Salut!

Will I finally see Sunderland win at Wembley? YES!!!

5pm update: the The question in my headline was answered in the most positive way. 2-0 and out of this dreadful division

 

 My first Sunderland Wembley trip should have been on May 5 1973. The famous one when Jimmy Montgomery’s breathtaking double save stopped Leeds, then mighty, coming back from Ian Porterfield’s goal for us.

Should have been there but couldn’t get a ticket. In fact I stopped looking for one when the sports editor of the Harrow Observer (I was chief reporter) said he was so well in at Wembley that he’d sort it in a heartbeat. Never happened.

Since then, tickets have become easier for me to come by for a variety of reasons. 

 

Victories for Sunderland have not. 

 

Just one EFL Trophy (against not-so-mighty Tranmere) so of course I wasn’t there. 

 

Otherwise beaten in the Milk Cup Final in 1985 (my delayed Sunderland Wembley debut), playoffs 1990 in my absence  (but went up because of Swindon’s financial scandal), FA Cup Final in 1992, playoffs in 1998 and 2019, League Cup finals 2014 and 2019. 

 

So I’ve see us lose on each of my six visits to Wembley to see them. 

 

My friend and former colleague Kevin Maguire has suffered seven Wembley disappointments but will see neither a win nor defeat tomorrow. His niece is getting married in South Shields so he’ll be there  instead. On his behalf and mine, I’ll do my best to witness a victory to make up for all our heartbreaks.

The second photo is of me with granddaughter Maya at the 2019 playoff final. 

The disconcerting reality Macron's victory concealed

I took another look at the French presidential elections and analysed what it may all mean for next month's follow-up polling for the Assemblée National, France's parliament. My thanks to the editor of The National for permitting my article's reproduction here ... 

 

 

The re-election of French President Emmanuel Macron on April 24 may have seemed straightforward enough to anyone following events from outside the country. But that victory, with 58 per cent of the vote, was far from emphatic enough to heal divisions in a torn and troubled country.

The harsh reality that must be pondered as France approaches another election, to decide who runs parliament, is that the result concealed a hidden majority: people unimpressed by Mr Macron’s centrist presidency.

While 18.7 million people voted for him, almost 27 million did not. They were split more or less equally between those who preferred the far-right candidate, Marine Le Pen, and those who abstained or deposited blank or spoiled papers.