They had a nice jersey back then too. No mention of Andy Ritchie
Got seven in a league cup tie? Or was it six?
Think it was 6. Scarborough if memory serves. That’s the one . He was a legend of midweek highlights shows for weeks after it
Don’t forget big Darren beckford …his shots would either hit the net or clear the stand behind the goals …
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Sunderland: A mighty club in danger of becoming part of the League One furniture
May 6, 2022
Sunderland have been desperate to escape the third tier since they were relegated from the Championship in 2018. They face another fallen giant in Sheffield Wednesday for a place at Wembley — compared to fellow League One play-off hopefuls MK Dons and Wycombe Wanderers, the differences could hardly be more stark.
The Stadium of Light will celebrate its 25th birthday this summer. Sunderland’s home — an imposing structure that looks down on the River Wear — has been a feature of the city’s skyline since July 1997 when a capacity crowd was first drawn to watch a goalless draw against an Ajax team that featured Edwin van der Sar and Michael Laudrup.
Status Quo were there that night, too. They had arrived by an army helicopter in the centre circle and played a short set before kick-off. The wide-eyed 42,000 in attendance were tapping toes to Rockin’ All Over the World. “Here we goooo-oh…”. A fortnight later it was Manchester City swept aside 3-1 in the stadium’s league fixture in Division One.
English football, at the time, had not seen a purpose-built stadium like this before. Plenty of clubs had moved homes in the 1990s, including Middlesbrough, Derby County and Bolton Wanderers, but not on this scale. Not until Arsenal opened the Emirates Stadium in 2006 did an English club think bigger from inception.
The Stadium of Light was symbolic of what Sunderland wanted to be. Although there were nods to the past, such as the giant Davy lamp that commemorates the site’s history as the Monkwearmouth Colliery and the statue of the 1973 FA Cup-winning manager Bob Stokoe, its construction pointed unequivocally towards a brighter future. “We want it to be a stage, a platform for the club,” said former chairman Bob Murray on its opening night.
Sunderland, back then, were still stinging from Premier League relegation during Roker Park’s final weeks. “We must get back in the Premier League,” added lifelong supporter Murray. “The Premier League is the only place to be. If we get there, surely we’ll not go down again.”
If only. Sunderland won promotion under Peter Reid in the 1998-99 season but the Stadium of Light has since witnessed three relegations from the Premier League, and worse still, another from the Championship.
Although 15 of the Stadium of Light’s first 20 seasons hosted Premier League football, the last four have predominantly witnessed League One toil and suffering. Three times Sunderland have finished in the play-off places but they are still to crack the code of a division they had seen only once before in a Football League history that began in 1890.
Alex Neil’s side must hope this is the year of a Championship return. Conquer Sheffield Wednesday over two legs, teeing up a Wembley final against Wycombe Wanderers or MK Dons, and Sunderland can finally take that first step back up a mountain they hurtled down with back-to-back relegations.
Neil is the latest manager tasked with ending their stay in League One (Photo: Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
The last four years have proved more challenging than Sunderland could ever have expected. They came desperately close under Jack Ross in 2018-19 — the campaign that was captured in series two of the Netflix documentary Sunderland ‘Til I Die, ending in a play-off final defeat to Charlton Athletic at Wembley — but pursuits of automatic promotion have always come up well short.
And here they still are, looking jarringly out of place except for where it matters most.
Wigan Athletic and Rotherham United, the two teams promoted automatically, both had more than Sunderland: more consistency, more focus. Sunderland needed a 13-game unbeaten run at the tail-end of the season just to make the top six. A 1-0 win away to Morecambe on Saturday removed the last doubt, setting up this juicy double-header with Wednesday.
There is a school of thought that suggests it would have made an even better play-off final — the two best-supported clubs in the division meeting at Wembley for a winner-takes-all game. Only one, though, can be there on May 21. The other will be left to swim in the backwaters for at least 12 more months.
The Stadium of Light was not built for the third tier and stands as a reminder of just how far Sunderland have fallen. Only seven English clubs (Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United, Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool and Newcastle United) have bigger capacities and, somewhat inexplicably, the club continue to draw crowds that have no place in League One. Sunderland’s 23 home games this season brought an average of 30,847. Sheffield Wednesday were next best in League One, more than 8,000 back.
Sunderland announced last month that more than 20,000 fans had signed up for 2022-23 season tickets but these coming days still feel like a big test of commitment.
There was some enthusiasm about the first season in League One once Ellis Short had handed control to Stewart Donald in 2018. Even the following season, fans stayed comparatively buoyant. The enforced COVID-19 break introduced a thirst for live football this season, but a fifth season in League One will be hard to stomach.
Especially with all that irritates off the pitch. Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, who was born five months after the Stadium of Light hosted its first game, was supposed to herald a new era when buying a “controlling stake” in February of last year. The vilified old guard of Donald and Charlie Methven were still around, but with neither sway nor say.
The reality, though, was different. Louis-Dreyfus has only ever owned 41 per cent of Sunderland, marginally more than Donald on 34 per cent. All stress that it is the 24-year-old Swiss, heir to the Louis-Dreyfus empire, that calls the shots but old wounds of mistrust have been picked at. Donald and Methven have made clear they still want £11.7 million to sell their combined 39 per cent stake and grant the clean break most crave.
