I slipped a note underneath the pillow of my seven-year-old, letting her know the score when she woke up in the morning. Just to make sure she understood, I added below: “We Won!”
I went back downstairs into the living room.
There, I sat quietly for a minute or two.
The noise had come like a wave, but now silence reigned supreme.
The big occasions do this to us; every fan can recall returning from the Stadium of Light, assaulted by the barrage on the senses of sights, sounds and smells. Emotions overtake
your body, and you need a moment of calm to allow your internal checks and balances to regain control.
You may have been watching from afar, and the ability to be present at an occasion like last night was not possible; yet no doubt you too will have given yourself time to recover – whether you are in your front room in Australia, America, Europe or another far-flung part of the world.
Because the allegiance runs deep in all of our veins, and that is why we showed the world who we are: Sunderland AFC. A football world that turned its back on this institution when it was in the depths of despair. There is no interest in a club on its knees, hoist by its own petard on the back of a litany of disastrous decisions. And in truth, we didn’t want anyone to look, we didn’t want you to see us like this.
Well, the world is watching now.
Wednesday, September 16th 2026 was a moment for inward reflection. To store up these memories and emotions to access in years to come. It wasn’t actually to focus on what others outside of our Wearside world thought.
Words penned by someone else can’t sum up another’s emotions, which are so personal to them. There is no point in trying. But you know what they mean to you. They are yours. Some you share with loved ones and friends, others you keep to yourself. But this experience is now part of our collective history as supporters.
And just like the generation of 1973, we are all now the lucky ones.
Whatever path this club now follows, this is a moment set in stone. It cannot be removed, erased, airbrushed or glossed over.
Too often we live for what might come in the future, but for one glorious evening on the banks of the Wear, we lived in the present. A moment none of us wanted to end.
During our time in League One, nobody would have predicted that an autumn night in the not-too-distant future would show us all what the essence of being a football supporter was: a night as pure as the driven snow.
Well, now we know.
And what of my little girl? Will she too one day put a note under her child’s pillow, letting her know the score of some game to be played in the long-distant future? Maybe. Maybe not.
But when she grows up, if she’s lucky enough to experience a night like this, then all those pieces of paper will have been worth it.
Sunderland AFC, I have fallen in love with you. But then again, it was always you.
Ha’way the Lads.
