The date is the 13th of May 2025 and the match time is 12:00. The unfettered noise and limbs in the Stadium of Light is ear-splitting and unprecedented. Dan Ballard’s goal in the dying embers of extra-time of a tense second-leg play-off semi-final has released a torrent of guttural emotion. It is the kind of moment that shocks some into stunned immobility, others into uncontrollable vocal and physical delirium. It is no cliché to say that strangers hugged, danced and cried with each other. Others
stood, glued to the spot, drinking in the moment, a moment they would never forget.
It means Sunderland are on their way to Wembley and a date with Sheffield United in the 2025 Play-Off Championship final.
This game is often referred to as the richest game in world football. Estimates range on what it is worth to the victors financially but probably upward of £220 million!
Not too many Sunderland fans in the stadium, in bars and in front of TV screens across the world at 12:00 are thinking about financial benefits!
In the midst of this delirious throng is Iain. He is no different to any of the other ‘dancers’ in the stands that night. Relief, joy, belief, destiny course through his veins and batter his emotions. “We have made it to Wembley, now we need to finish the job”. Til the End is the mantra and strap-line that feeds this campaign and Til the End is what Sunderland AFC will get from this lad.
This moment and its outcome are not lost on Iain. Ten years of energy-sapping grind in the Premiership with what seemed like a constant battle to stay in the top-flight had taken a toll. The fall was long-threatened but swift and brutal when it arrived, a descent into the third tier in two seasons and some low, barrel-scraping moments prevailed. The revolving door of managers, as well as players, some of whom did not want to be there saw long-suffering supporters struggling to stay the course with little or no sign of lasting redemption.
There had been hope and bright spots, like the first years of the Peter Reid era, Quinn and Phillips et al. Wow it was so enjoyable, but it could not be built upon! A recurring theme in the history of the club and a theme many supporters recognised but were almost powerless to prevent.
The answer to success at Sunderland AFC would be no complex mathematical equation or Freudian-type theory.
Many dyed-in-the-wool fans knew, we just needed board/owners/manager/coaches/backroom/players and the fans to align in common purpose and a plan (short, medium and long-term) that unites and sustains the club back to the top tier with a style and way of playing as well as going about our business that captures the best of its people, their history, their qualities and their hopes and aspirations … what could be so difficult about that?
It took four painful seasons to get out of Division One / the third tier.
A new young owner emerged and a plan. A model came into play and whilst not universally popular initially, it began to impact. Was hope returning to the fanbase? Was that light at the end of a dark dark tunnel? Iain thought so, despite the old adage of ‘it’s the hope that will kill you’!
Iain’s relationship with Sunderland started at a young age and with a beloved and doting Grandad who fostered an interest in football and ultimately Sunderland. Trips to matches at Newcastle and Sunderland as well as Wembley cup finals each year were treasured and memorable experiences. A vivid memory of the Man Utd v Brighton final in 1985 and of course the Milk Cup final in the same year captures this period. Grandad had been at Wembley in 1973 for Sunderland’s finest post-war hour to date. If Grandad loved football, Iain’s Mam has Sunderland in her heart and soul. Hardly able to follow the big games on TV or listen on the radio, her passion for the Lads is infectious and infused by Iain.
Consett born and bred, distance meant nowt as the “fever” gripped through childhood and into teenage years. There were Wembley trips, none of which were successful and ultimately disappointing. No matter the disappointment, dust yourself down, get yourself grounded and go again for another season … caught in a loop of Only Fools and Horses “this time next year Rodders” could easily have been the mantra for those decades!
The Consett branch supporters club is a help, good times if not success are shared. Lifetime friendships are forged, like the bonds formed with Gareth, Graeme, Billy and Andrew. These relationships prevail often in what seems to be adversity and life moves on.
Iain’s cousin Adam is gripped and fed with the same passion that hoovered Iain up. It’s a family thing. The trials and roller-coaster nature of life as a Sunderland fan are not easy. Iain accepts some responsibility for dragging Adam into this and is reminded of this from time to time by his cousin. Adam though is forged in the family spirit and not only survives but thrives on the roller-coaster ride that somehow seems to have more downs than ups!
