Who dared to dream?
It’s not been an easy ride as Sunderland fans. We’ve witnessed first hand — been there, read the book and completed the trilogy — just what it is to support a struggling team through the years.
Going back over my time as a Sunderland fan, I reckon I’ve witnessed to around twenty four relegation battles in getting closer to fifty seasons, and the measure of success for a lot of these seasons was whether or not we managed to avoid the dreaded drop from whichever league we happened
to be competing in.
After Sam Allardyce successfully kept us up after yet another relegation battle, I clearly remember some fans saying on social media outlets, “Anyone feel like we’re the verge of something special?”.
Well, they weren’t wrong — it just wasn’t the definition of ‘special’ that they might’ve had in mind.
This was our lot, our reward, for being drafted into a lifetime of loyalty to the club we became hooked on, and for the most part from a young age. You can’t change it once you’re on board — it’s in your blood no matter where you end up in the world.
There was one thing you could bank on Sunderland to do through all these years of struggle and even despite the brief periods where the club seemed to be on the up, such as the Denis Smith and Peter Reid years: missing the proverbial open goal or not seizing the moments which would make the difference.
Clive Walker’s missed penalty in the League Cup Final of 1985 and John Byrne’s missed header at 0-0 in the FA Cup Final in 1992.
Not turning up against Wimbledon to save our own necks at Selhurst Park in 1997, Mickey Gray’s missed penalty, seventh on goal difference in 2000, Lee Cattermole with another missed spot kick, the playoff final defeat by Charlton…and many more which prompted that lady to cry “Why’s it never us?”.
Indeed.
We were “The Perennial Relegation Strugglers” as tweeted by Gary Lineker, with seven successive losing Wembley appearances. It was all ‘so Sunderland’ and if there was a way to cock up an opportunity; a moment for something better, we would find a way to do it — but over the last five years or so, something began to change.
Alex Neil’s team taking control to win promotion at Wembley again. The “Ballard moment” in the last minute against Coventry City, and Tommy Watson firing us to promotion at Wembley one year ago.
There have been a couple of playoff hiccups along the way, but especially in the last two years, we’ve become a team that you’d back to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Sunday felt like the most amazing day in the life — bar 1973 — of just about any living Sunderland fan.
The way the fortunes of our club have been transformed over the last few years feels just so un-Sunderland, and with the opportunity to play in Europe for the first time in fifty three years, we seized the day.
From what’s been for much of the time over the decades a team of losers, it now feels like we’re seeing a team of winners.
