Boxing Day is here, and a glut of football is taking place right across the pyramid – apart from at the very top. Only one Premier League game is scheduled for December 26th, that being Manchester United vs. Newcastle United. The rest of the league play will take place across the next three days, with our main event, of course, on Sunday. This will be the first day off from Boxing Day football Sunderland have had in five years; on that occasion, our scheduled game was postponed due to a Covid-19
outbreak in the squad. With that in mind, we can look elsewhere for a footie fix, which will be fun but not quite as much.
Recent Boxing Day fixtures have been good to Sunderland, with two wins and a draw coming from our last three. The last-minute win against Blackburn in 2022 was a great afternoon, as was the 1-0 win at Hull City 12 months later, despite the gloom cast by the Michael Beale era.
Last season, I was one of 7,000 Lads fans in the away end at Ewood Park to watch an entertaining 2-2 draw. The game was one of several that season where we conceded past the 90th-minute mark.
It hasn’t always been a fun day of football for us, with the 0-0 draw against Bolton back in 2019 being utterly dismal. This was a result that dropped Sunderland into the bottom half of League One, and was a game that would be completely forgettable if not for this grim fact.
On a personal level, my first Boxing Day football game was the 2-0 win against Leeds at the SoL back in 2006. Grant Leadbitter and David Connolly scored the goals for Roy Keane’s Sunderland, and Leeds assistant manager Gus Poyet was sent to the stands.
Festive football is great for fans, with a flurry of games in a short space of time. Even in the Premier League, Sunderland will have four games in 10 days from the Leeds match. This season is a great opportunity for people who love SAFC and Christmas to have the time of their lives, and then be ready to go on Sunday.
The classic Boxing Day full fixture list lives on elsewhere in the football pyramid, which is great. Sadly, TV broadcasters have got their teeth stuck into the Premier League schedule, and we don’t even have two fixtures on December 26th now, never mind the full schedule.
What is nice this season is having a couple of home games between Christmas and New Year. Leeds and Man City at the SoL is a lot nicer looking on paper than Blackburn and Stoke away, it’ll be even better if we can beat the one point we picked up from those games last year.
Boxing Day is a proper day of football, and with people still recovering from Christmas Day and with a packed schedule, it’s something any footie fan can enjoy, even if you support one of the 18 teams not playing on that day.
We may need to wait a couple more days for our ‘Boxing Day’ football fix, but its got the potential to be a cracker with Leeds in good form and us still unbeaten at home. Christmas is fantastic, Christmas with a bit of football is even better.