Iain’s years at Salford University and early years of marriage living in North Shields do not dim the passion for the Lads, if anything the light burns hard as the journey gets tougher!
Sunderland fans of a certain vintage will attest to a sapping journey, a real test of loyalty and stamina but we had our life experience and maturity to fall back on during the dark days.
Enter Charlie, Iain’s son. In many respects like Ian his Sunderland journey is not exclusive, there will be fans of Charlie’s generation that hear his story and think “bloody hell that is my journey too”. Charlie, like Adam before him, has his interest teased and fed. Sunderland are his team, just as they are his uncle’s, his Grandma’s and of course his Dad’s, but nobody would have held it against him if he had strayed away in those dark Division One days. There was plenty of opportunity and friends who drifted, but the Consett Branch helped with characters and away days, as well as the relentless pull to get on the bus that went to every home game whatever the state of play, and Charlie stayed the course. It’s a family thing, it’s in the blood!
After so many Wembley disappointments, the victory over Wycombe in the Division One play-off final 2022/23 does seem at last to get the monkey off our back. With that winning experience behind us and the absolute drama of our semi-final victory against Coventry, a side many Sunderland fans regarded as our bogey team, were the stars aligning?
Sheffield United were no easy touch. They were in the final on merit having finished third behind Leeds and Burnley. The two league games against them that season had been tough but compelling games with both teams playing well.
With the play-offs assured the Blades had held their form in the closing stages of the season and had literally waltzed through their two-legged semi-final against Bristol City.
Chris Wilder’s team appeared to be confidently arriving to the final in good fettle. They possessed some real threat and formidable players in their ranks. Gustavo Hamer and Callum O’Hare have creative previous against us. Vini Souza and Ahmedhodzic present quality ball-winning defensive capacity. Keiffer Moore and Tyrese Campbell have pace, aerial ability and the nous to cause any team harm.
Meanwhile at the Stadium of Light, having secured a play-off place, the team appears to move into third gear for the closing phase of the season.
Our form is causing many Sunderland fans concern as we lurch towards the semi-finals. We can hardly string a pass, never mind win a game! Our form is really jangling the nerves of many of us!
Though it has never been confirmed by anyone at the club, the closing stages of the league campaign are rumoured to be a plan! Our wizard of a head coach, Monsieur Le Bris, was determined that as full a squad as possible would be available and was looking to avoid injury and fatigue. For those that might have forgotten, we drew one and lost five of our last six games prior to the first-leg of the play-off semi-final, scoring one goal and conceding seven in the process. A hot topic of conversation at the time, it didn’t make easy viewing for anyone, Iain included, but he was as relaxed as he could be about it, viewing it as a pragmatic, calm and ballsy approach. In Le Bris we should trust!
Iain recalls the build-up as “intense and dominating every conversation, it appeared as if we were limping into the play-off semi-final and we travelled more in hope than belief, first to Coventry and then to Wembley”. But with trains, tickets and hotel rooms secured, there was no way these lads were not going to be there … til the end!
It would not be waxing too much lyric to say that the two semi-final legs against Coventry and the Wembley final, was almost a three-match fifteen-day abbreviated version of several decades of supporting Sunderland, with one major difference!
The outcome would arguably make it some of the best days Iain had ever experienced following the Lads.
Of course it is Sunderland and there is no glory without pain! On the early morning of the final on the platform in Durham station, one of the two trains the lads are travelling down to London is cancelled!
Crash bang wallop but no knockout as alternative arrangements are effectively sorted and all the lads are on the tracks heading South!
The craic is canny and hopes are high, belief like a well kept secret is tucked away. There have been too many bad days over these last decades to be playing Billy Big Bollox and thinking this was going to be easy!
Wembley prior to the game was a cauldron of noise and red and white. The Blades of course play in those colours, adding to the colour fest, but the noise was coming from Sunderland fans, who seemed to be everywhere.
On to Wembley Way and photos with the people who have been on this journey for most of our lives, before the game. Given our experiences over the decades at Wembley we often were not in the fettle for a photo-shoot post-game!
