begtween now and May.

Y is for a memorial to Lev Yashin, one of the best goalkeepers in football history. The 20th anniversary of his death falls on March 20 but his soul won’t mind another burst of the song that starts: “Aye, aye. aye aye, Monty is better than Yashin …..”

Z is for the zoology department of Cambridge University, which announces in February that it is to conduct a comprehensive study of supporters of a certain London football club. Footage from events during a game at Upton Park will assist in the research. The press says there is only a remote chance of the scientists detecting human life.

* With thanks to Alex McGibbon and his pages at Flickr for the photo of our fellow Paraguay fans.