Tony Jeffries v Darren Bent

Bit of a no contest really isn`t it? Tony sparks DBtheTruth in the first 10 seconds! knocked out cold.. game over.

No, wait, Darren is not stepping into the ring with Tony that would be just daft. Instead we are talking about Tony v Darren in the Twitter contest to reach 10k followers.

Am i biased in this contest? damn right i am Tony is a Sunderland lad born and bred and he is doing his bit to put us firmly on the boxing map after his 95 amateur fights he has now stepped up to pro and is 3 from 3 going into his next bout on the 16th October at the Seaburn Centre.

Darren on the other hand is tugging me in the other direction as i am a devout Sunderland Fan, with his 6 goals in 7 games (should be 7 in 7, no way was that an own goal), he is already on the way to legend status from the safc following. and if he pulls it out of the bag against Man U tomorrow and we walk away with a win for the first time in 41 years at Old Trafford then DBtheTruth is assured of safc fans praise for a very long time to come.

So which way will it go? i will leave it up to you.

To follow Tony: @Tony_Jeffries
To follow Darren: : @DBTheTruth

Mackem Golf Event

Sunderland legends Micky Horswill and Gary Bennett will be teeing up alongside Mackem fans as they go head to head with their Newcastle counterparts at Ramside Hall Golf Club on Monday [September 28].

And any Black Cat golfers keen to take part can take advantage of some last-minute places available at half price.

A team of two Sunderland supporters can now take place in the event for just £136.85 – that’s less than £70 each.

The day includes food before and after golf, a special golf shirt in your team’s colours and the chance to qualify to represent your side in the grand final at a five-star resort in Portugal.

For more information go to www.profantasticgolf.com

Save Wrexham Racecourse Ground

Hi from Wrexham Fans!

We and "fans united" would love to have your help and support to protect our ground from any chance of future property development.

www.redpassion.co.uk/petition

http://www.petitiononline.com/LDPWFC21/petition.html

No one has got better memories of the Racecourse ground than Sunderland fans, who as 10,000 Wearsiders’, saw Sunderland win there on the final day of the 1978-79 season. Our ex player Carlos Edwards also helped you to promotion with the winning goal against Burnley 28 years later!

During our last spell in administration we had a Fans United day at the Racecourse and over 50 clubs were represented and the nationwide media reported the fans chorus was led by Sunderland fans chanting “Dennis Smith’s Red & White Army”

Not everyone knows Wrexham's Racecourse ground is "The Oldest International Football Stadium In The World", still in use today. [Good one to remember for pub quiz night]

We need your valued support and help. The club has been sold to a parent company, who are acting as property developer and developing the car park land the club used to own as an asset. This by its nature needs to encroach very close to the stadium with the result, the kop end terrace has had to be closed until the development has been completed and when we understand the Kop end should be rebuilt.

We have been assured a healthy chunk of the profits from the development will be paid back into Wrexham Football Club, rather than just retained by the property developer. We are hopeful, though aware the section 106 guarantee we were promised would be submitted to planning, did not materialise and planning permission given irrespective. This has left some concerns and anxiety amongst some of the fans as this now relies on trust.

For the future and to protect the interests of the fans, and avoid any chance the club land could ever be developed on, we are lobbying the Wrexham Borough Councillors to secure the Racecourse as an international ground and stadium, as a designated reserved matter within the Local Development Plan. LDP. It could then never be sold as development land or be built on for supermarkets or more flats and the like.

To do this we have a mission to secure 10,500 names on the petition, the current capacity of the Racecourse Ground with the 5,000 terrace Kop closed. We will use this to lobby the Councillors at the LDP planning hearing in the autumn. The response has been fantastic and in less than four weeks, we have secured 5,611 signatures from fans of more than 30 clubs across the UK and even as far as Grampus Eight in Tokyo!

Wrexham and Sunderland have had some entertaining games over the years at the Racecourse and the Old Roker park stadium and your support would be magnificent for us.

Thanks

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Originally posted on http://www.blackcatchat.co.uk and http://www.safc-fans.co.uk by CaeRas

Sir Bobby Robson a True Gentleman

A true gentleman of the English game, Sir Bobby will be missed by fans of clubs around the world.

""I was never too big or proud to ask him for advice which he gave freely and unconditionally. And I'm sure I am speaking for a lot of people when I say that.

"In my 23 years working in England there is not a person I would put an inch above Bobby Robson. I mourn the passing of a great friend; a wonderful individual; a tremendous football man and somebody with passion and knowledge of the game that was unsurpassed.

"His character was hewn out of the coal face; developed by the Durham County mining background that he came from.

"His parents instilled in him the discipline and standards which forged the character of a genuinely colossal human being. He added his own qualities to that which then he passed on to his sons.

"The strength and courage he showed over the past couple of years when battling against his fifth bout of cancer was indescribable. Always a smile; always a friendly word with never a mention of his own problems.

"The world, not just the football world, will miss him. Let's hope it won't be long before another like him turns up because we could never get enough of them."

- Sir Alex Ferguson




http://www.justgiving.com/thesirbobbyrobsonfoundation/

Scores from Around Europe

Crouch, Bent, Campbell, Jones

3-3-4 formation? all of them scrapping for the ball or slick passing from the wings feeding 2 big men with 2 dropping off, aye i know we have no slick passer from the wings, come to that we have no out and out wingers of the traditional type but how mouthwatering does that selection even if they did not play together sound?

Yes i know as of this date neither Crouch or Bent has signed, Bent especially having turned us down twice before and recently scoring during Tottenhams pre-season and the Spurs gaffer more than likely unwilling to let the lad go. Crouch on the other hand by all reports has already had talks with Bruce and now it is a case of will Fulham attract him to Craven Cottage with the enticement of their sneaking in the backdoor Europa football?

