It was moments like that when I hate my job.
UEFA don’t take Irish Sunderland-supporting teachers into consideration when scheduling their team’s biggest game in many years. Did it have to be a Wednesday? Did it really have to be a Wednesday night?
With the new term just beginning, I didn’t take one of my five entitled days off, which will be used for our visit to AC Milan, along with our home encounter against Jagiellonia Bialystok — and nor did I consider a sudden bout of pretend illness that somehow
inhibited me from working but permitted me to travel to the North East of England.
My thought process for this was “bigger picture”.
Think knockout stages, think semi-finals, maybe even think Frankfurt. But truthfully, none of that mattered when I sat down with my 2021 Papa Johns’ Trophy winners mug and an Aero Mint bar.
Whilst the tea was good and the Aero was even better, it didn’t compare to the pre-match build-up, with TNT reinforcing the enormity of the occasion with each reminder, like another stab in the heart. Kevin Phillips has certainly let his hair grow, and you could even hear the excitement in his voice when asked about the evening that lay ahead.
He may not remember it, but myself and my friend Brett Lyons-Davis once did a pre-match podcast with SuperKev in the build-up to a League One encounter with Bristol Rovers. How far have we come?
As the game started, the kettle was being boiled again whilst my mood turned sour as the green-eyed monster began to overcome me.
“I should be there,” I bemoaned to my other half. “I’m missing the biggest night in the club’s history”.
Full credit to her, though, she kept her cool and didn’t bite. Our wedding is the day after our home encounter with Leeds United…I hope it’ll still go ahead.
There’s also something about a Scottish commentator behind a microphone. They take ownership of it and tend to captivate the audience, and TNT’s Jamie Lyall didn’t let the side down as he set the tone from early on with a voice that matched the occasion and a roar that would make you leap out of your seat.
When Enzo Le Fée got the goal, Lyall let the crowd take over the microphone before perfectly adding, “European pandemonium on the banks of the River Wear.” I have no doubt that, for all the fans watching in the United Kingdom, Ireland and further afield, the pandemonium was being felt in many a living room.
As AZ missed chance after chance, with the Sunderland defence doing their best Tom Daley impression by diving on every single shot that came near their goal, the pandemonium slowly switched to consternation.
My sitting-room couch was slowly doing its best impression of a trampoline, as I was up and down as much as Nordi Mukiele down our right-hand side, though I nearly went through the roof when Brian Brobbey and Nilson Angulo did all they could to miss near the end.
As the referee’s whistle brought the match to a close, the celebrations were rapturous in the stadium and in South Dublin, and the forty-minute podcast with Martin certainly channelled all the emotion in a positive way.
Watching Sunderland AFC for the first time in Europe from the couch wasn’t ideal, but it was certainly better than not watching them at all.