Inside the stadium the Lads are on the pitch the noise is deafening as Sunderland fans raise the roof and tifo. It’s hard not to feel the pride in belonging to this horde as the national anthem and Wise Men Say are sung with gusto and passion, hard-bitten stewards are shaking their heads in disbelief at the noise and ruckus we are making. Grown men are crying, the game hasn’t even kicked off!
Our wizard of a coach has once again defied the popular view and confounded the pundits with his team selection. Wilson Isidor, Paddy Roberts and Chris Mepham are on the bench! Also we have VAR for this game, will Luke O’Nien be able to behave himself, especially in our box when we are defending corners etc? In Le Bris we trust.
And so to the game ………
1.12 minutes was on the match clock when Keiffer Moore rose in the box, in front of the huge bank of massed Sunderland fans to plant a goal-bound header. He could not have connected any better with the ball. The whole incident seemed to play out in horrific slow motion, it looked to all intents like a goal. But no! Somehow our keeper, one of our own, Patto’ reacts almost Monty-like and scoops the ball low to his left out from almost behind the goal-line. It was a fantastic save and a good attempt by Moore. But something else catches the eye. Luke O’Nien was late in going up with Moore as he rose to the ball, there is contact between Moore and him but it all looks fairly natural, until he lands. We have seen that movement before from Luke, it looks like his shoulder has popped out again! He is in agony as the medics attempt to restore him. Eight anxious minutes pass, it is clear long before the eighth minute that Luke is not going to be able to continue.
Less than two minutes into the actual game and Chris Mepham is off the bench and on the pitch. Not one of the Sunderland fans who were complaining about Mepham not playing when the team was announced, would have wanted it to have happened in this circumstance. As Luke is led away, it seems to stun the massed ranks of Sunderland fans, as well as our players! O’Nien is a force of nature and a crucial ingredient of the team. How do we cope without “Mr Sunderland”?
Clutching at straws, but maybe Mepham being a Welsh international like Keiffer Moore means he will know the big forward’s game and perhaps be better placed to take on the aerial threat he poses.
The next five to ten minutes it seems like we are repulsing attack after attack as we struggle to get a foothold in the game. Ominously Hamer in particular is looking in the fettle for the Blades. On ten minutes Trai Hume makes a trade-mark intervention in our box on Hamer as he prepares to shoot, it raises our spirits in the stand, we are fighting!
As we edge our way into the game, Mayenda has a run that sees him beat three defenders and force a corner. The anticipation turns to anxiety though, as Hamer breaks and with Dan Neil and Mepham struggling to make up the ground, the playmaker slides a pass between two defenders, right into the path of Tyrese Campbell. Advancing at pace Campbell lifts the ball over the diving Patterson and into the net on twenty-five minutes.
It is a well constructed goal, a goal to be admired if it had not been scored against us!
It is also the first goal the Blades have scored in five play-off final appearances!
From the restart we attack and a Hume cross to Mayenda at least registered an attempt on goal as his header was gathered by goalkeeper Michael Cooper.
Around the half hour, a nice bit of play sees the ball move through Dan Neil, Trai Hume and onto Chris Rigg whose attempt is gathered by Cooper again. Rigg is the youngest player to ever start a play-off final and his attempt definitely signals our emergence into the game.
There is also a lively contest developing between Romaine Mundle and the Blades full-back Hamza Choudhrey, that is fuelling our hopes. Haway Lads, you can do this!
Between thirty-three and thirty-five minutes of the 2024/25 Play-off final, history was made as Sunderland were involved in their first ever VAR incident.
Most expressed fears about VAR prior to the game from Sunderland fans seemed to focus on Luke O’Nien and his extra-curricular activities in our box when defending corners and free-kicks, the analysts could have a field-day!
Harrison Burrows strikes a shot from the edge of the box that somehow comes through a gaggle of legs and buries itself in the corner of our net. In the flash of that moment, it looked like a fair goal in real time and the collective groan and gasp from the Roker masses seemed to confirm this.
The referee signals for the goal as the groans and gasps turn to despair at the thought of going two goals down at Wembley, surely we cannot come back from two goals down?
But wait, VAR has something to say … (and wait we did as almost five anxiety-provoking minutes passed)!
