Bloody hell. This was five years ago. It feels like a lifetime, and in some ways, it feels like it didn’t happen at all.
If you had told us a few years before this that Sunderland would be getting beaten in the third-tier play-offs by Lincoln City, at the end of a season behind closed doors due to a virus resulting in the government confining the public to their homes for a period of time, you’d have expected a couple of funny looks.
But this is where we were just five years ago.
It began the season
before, when the initial covid lockdown had resulted in the abandonment of the 2019-20 season, where the final league table had Sunderland finishing 8th in League One – our lowest ever finish to a season in the football league.
Despite that, Phil Parkinson was given the chance to take charge the following season, which had to be planned meticulously so as to reduce risk to the players while providing everyone else some entertainment from our homes as they played games behind closed doors. This meant it began in early September with a League Cup tie against Parky’s former club Hull City.
By late-November, things hadn’t moved on a great deal from the previous season, and after a draw at Joey Barton’s Fleetwood Town that left us just outside the play-off positions, Parkinson was out. Which seems harsh saying this now as he was sacked in the middle of the COVID lockdown, but in some ways, it felt business as usual at Sunderland at that time.
Former Bristol City manager Lee Johnson was the man chosen to take on the job, which was quickly followed in January by Kyril-Louie Dreyfus becoming the new owner of the club by replacing Stewart Donald. The day after Johnson was installed, Sunderland lost to Wigan, but in the following fixture, the Lads travelled to Lincoln and won 4-0.
By the beginning of April, Johnson had steered Sunderland into contention for automatic promotion as we sat two points behind Peterborough, who occupied the second automatic spot, having played a game more than us. But this is where the wheels came off a bit as we won just once in the final nine games and finished 4th, which resulted in a semi-final tie against Lincoln City, who had finished on the same points as Sunderland.
The first leg at Sincil Bank – on this day just five years ago – saw us play in front of a crowd for the first time that season, and the home fans helped them on their way. Johnson’s side were devoid of any ideas, and we were probably lucky to head into the break goalless. But five minutes after the break, Tom Hopper took advantage of us being a bit crap defensively and opened the scoring.
Lincoln’s emergency loan keeper Josef Bursik pulled off some saves to keep us from replying, and with just over ten minutes left, loanee Brennan Johnson – now of Crystal Palace – took advantage of a crap back pass by Flanagan to Burge, and unless we could come up with something special at the Stadium of Light, it would be League One for another year.
Wednesday 19th May, 2021
League One Play-Off
Semi-Final First-Leg
Lincoln City 2-0 Sunderland
[Hopper 51’, Johnson 77’]
Sincil Bank
Sunderland: Burge, Flanagan, O’Nien, Wright, Hume (McFadzean), Jones (Stewart), Power (Leadbitter), Scowen, McGeady, Gooch, Wyke. Substitutes not used: Matthews, Winchester, Maguire
Lincoln City: Bursik, Poole, Edun, Bridcutt, Jackson (Montsma), Eyoma, Scully (McGrandles), Johnson (Anderson), Hopper, Grant, Rogers. Substitutes not used: Long, Bramall, Sanders, Morton
Attendance: 3,145
