Posts Tagged ‘Manchester United’

Salut!’s week: Newcastle Matty gets his say, Bruce’s rocket

Saturday, November 12th, 2011


Another review of the week has Salut! Sunderland looking back over the past few days – and, for ruby-tinted reasons, a little bit forward, too …

This, my friends, is how the young and trendy of the North East dressed and did their hair back in 1971. Or not, as the case may be.

Trendy or not, it is how the Anglo-French couple who were soon to become Mr and Madame Randall looked when the Stanley News and Northern Echo sent a photographer (just one: both papers belonged to the same company) to get some pictures. I think they were taken in Lanchester.

The wedding was on November 16 1971, in the city of Le Mans where Stéphane Sessegnon played for a couple of years, which means that the ruby anniversary is looming. So we’re off to Bali to mark the occasion; it is for you to guess whether this is being done on the proceeds of the millions of Salut! mugs sold.

What this means is that for the next fortnight, until just before the Wigan game, M Salut will have little or no access to the site. These things are beyond Pete Sixsmith so Joan Dawson will handle what needs to be done as best she can and I have excellent “Who are You?” interviews (actually, one of them is an article in its own right, and a very special one) already in the bag and ready for use before the forthcoming two games.

Now, we should look back over the past week.

Starting with the most recent, the aforementioned Sixer had some fun – click here to see it - with the fuss being made about the St James’ Park name change. It brought in large numbers of Newcastle supporters, whose mischievous reminders of our respective positions in the Premier wiped the odd smile from face.

Only one of the Mags wishing to post comments, someone going by the name of Matty, tried the foul-mouthed approach before realising this really isn’t that kind of site. He made two further attempts and both were free of abuse; they were also very similar, suggesting he desperately wants us to hear his view so here it is:


Mags 15pts up on the mackems u thought this would of been a bigger talking point ???

The week had begun with lots of Sunderland supporters reflecting on the defeat at Manchester United. Ian Porter’s Defeat not the whitewash I feared was a very fair appraisal and this was followed by Sixer’s own analysis in which he also mocked the dynamics of penalty calls at Old Trafford.

This all prompted Ken Gambles to cast his mind back to some of the refereeing howlers – the reversal of the penalty decision last week was, of course, 100 per cent correct – that have tormented us in the past. Read it here and you’ll probably think, as I did, of those he missed out.

M Salut found a Ghanaian website’s interview with Asamoah Gyan which got very close to an admission that he moved for the money. No great surprise there, but to have it – nearly – in the horse’s mouth was a departure from the usual nonsense about these things always being done for footballing reasons. Click here for the full article.

To Birflatt Boy, it had clearly seemed an age since anyone had demanded Steve Bruce’s head on the executioner’s block. A silence he shattered into a thousand pieces with a strident rebuttal of the Postivos’ case. It drew the usual heavy postbag, as you can see by clicking here.

Pete Sixsmith took an affectionate look at the lives of Jimmy Adamson and Florian Albert, recently departed.

There was more, notably Sixer’s Sevens and Bruce’s Banter.

But now it’s time to go. Please let us be three points better off by the time I get back.

Colin Randall

Manchester United Soapbox: penalty box fantasies, praise for Sir Alex

Monday, November 7th, 2011

On one level it doesn’t matter, indeed it is entirely correct, that no rules were changed to enable Sunderland to win a penalty for handling the ball. But if another level exists, you can trust Pete Sixsmith to find it before lauding a giant of football …


Let’s imagine
the conversation between the referee Lee Mason and his assistant Jake Collin round about 4.30 on Saturday.

Collin has put his flag across his chest to indicate a penalty for Sunderland.

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Defeat at Manchester United: ‘not the whitewash I feared’

Sunday, November 6th, 2011


As he tends to do after every game, Ian Porter from the Blackcats list has come up with an astute summary of the positives and negatives of yesterday’s 1-0 defeat …

Tomorrow: Pete Sixsmith’s Old Trafford verdict …

Well, this wasn’t the total whitewash I was anticipating.

It was what I’d hoped for though, which was to give a good account of ourselves. I don’t think we were playing ManUre at their best, but that shouldn’t detract from what was a very good team performance.

We were on the defensive for long periods, but we closed down well and Westwood wasn’t troubled that often. Equally though, we created a couple of chances ourselves to score.

Westwood pulled off the nearest I’ve seen since Monty’s save in ’73. I was really pleased by Westwood’s performance. I think the writing’s on the wall for Craig Gordon, but I think if he isn’t offered a new deal in January, he can leave on a free ? TBH, I think whatever he’s offered, he’ll turn it down and leave anyway, so we’ll lose out on a couple of million I guess.

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Bruce’s Banter: narrow defeat to Manchester United ‘a shame for Wes’

Saturday, November 5th, 2011

Steve Bruce still cannot win as a manager against Manchester United. In his post-match e-mail, he praises a good but losing performance …

Dear Colin,

With the penalty shout the right decision was made. There wasn’t any real clarity on it even after seeing a replay.