With the wait going on, it is very noticeable that Le Bris is very busy with the team, he looks calm and purposeful, there are no wild antics or tea-cups being thrown.
Referee Kavanagh is called to the pitchside monitor and eventually agrees with VAR, Vini’ Souza is blocking Patto’s view from an offside position.
It is agony for the Blades fans as they go from ecstatic to a range of stunned to apoplectic, whilst the Sunderland supporters are celebrating as if we had scored, what drama! Haway Lads we are back in this, we can do it.
The roar from the massed ranks of Sunderland fans as the game recommenced shook the rafters of Wembley and within five minutes of the VAR decision, we had a lovely bit of pressure that led to a corner and a good pass from Mundle to Jobe. It came to nothing but was quickly followed by more good inter-play and a Rigg volley, in the stands we could sense the game was turning, which is why there was a bit of frustration as the referee blew for half-time.
The chance to draw breath was almost too much for some Sunderland fans, but Iain was firmly of the view that if we could score one we would score another.
The Lads come out for the second half and as the game re-commences ‘sing ya hearts out for the Lads’ is blasting down from the Roker horde.
It seems to trigger another good bit of inter-play, as Le Fee finds Cirkin, to Mundle who slips the ball back to Cirkin, its lovely stuff and leads to our fourth corner of the game, which is cleared but momentum is with us, as we keep the noise coming in the stands.
On forty-seven minutes, a warning shot as Chris Mepham makes a crucial intervention on Kieffer Moore on the edge of the box.
We keep on pressing as Mundle makes a good run that lacks end product, but the intent is clear for all to see and Sunderland fans respond with another raucous anthem (red and white army).
We are less than ten minutes into the second half and Sheffield have some possession that leads to two great challenges. First Mepham on Moore in the box, shaping to shoot and then Hume on Brewster as he looked to capitalise on the deflection. In very typical Sunderland fashion the double tackle is cheered like a goal.
Shortly after this, Hamer found Campbell with another good pass and this time it was Dennis Cirkin with a timely intervention just as the goalscorer was about to shoot.
This was the signal for our first substitution. And just before the hour, on comes the mercurial Paddy Roberts for Chris Rigg.
With ‘three little birds’ echoing around Wembley, Dennis Cirkin had a moment to forget as he was caught dallying on the ball on the edge of his box. Blades sub Andre Brooks forces the error and cracks a snapshot that Patto’ saves brilliantly. The ball though has ricocheted back to Brooks and Patterson is down on the Wembley turf. As he connects a second time Dan Ballard arrives from literally nowhere and deflects the shot to safety.
Le Bris decides to roll the dice with more substitutions as Isidor replaces Neil and Tommy Watson comes on for Mundle (seventy-three minutes) and momentum swings Sunderland’s way again in dramatic fashion.
On seventy-six minutes Paddy Roberts (who was playing like a man possessed) collects a pass from Tommy Watson and in that smooth gliding action we know so well he lasers a pass to Elizer Mayenda on the charge. He might not like Sam Fender, but he loves this kind of situation and with a defender champing at his shoulder he speeds forward and lets rip from just inside the box. It is another ‘slo-mo’ moment but this time a glorious one as the net billows despite Cooper’s despairing dive, Mayenda has planted the ball ‘top bins’, and it is carnage in the Sunderland end of Wembley.
With flares and limbs everywhere in the stands, Luke O’Nien comes dancing down the side of the pitch, with his arm in a sling he looks like a demented seagull flying home one-winged with his fish supper tucked under the other wing!
What a moment to treasure, this is what it is all about!
Iain recalls the moments after the wild celebrations that followed the equaliser with razor-sharp clarity, he knew from this point we were going to win. “If we score one we will get two” and the certainty of his ‘knowing’ grows as the match progresses toward its conclusion.
Enzo Le Fee has come more into the game with the tactical changes and substitutions made by Le Bris. The little Frenchman slides an inviting pass to Jobe around twenty yards out. His shot is over the bar, but still raises the roof of Wembley again as the Roker horde let anyone who cares to listen know “we are the greatest football team the world has ever seen”.