Either way it is exciting to think of such a competition for places up front, kenwynne has attracted interest from all owa the shop, but he still remains a strong part of Steve Bruces considerations.

On a side note, alas a little belatedly can i introduce to you another SAFC Forum Safc-Fans.co.uk many thanks to Equinox for letting me know via the BCC of it`s existence and i am very happy to include the forum amongst all of our other SAFC related material within the safc toolbar.

Will Crouch sign? Stay at Pompey or go to Fulham?

Steve Bruce Confirmed as New SAFC Manager

Steve Bruce has been confirmed as our new manager, he will be revealed later today to the media.

Steve has apparently penned a 2 and a half year contract for £2.5 million on £60,000 per week.

Having never really had a substantial war chest to bring players in let`s see what he can do for Sunderland AFC in the coming seasons. Geordie or not he is a manager with 11 years experience through several clubs and guided Wigan to a respectable 11th place this season.

Relegation Permutations

Just to get things absolutely sure i wanted something to refer to over the next not so arse jittery weeks as i originally thought, so i flung together a few permutations that will mean not one thing when we get summat against Pompey by the time Sunday 24th may comes around.

Update: May 22nd

Hull and the Mags both have to win for Sunderland to go down

Newcastle are praying that Hull get beat and they get at least a point to survive

Villa Park and the KC Stadium decides the last relegation spot, come on Villa!

Stick with Ricky Sbragia

How is this going to happen now?

Sunderland are embroiled in their usual bollox at the bottom of the table in the premiership how are we supposed to get out of it?

Well with 4 games to go we are still sticky to the point of arse wrenching, so what difference does it make? Well West Brom after yesterdays loss are looking mathematically up against it although still possible are candidates elect for the drop. The Mags shortly followed by the Boro are a close second but then again there are too may teams in the mix including SAFC that could be dragged into the mire.

i will not go into too many connotations because that would be frivolous, instead all i would suggest is that we still need 4 points from our remaining 4 games to give us a starting platform in the premiership for next season, if you disagree with me then please feel feel to comment, i am always the eternal optimist.

on a different slant it feels that Roy Keane is getting Ricky`s feathers ruffled with his recent comments about SAFC, to Rickys credit he came out of his corner fighting, as a SAFC fan i will back Ricky up in saying "You no longer have any association with SAFC" "Shut up" yes i may have dealt a game of roulette to you in the past the day before our game against Burnley when Carlos struck that wonder goal but right now you need to concentrate on Ipswich instead of blagging the media as a former Man Ure player looking for headlines coz you want to big the "Tractor Boys" up. With all respect to Ipswich Town FC because i have fond memories of our meetings and you are a cracking bunch of fans.

Alright then i digresss, Ricky was recently quoted as saying "It just seems that if he wants a bit of publicity, he says something - but why not talk about Ipswich? Why is he always talking about Sunderland?"

Without stating the obvious, Roy is looking at a slingshot for Ipswich with controversy, shock horror, and you know the media will sit up and take notice because of the nature of who he is, bless him. I wish Ipswich Town Football Club all the best, Roy will do you fine, but when the going gets tough aka known as the KK (Kevin Keegan syndrome) Roy will scarper.

Ricky knows more about why Roy left simply through the postion he is in, quite frankly i do not care right now, all i know is that Ricky is the man to motivate our lads, if it does not work out and we end up joining the Mags or Boro next season so be it, all i know is right now we should get behind Ricky Sbragia and his choices whether that be good or shite.

Sunderland Run in 09

Sunderland AFC`s run in looks a lot better than some of our rivals, although we do have to face Man Utd one more time finishing off with Chelsea on the the final day of our season, but i think we stand a good chance to get enough points from our remaining 4 aways and 4 home games.

West Ham has never been the happiest hunting ground for us through most seasons, but i think we bring a squad that can easily compete with the Hammers and with Djib still laying foundations to make his loan spell a permanent move i have got a good feeling about this one. Kenwynne may have had his head temporarily turned by Harry in recent weeks and months but again this is another player that is believing in Quinnys vision for our club and the lure of big bucks will certainly tempt him again i am sure, but King Kenwynne had enough about him to spurn the advances of other clubs and look to continue his great start to his career at Sunderland.

More rumours flying around that our rivals Newcastle will be entered into administration by Mr Ashley if they fail to stay up, again this is just a rumour for the hard to sell club, but a spell in the lower leagues may just ground their fans. For too long they have believed that they have sole right of position to be within Europe and with the gazillions of squid they have spent on player transfers you could understand their frustrations, but no club has a sole right to be anywhere.

Their continued revolving door of management will keep on swinging, Bobby Robson was their man and Freddy Shepard let the fella go after a bad start to the season, big mistake.

Great news for Jack Colback who has been called up to the u20`s squad for tonights friendly against Italy (we also have another 14 youth team players on international duty), the experience will do our reserves captain no end of good and let`s hope we get to see him at least in the full team squad soon.

It`s been a bit of an inconsistent season to say the least, sometimes brilliant football sometimes downright embarrasing but we have become used to that though by now, yes we need to kick on to the next level and with the backing of Ellis Short behind us along with the DC (yet more rumours of a total buy out by Short) we can still compete in the highest league in English football and get back to at least a level of consistency and shake that yoyo tag, no i do not expect us to be stomping into Europe anytime soon but a feeling of being able to hold our own without the maulings and defeats that clubs like Everton have reaped upon us would not go amiss.

Saturdays trip to London after a decent international break (i could well do with a cheap holiday myself)and the return of Kieron "the mag destroyer" Richardson to the squad will bring us 3 points via single goal from the Djib.