A couple of months ago, there’s a pretty good chance that the odds of Anthony Patterson, Tommy Watson and Alex Neil spearheading Millwall’s Championship playoff push would’ve been lengthy, to say the least.
Three Sunderland playoff heroes — one of whom directed traffic from the Wembley sidelines in 2022, ensuring that our long-overdue escape from League One was finally completed as we eased past Wycombe — now giving Lions fans hope that The Den might be staging top flight football for 2026/2027?
It might’ve seemed unlikely but football never ceases to surprise and with the news of Patterson’s loan switch following hot on the heels of Watson being loaned to Millwall from Brighton, it was hard not to feel conflicted from a Sunderland perspective.
On a positive note and focusing solely on the issue of game time, Patterson’s move makes perfect sense.
Since last summer, Sunderland have taken an impressively proactive approach to the goalkeeping position, and last weekend’s arrival of Melker Ellborg was the latest step in a process that’s seen Robin Roefs establish himself as our number one, Blondy Nna Noekeu depart for France and Matty Young given the chance to continue his development at Salford.
This evolution — somewhat unfortunately — left Patterson on the fringes but this doesn’t diminish what he achieved at Sunderland. It also doesn’t mean that his long-term prospects have been damaged and I believe the club should be credited for ensuring that he’s made a move which could bring about some enormous long-term benefits.
With two successful playoff campaigns to his name, capped off by two highly impressive displays at Wembley (how differently might the 2025 playoff final have panned out had he not defied the laws of physics to deny Kieffer Moore early in the game?) Patterson’s credentials at Championship level are more than impressive and by linking up with Neil — under whom he really emerged as a shining light during the spring of 2022 — he’ll doubtless aim to anchor the South London side’s bid for the top six.
Was Patterson slightly underappreciated by pockets of Sunderland supporters? For me, yes.
Nobody would deny that he occasionally fell victim to lapses of concentration and that his distribution — so often the yardstick by which the men between the sticks are judged during the “sweeper keeper” era — could be erratic, but his shot-stopping ability and reflexes more than made up for his weaknesses and the fortitude he showed during two appearances under the Wembley arch — the first of which was as an unproven young prodigy at a time when the pressure to finally achieve promotion back to the Championship was intense — was admirable as well.
Everyone who played their part in the journey on which this football club has been on since 2022 — from Patterson, Watson and Neil to Tony Mowbray, Patrick Roberts Jack Clarke and countless others — occupies their own space in the red and white history books. They worked damn hard in order to restore Sunderland AFC to a place of respectability, and that should never be downplayed.
On a slightly more melancholy note, there’s no doubt that the departures of Patterson and Dan Neil have brought about a feeling of something ending; the completion of a chapter and a move to a higher plane in terms of out-and-out quality — something that’s often difficult to accept but is also necessary at this level.
Putting local lads at the core of what we were trying to achieve when this process began was an admirable if slightly risky play, but it worked, showing that if you integrated players into the side who possessed that sought-after mix of talent, application and the correct attitude, it could pay dividends and lead to great things.
If at the end of the season, Patterson achieves a third career promotion and second successive elevation from the Championship to the Premier League, will anyone be able to downplay his credentials with any real conviction? I don’t think so, and despite Millwall’s reputation as — shall we say — one of the second tier’s less fashionable clubs, it would certainly be quite the story if they could secure a place among the country’s elite with a Sunderland lad in goal.
Interesting times ahead, and hopefully Patterson makes the most of the opportunity he’s been given.
