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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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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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Were Newcastle United the last team to go down as heavily at home as Manchester United did today and still win the title?

Well that was in 1908, when we hammered the Mags even more comprehensively – 9-1 – at St James’ Park and they just shrugged it off to finish top anyway.

Things have changed in football. Surely after today’s mauling by Man City, 6-1 (going on 9-1 from what I saw of the procession of City chances following Jonny Evans’s correct sending off), United’s odds on keeping the Premier title will lengthen a bit. Probably already have.
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Image: Mrs Logic

Steve Bruce’s pre-match BBC Newcastle interview ended with him protesting he had been misrepresented in his views on Sunderland supporters. If the smarter move might have been to admit his own words have sometimes been ill-chosen, most of us would accept public relations gaffes if more of the post-match e-mails were talking about wins. Tonight Bruce, rightly under pressure, is able to savour a good away victory – and guess who got a great cheer from the away support at the final whistle?

Dear Colin,

I’d like to start by saying a special thank-you to the supporters.

There’s not many clubs who’d bring more than 4,000 to an away match when their team could have been around the bottom at 5pm.

The fans gave us some fantastic support and the players responded to that. They’ve gone home happy today which I’m delighted about.

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Ian Porter offered this instant analysis at the Blackcats list soon after the final whistle at the Reebok – an impressive blend of realism and approval …

We totally dominated the second half, but didn’t really make out possession and domination hurt too much.

Mignolet kept us in the game with a good save, but wasn’t really bothered much apart from that.

Defensively, I thought all the back four looked solid. Richardson’s had his critics, myself included, but he played well today.

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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.

A trip to Bolton gave Pete an opportunity to deliver judgement on our first away win of the season, and how sorely needed was today’s victory? The question in the headline was posed by Gary Bennett, on BBC Radio Newcastle, after Nicklas Bendtner’s cool, classy finish, following excellent work by Stéphane Sessegnon, scorer of a splendid first, sealed three points.

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 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 …

** 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

It has been a difficult week. Losing at Arsenal, by a single goal margin, was no disgrace. But another defeat, another starting line-up without a striker did generate more questions. We all know what sort of questions these might be.

And now we all know what is needed today at Bolton. The good news is that the evidence of comments from players in the build-up is that they know, too. Steve Bruce, more than anyone, knows. I won’t, just now, mention the result of straw poll conducted at the Blackcats list on Bruce In/Bruce Out.

So just read the Bolton “Who are You?”, which shows that Wanderers fans are just as anxious as us, navigate the site for other items you may have missed – including Pete Sixsmith’s trip to Orkney – and get behind Sunderland this afternoon, whether you are at the Reebok or anywhere else in the world.

Ha’way the Lads.

Bolton v SAFC. Salut! Sunderland is – or will soon be – on the road (Orkney to Co Durham, the shores of the Med to a chillier London) and may go quiet for a day or two. Readers’ comments remain welcome; we all know what is at stake. Thefreelancer* is the pseudonym of a Bolton blogger – check out the Bolton Wanderers Blog and Website – who also recognises an important game when he sees one coming. Here are his answers to the “Who are You” questionnaire …

Walloped 5-0 in the FA Cup semi at Wembley last season, and 5-1 at home by Chelsea the other weekend but 4-0 winners at QPR. When the real Bolton Wanderers stand up, what do we actually see?

I don’t think any Bolton fan currently knows who the real Bolton Wanderers are, unless they are prepared to admit that we are nothing but a bottom of the league team with little chance of finishing above 18th. For those of us with a little bit of hope in us, I think we believe that there is a decent bunch of players in there who, given the correct formation and a good kick up the backside, could drag us out of the mire within a few weeks. However, that could prove easier said than done. We have conceded 21 goals in our last six league games and we look clueless going forward much of the time – a deadly combination if ever there was one.

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Image: Tony Hisgett

An appeal to WBA and Bolton supporters with something to say to Salut! Sunderland …

Five games into the season, six if you include Brighton in the Carling, we’ve done OK so far with “Who are You?” interviews. But time has been a problem and, believe me, time is needed in order to find suitable – by which you can sometimes read “any” – candidates.

Last season, we did quite well with West Bromwich Albion and Bolton Wanderers, two of the teams we face in the coming few games. Both clubs can, for whatever reason, be tricky in terms of getting someone to sign up to the Q&A.

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Salut! Sunderland looks forward in all senses to the last home game of the season, when we expect no slacking despite our affection for Wolverhampton Wanderers and our desire for them to stay up (though 5-2 again would be rubbing it in; 1-0 will do). And we look back over a week that started well. This is the weekly digest of Salut! Sunderland‘s efforts to inform, amuse and inspire …

For once – well, twice or three times in the past four months – we began the week in happy frame of mind.

The last-gasp winner at Bolton was exactly what the doctor ordered and given Sunderland’s appalling run not only of form but of luck, we need apologise to no one about the merits or otherwise, as described by Owen Coyne, of those three priceless points.

There was plenty to read here about that match. And there was, as usual, more to get stuck into as the week went on. Click on the sub-heading for any item that appeals if you want to read more or read again.

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