May 24 2025 was a key date in Sunderland AFC’s recent history, the day we secured promotion back to the Premier League after eight years away, doing so dramatically with one of the last kicks of the game.
Exactly twelve months on, we’ll be playing our final game of a fantastic first campaign back in the top flight, sitting in the top half with fifty one points on the board and with a chance of playing European football next season firmly on the table.
The club mantra of ‘Til The End has been adopted
over the past four years; it was first seen during the League One playoff campaign, which ended in promotion to the Championship at Wembley. It’s stuck almost every season since, and it’s far more than a marketing ploy.
As soon as I saw that black and golden symbol with the cat’s eyes and those three iconic words, I started feeling nervous and excited for Sunday. It’s not a match that’ll define our season, but it could be another day we can file under ‘days we’ll never forget’ — and there have been a few of those in the last twelve months.
This season, we’ve been true to the spirit of ‘Til The End, winning gaining points from losing positions, the most in the division, and we’ve also enjoyed our fair share of last-minute goals too.
The winners at Chelsea and Newcastle are up there with some of the more memorable ones, and as we head into the final match of the season, we know a win could see us playing Conference League or even Europa League football next season and writing a new chapter in the story.
The Stadium of Light has seen plenty of big games in the last four years, and Sunday feels like it’s set up to be yet another to add to the collection. The sun shining, a packed-out stadium, a bank holiday the following day, and the chance to make history could well be the stars aligning for the next remarkable chapter in the remarkable recent journey of our football club.
We must get the place rocking from the off on Sunday, there’ll doubtless be a great contribution from This Is Wearside in order to get the stadium decked out ready for the visit of a side we’ve already beaten once this season.
If things don’t quite fall our way, a top-half finish could still be on, so it really is a case of win-win — although the argument of the scenario in which we get European football being the better of the two is a fairly strong one.
Throughout the season, this group of players and the coaches who lead them have made us proud to be Sunderland supporters. Despite supposedly being nailed on to finish rock bottom and to be relegated with barely a whimper, we’ve put together a squad that’s us in a position we’ve not been in for over half a century.
In the past four years, Sunderland have had so many huge matches and on nearly every occasion, the Lads have stepped up to the challenge.
Sunday will be tough and Chelsea will be eager to try and get themselves into Europe, but the mere fact that we have it all to play going into the final day is testament to what the club has and can achieve.
For one more time this season, let’s go ‘Til The End.