All shareholders, including Uruguayan politician Juan Sartori, are obliged to fund the running of a club that last week recorded a pre-tax loss of £11.7 million for the 2020-21 season. “The shareholders have a strong commitment to continue to support the club and its ambitions,” said the strategic report within the club’s accounts last week.
The return of more than 30,000 supporters every other weekend will ensure those numbers are improved this season but Sunderland cannot hope to grow as a League One club. Try as they might avoid it, they will shrink and see powers contract.
Much to the discomfort of supporters, Sunderland have started to resemble a piece of League One furniture. Cost-cutting measures have resulted in the Stadium of Light club store being closed for much of the average week and the club’s ticket office, housed at the neighbouring Black Cat House, is unmanned for more days than it is not. This week, with a bumper crowd expected on Friday night, is the exception.
Sunderland say it is all about sustainability, a quest for the club to wash its own face. That alone is a mission in itself. Sunderland’s annual revenue of £10.7 million for 2020-21, albeit hit hard by COVID-19, was the club’s lowest since leaving Roker Park in 1997. Perhaps more remarkably, it is only 8.5 per cent of what Sunderland’s turnover amounted to during their last Premier League season in 2016-17.
Those cash-rich days feel as though they belonged to another club but it is still the potential that attracted Louis-Dreyfus and keeps all those thousands coming back. Sunderland have the facilities, at the stadium and their training base at the Academy of Light, that most outside of the Premier League covet. The fanbase, too, cannot be manufactured or bought. Louis-Dreyfus has likened the feel of Sunderland to that of Marseille, the French club his father, Robert, spent a generation owning.
Sunderland also have parallels with Sheffield Wednesday — top-level history and support — but there is little in common with Wycombe or MK Dons. Neither have ever been higher than the Championship but Sunderland, like Wednesday, are acutely aware that reputations amount to little in League One. Sunderland have been there to be shot at since 2018 and plenty have successfully drawn blood.
Ross Stewart’s 24 goals went a long way to taking Sunderland to the play-offs (Photo: Barrington Coombs/PA Images via Getty Images)
Last season’s final standing of fourth remains Sunderland’s best, underling that this fallen club has never fully got to grips with the challenge at hand. Every season has brought promise that has gone unfulfilled. Victory in the 2021 EFL Trophy remains as good as it has got.
Recruitment, with managers and players, has yet to convince and surrendered natural financial advantages at this level. Too much muddled thinking, not enough clarity. Even this season, with the protracted search to replace the sacked Lee Johnson, there was a ruinous complacency.
Nothing new there. This car crash of a football club, one that has lost £252 million in the last 15 years, is slowly being repaired around its most endearing parts. It still has that enduring appeal to a city and its adjoining towns and villages. Even in League One, even at the lowest ebb, Sunderland are the 14th-best supported club in England.
That vindicates a move to the Stadium of Light a quarter of a century ago but this modern life in League One sits no more comfortably with those living it. Sunderland spent a decade dodging the Championship as a Premier League team. Now it is the place they would dearly wish to see again.
Would be great to see Charlie Methven in the Premier League some day.
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Big goal from Stewart, superb work rate.
I was surprised to learn that there are a good few players I’ve heard of involved in this - Barry Bannan, Patrick Roberts, Saido Berahino, Josh Windass, Corry Evans, Aiden McGeady.
A real vibe of a Celtic v Rangers League Cup tie circa 2016 to it.
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Probably should have got a second goal, were all over Wednesday for the first 20-25 minutes of the second half, Roberts & Pritchard were much more prominent.
Neil maybe a bit slow with the subs, allowed the momentum to slip away a little.
Be nervy in Hillsborough.
Corry Evans never played for Celtic or Rangers.
Is that Sunderland documentary still in production as it was epic?
Big goal by former Celt Patrick Roberts.
Is Jack Clarke the lad who went from Leeds to Spurs? Very good tonight.
Sunderland wanted it more.
He was very poor last week but superb tonight. His best game this season.
He’s still very young; he’s quite frustrating but he’s well able to carry the ball and has unreal pace. Don’t think he’ll ever be Spurs-level but if he develops, he could maybe succeed at a higher level.
Needs to work on his decision making.
He’s 21 and plying his trade in League 1. Not that young in footballing terms
Maybe not but he’s mostly only played children’s football since that season at Leeds when he was 17/18. At that age, players need regular football in a suitable setup more than anything imo.
With big Premier League clubs sometimes holding onto players until they’re 23/24, sometimes you get fellas who have barely had any exposure to real football at that age.
He’ll probably get a Championship loan move next season.
Mother of Jaysus that’s some Barnet on Kevin Philips
Play-off final at 3. Wycombe are tough, physical, really good at set-pieces, bully the goalkeeper; exactly the type of team Sunderland have struggled with consistently since getting relegated. This year, with quite a young team, those sides have physically bullied Sunderland at times.
But Neil has perhaps toughened Sunderland up a bit since he came on; Batth & Wright are two strong centre-backs and the young keeper, Patterson, is quite good in the air. The are a better footballing side if they actually get the ball down and play.
Sunderland have an awful record in play-offs, really really bad. But will vastly outnumber Wycombe in terms of support, Neil as a manager has success in the play-offs previously.
1-0 up at half time. Is it finally time?