It was a handball, we could all see that. Ultimately we’ve got no complaints.

It’s such a shame for Wes [Brown] to score on own goal; we seem to make a habit of conceding own goals at Old Trafford.

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Sixer’s Sevens: Manchester United 1 SAFC 0 – small mercies

Saturday, November 5th, 2011


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.

Dragged to the cinema to see We Need To Talk About Kevin, M Salut expected his gloom to deepen with a lot more goal flash texts from Old Trafford than one. The injury blow to Wickham prompted the first message; half time was a disappointed “Failed to defend a corner and Welbeck scored – had kept our shape up until then”. That it turned out to be a Wes Brown own goal didn’t really help. We await Pete’s considered verdict, but this was not a result to please Bruce-bashers.

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 …

Nov 5 2011 Manchester United (1) 1 SAFC (0) 0 Decent performance but slipshod defending cost us

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


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 …

Salut!’s Week: Villa, Man Utd, Billy Sharp and John Terry

Saturday, November 5th, 2011

Image: Mrs Logic

Whenever we remember to do it, Salut! Sunderland likes to offer a summary of the week just gone by. Most readers know by now that there is usually plenty more than is flagged here. Have a look up and down the sidebars for links to other material you may have missed …

Drawing at home to Aston Villa felt like a victory to some, given our late second equaliser, and two dropped points to others, who felt we had been comfortably held by an average side.

After the points squandered against West Brom in the previous home game, it was not the ideal result to set us up for Old Trafford today even if it stretched our very mini unbeaten run to three.

Pete Sixsmith’s magisterial account of the game – click here – was followed by a reminder that cheating in football is by no means restricted, as xenophobes like to believe, to foreigners. Unless you somehow work out that being born in Erdington, Birmingham to Nigerian and Scottish parents makes Gabriel Agbonlahor any more than being called Gabriel makes him angelic.

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Sunderland: a ‘graceful retirement option for Man United alumni’

Friday, November 4th, 2011

Whenever M Salut has been to Old Trafford, it has been to see Sunderland lose, from hidings in the league to that dreadful surrender to Millwall in an FA Cup semi. Pete Sixsmith, who was there when we last won a game an awful long time ago, has urged a bold approach tomorrow; others, at the Blackcats list, have done the same – even though the risk of another of those hidings would rise accordingly.

A slight technical hitch affected access to the site earlier this week so I have decided to repeat a few of the questions and answers – those relating to our club as opposed to his – from the “Who are You?” feature in which a Canadian United fan, David Tack, predicted a 2-0 victory for the Red Devils. Sadly, some SAFC supporters would probably take that margin of defeat now. It is up to the Lads, whatever formation and tactics Steve Bruce chooses, to show that is an unduly negative outlook … if you wish to see David’s answers in full, including his intersting thoughts on Sir Alex, the thrashing by City and football cheats and role models, click here

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1968 remembered: is Man Utd 1 SAFC 2 a dreamable dream?

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011


Not for the first time, and probably not for the last, Pete Sixsmith harks back to schooldays (those spent as a pupil, not teaching at Ferryhill) and shares for the young’uns his priceless memories of a winning visit to Old Trafford. There’s even a spot of advice for Steve Bruce on how he might pull off our second surprise win there in a mere 43 years …

May 11 1968 was the last time we won at Old Trafford. I was 17 years old, idling my time away in the Lower Sixth at Bishop Auckland Grammar School, dozing through Miss Wilson’s English History lessons and desperately trying to impress Mr McConnell with my European history essays. What I didn’t know about the Diet of Worms wasn’t worth knowing, believe me.

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The Manchester United ‘Who are You?’: champs despite City slaughter

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

David, with son, at Old Trafford

Canadian, married to a Liverpudlian whose heart lies at Anfield and working with a diehard Mackem, David Tack* really ought to reconsider his allegiance. But it’s Manchester United for him and he’s as avid from afar as anyone whose journey to Old Trafford can be made on foot. I make no comment about the thought process that inspired his choice of club and his answers to Salut! Sunderland reveal a thinking man’s approach to sport. Sadly, for us, he sees Saturday’s game going to script …

Salut! Sunderland: If I wasn’t sure where to start, I am now: which Old Trafford goal feast do you want to talk about, the one against Arsenal or the six Man City put past you?

Neither and both I suppose. While I did enjoy seeing the Gooners get a spanking, I was certainly gutted by our spanking from City. Overall, I don’t think either result was good for the league. Games among the top teams in the division should be fierce and closely contested affairs. When they become blowouts I feel a bit cheated by having not seen a great competition among the best teams in the best league in the world.

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The collapse of Manchester United: Man City today, us soon?

Sunday, October 23rd, 2011


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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