With around eighty minutes on the clock, the ball burst, it is a telling moment because it looks like the Blades have burst too. Their fans are watching in resigned silence. On the pitch their players to a man look shattered and even the pugnacious Chris Wilder looks lost for ideas standing alone on the touchline.
In stark contrast Sunderland fans are loud and proud, Paddy Roberts is in challenging fettle, creating space and drifting past defenders and Le Fee is pulling the strings, it is Sunderland who are looking most likely.
On eighty-four minutes Ben Brereton Diaz (substitute for Hamer on 72 minutes) is booked for a petulant hack at Roberts. A minute or so later, Brereton Diaz is the recipient of a ‘Trai Hume leveller’. It is surely a coincidence that this tackle takes place so soon after Diaz’s hack at Roberts! What a tackle this is and once again it is cheered as loudly as Mayenda’s goal. Having not long taken the field, the Chilean international is eventually helped from the field to be replaced by Tom Cannon.
‘Wise men say’ is cascading around Wembley’s rafters and down onto the pitch as Chris Wilder tries to affect the game by making two further substitutions. Seriki comes on for Ahmedhodzic and Tom Davies on for Sydie Peck, but even at one-one and coming into the very last knockings of the game, Iain had a very strong almost calm inner knowing that this game was now Sunderland’s.
Speaking to Iain about this, it was very reminiscent of the phenomenon that gripped many Lad’s fans in 1973, many will still tell you they absolutely knew we were going to win the cup, irrespective of the giants that Leeds were in the game at that time!
As the substitutions are eventually made, some fans notice Jordan Henderson watching on from the ‘posh seats’, he looks like he enjoyed Trai’s tackle! Also intriguing to see Peter Ridsdale, the controversial ex Leeds chairman and current Preston director of football sitting next to Kyril Louis Dreyfus. Our young chairman it seems is always looking for possible connections that will advance the club no matter what the occasion!
With ninety minutes on the clock, the fourth official’s board tells us there will be a further seven minutes of ‘added time’ before we face the prospect of extra-time and penalties!
The game re-commences and it is Sunderland who are pressing, to a man we look more energised and driven, was this Le Bris’s plan with six games left in the league campaign coming to fruition, if so, it was a masterstroke!
On ninety-four minutes a Sunderland attack is broken up by the Blades defence and the ball is played up to Kieffer Moore around the half-way line. The big centre-forward has been one of United’s better players and has been a right nuisance for most of the game, so what he does next might count as his first error in the game. Moore takes a couple of strides forward to meet the ball and almost clinically plays the ball some yards back into his own half, to nobody!
In a flash Tommy Watson is on it. Moving from left wing to centre-field he collects the ball and glides forward. Those of us that watched this lad in the youth teams have seen him do this before, but never on the biggest stage imaginable. With a number of defenders in front of him, he moves forward and using the retreating defenders as a shield he passes the ball into the corner of the net. It is a sublime bit of football and a hell of a strike. An inch to the right and the ball hits the post, an inch or so to the left and Cooper’s outstretched hand probably deflects it away.
On the pitch Watson has his shirt off and is hurtling towards the fans, being chased down by Dennis Cirkin and Dan Ballard. In the stands it is delirious carnage. In the midst of the limbs Iain is engulfed in the moment. This club, this team will ring every last bit of blood sweat and tears out of you! Surrounded by people who are inexorably bonded by the journey, there is a primal urge to hug with all your might and yes, shed tears. This really is what it is all about, these moments are so much sweeter and memorable, when the people who matter most are there, sharing it with you.
With United fans leaving the stadium in droves, the game re-starts. The goal is timed at 94.40 minutes which means according to the fourth official board we have another three minutes or so to negotiate.
On the touchline stands Régis Le Bris, he has the look of a relaxed chess player, focussed on the board and content in the moment. He introduces Hjelde for Mayenda from the bench. The timing of this is canny, you can see our lads gathering themselves, calming themselves for the final push … til the end Lads!
There is time for a crunching tackle from Dennis Cirkin to earn him a yellow card, as Sheffield try to come back.
It is hard to imagine a more intense moment in a football match, the “richest game in the world” is into the tenth minute of added time, Sunderland fans are whistling and calling out for the referee to blow for full time. Any normal team would boot the ball as far as they could out of play, or run the ball into the opposition corner to waste time. Enzo Le Fee and Wilson Isidor decide a bit of head tennis down the touchline is just what is required!
