It’s getting to the business end of the season and in most of our ‘on this day’ articles you will no doubt be reading about high pressure games – and this one was huge.
To set the scene, Denis Smith had taken Sunderland from Division Three to the top flight in three seasons as manager and once we were there, the club struggled to back him up. This was evident in the fact that the seven out of the starting XI on the opening day of the First Division campaign at Norwich City turned out for Sunderland in the Third
Division.
Our two most experienced players departed to make room for wages, with Eric Gates heading to Carlisle United and John MacPhail left for Hartlepool United, and Kevin Ball and Peter Davenport arrived to replace them.
Even though we were promoted despite being comfortably beaten by Swindon Town in the play-off final, hopes were raised for survival due to the fact only two sides were to be relegated. The Football Association had decided to increase the number of teams in the top flight to twenty-two, so only two would drop out.
By the beginning of March, Sunderland dropped into the bottom two having kept their head above water until that point – but there were still twelve games remaining. In the first eight of those fixtures, Smith’s Sunderland picked up just four points from the twenty-one available. In three of those games, the Lads took only one point after taking the lead.
This meant that with four games remaining it looked grim. Derby County were rock bottom with 21 points on the board, we were eight points better off in the second relegation spot, and above us was Luton Town who were five points above us, but they had played a game more – and next up, on this day in 1991, Sunderland travelled to Luton.
The day before the game, Smith had ruled out the comeback of star striker Marco Gabbiadini who had been struggling with injury, but when the team was announced, Gabbiadini was on the bench to everyone’s surprise. The away contingent travelled in big numbers as always, despite the fact that conditions weren’t great as the snow fell on a bitterly cold day.
It was a typical relegation dogfight on Luton’s plastic pitch, but after around twenty minutes, Paul Bracewell played in Gordon Armstrong who sprang the offside trap to go on and finish well on an angle to put the Lads one up. But around ten minutes later, Sunderland once again squandered a lead when poor defending allowed Graham Rodger to equalise.
Five minutes later, Brian Mooney limped off having broken his foot – which ruled him out for the rest of the season – which allowed Gabbiadini to join the action, potentially sooner than Smith would have liked. At half-time, John Kay had to be replaced after a back strain which saw Kieron Brady take to the field.
Around the hour mark, the offside was sprang again and this time it was Gabbiadini who got to the byline, and cut it back for Colin Pascoe to score from close range – and it was at that point you realised how many Sunderland fans were in all corners of the ground.
The Lads hung on to stay alive in the scrap to stay up – but two points from nine in the last three games wasn’t quite enough.
Saturday 20th April, 1991
Division One
Luton Town 1-2 Sunderland
[Rodger 35’ – Armstrong 22’, Pascoe 63’]
Loftus Road
Sunderland: Norman, Kay (Brady), Bennett, Ball, Hardyman, Owers, Bracewell, Armstrong, Pascoe, Mooney (Gabbiadini), Hauser
Luton Town: Chamberlain, James (Rees), Harvey, Beaumont, Rodger, Dreyer, Elstrup, Pembridge, Farrell (McDonough), Preece, Black
Attendance: 11,157