It is a remarkable passage of play in context with the moment we have reached in the game. It does not backfire, indeed it works, Le Fee is charged to the turf and a free-kick is awarded, eating up more time. One hundred minutes are on the match clock at this point, “Haway ref man, my old ticker is not going to stand much more of this”.
We are heading toward the twelfth minute of injury time when the referee ends the game. Iain is exactly where he needs to be, with the people he needs to be with … the Lads, tickets across two rows a sprawling mass of celebration and then out of the tangled mass with Charlie and Adam locked in an embrace, shouting in their ears “this is what it’s all about”.
On the pitch our young gladiators are lost in the moment, drinking in the adulation from the stands. Régis Le Bris is often heard talking about “connection” and in this moment, it feels strong as the team and fans bond in a memory that will last a lifetime. There are some great scenes such as Mayenda in his shades and the ‘one-winged seagull’ immersed in the mayhem but always with an eye to the fans, he is some talisman Luke!
Feelings and emotions can be hard to describe and control in these moments, joy, relief and destiny are a potent mix and for many fans the need to replay and re-tell the events and key moments are to the fore and can be heard echoed over and over as we move out of the stadium to our various post-match destinations.
The branch have hired the Crystal Club again, it could not be any closer to the stadium. And walking into the upstairs room that is filling up with so many people that have been on this journey is another golden memory for Iain. In his own words he describes “disbelief on every face, joy in every hug”. There are plenty more hugs and tears, there is singing and dancing and a pint or two of Southern beer, (nobody is complaining about its quality now). Within the daft carry-on and unabounded delight, there is unspoken acknowledgment too. This journey has been shared with many people, the branch has been a focus and often a support in the hardest of times. Iain is clear about these people, “many had shared the dark days, the cold nights, the long journeys, some with two badges of honour from the third tier, nigh on double digits on Wembley appearances with not much to cheer. Others with more recent League One experiences, play-off and cup losses at Wembley, all with a shared passion for the club which burns fiercely. We were celebrating not just a victory, it was a resurrection”.
The people who have made that journey and stood the test of all the hard times, they know who each other are, there does not need to be any in-depth explanation or examination. A hug, handshake, smile, and maybe a beer are all it takes to reaffirm the bond, or as Régis likes to call it the connection.
Iain stepped away from the noise and the mayhem, with an urge to ring his Mam. She is a lifelong Sunderland fan and it is a heartfelt emotional call. There are more tears, he just keeps repeating “we’ve done it”, it is another shared moment, a memory to look back on.
With this call comes a poignant moment of remembrance. In Iain’s own words “the man who first took me to Roker Park, who lit the fire in me – he wasn’t there to see his grandsons and great grandson celebrating together”.
In the deepest, most intense situations that we experience, we often know and see ourselves for who we really are, with this comes a sense of what we really need and want. Surrounded by people who have shared the experience and reaching out to those not present, but who have also touched our very souls on this journey is a not so unusual occurrence at these times. In reaching out Iain draws in Mam and Grandad to the joyous throng.
The Lads say their goodbyes to the branch and the Crystal Club and head into the bright lights of London. The plan was for a rollicking good night in the city, but as they head away, a quiet moment gathered together sees a couple of drinks in city centre hostelries and then a few beers in their hotel bar chewing over together the events of the day and the likely consequences of the result. One shared view is that the Lads are going to try and get to as many games as possible, as well as enjoying the ride come what may!
Who in that conversation would have guessed at that point what was to come, for sure Iain, Charlie, Adam and the Lads have certainly enjoyed “the ride” in 2025/26.
Iain’s story is unique yet shared, deeply personal yet so familiar to many of us. His and the Lads’ relentless ability to live the mantra of Til the End is life affirming.
This is a story about Sunderland AFC and some of their fans, but in essence it is about life, family, friends and an unquenchable, dogged capacity to celebrate the good things that have blessed a life and stay the course when times are hard and the light at the end of the tunnel is no more than a pinprick. Til the End my Bonny Lads.
