Looking through rose-tinted specs, the transition of moving to the Stadium of Light seems to have gone smoothly if you look at the points tally of 90 in the first season and 105 in the second – but it was a little bumpy to start with.
For a start, our first season there was on the back of a heartbreaking relegation from the Premier League, and there were fears that a half-empty new stadium in the second tier was a little embarrassing. Added to that, the mood turned a little sour at the naming ceremony.
But, Status Quo and Ajax came to town to officially open the Stadium of Light – with a safety certificate that was issued at the last minute, and spirits were raised ahead of the opening day of the season against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.
Chris Makin and Lee Clark made their debuts that day, and Chris Byrne from the bench, as Nigel Spackman’s side welcomed us back into Division One with a pretty convincing 2-0 defeat. Three defeats in the first four followed, which resulted in the players being spat at as they left the pitch after suffering defeat against Norwich City.
By early November, Sunderland were down in 12th after a run of two wins in nine games, but two games signalled a turning point. First, a 1-1 home draw against Nottingham Forest saw the return of Niall Quinn from a long-term knee problem that began early in the previous season, and this was followed by a 4-1 win at Portsmouth, which saw the debut of Nicky Summerbee.
By this time, through injuries to Andy Melville, Richard Ord and Chris Makin, Reid had looked to youth, and our defence now consisted of Jody Craddock and Darren Williams in the middle, with Darren Holloway and Micky Gray occupying the full-back positions. Quinn also formed his partnership with Kevin Phillips, and we were off, winning 17 out of 25 league games.
Then we arrive at the Easter weekend fixtures. Going into the Friday home game against QPR, we were second in the table as we trailed Nottingham Forest by four points – although we had a game in hand. Below us, we had Middlesbrough and Charlton Athletic breathing down our neck, but we had a four-point cushion over them. Easter weekend had the potential to cement our automatic aspirations.
However, Good Friday didn’t turn out to be all that good against QPR. Quinn completed his brace just before the hour mark to put us two up, and all looked, well… erm… good. But Mike Sheron scored twice in eight minutes to take a point for the visitors, meaning we dropped two points to begin the weekend.
But that was ok, because if we travelled to Denis Smith’s West Bromwich Albion on the Monday and claimed all three points, then four from six would be fine from the two fixtures. I travelled down, and I remember feeling like we were still good for the automatic spots. In general, we were swatting sides away, and it felt like dropping points against the likes of QPR were just a blip.
But as I took my seat right behind the goal were defending, I just arrived to see Lee Hughes put the home side in front with just a minute or so on the clock. It wasn’t a great start, but around ten minutes later, it got worse when Kevin Kilbane doubled West Brom’s lead and had the home end opposite doing that annoying “boing, boing” thing.
But, you never felt out of a game with this side, with Quinn and Phillips up top in the second tier, you always had a chance, and by the half-hour mark, we were back on level terms with a goal from each – game on.
Ten minutes after Phillips’ equaliser, the game took another twist, however. Micky Gray had a rush of blood to the head and received his marching orders just before half-time, which I’m sure cheered up Peter Reid.
The only change at the break, however, was the official. Eddie Lomas – who sent off Gray – picked up an injury and was replaced by the fourth official. Once again, though, with how this side attacked, nobody was really surprised when Quinn completed his brace five minutes into the second half to make it 2-3.
With ten men and forty minutes left on the clock, it was going to be tough – but typically we lasted until the final minute of the game. It was Lee Hughes who got the goal at the death, which meant at the end of the weekend we were still second in the table – with Forest extending their lead to eight points – but more importantly we were level on points with Middlesbrough and Charlton Athletic on 81.
Monday 13th April, 1998
Nationwide Division One
West Bromwich Albion 3-3 Sunderland
[Hughes 2’, 89’, Kilbane 11’ – Quinn 17’, 50’, Phillips 28’ (Gray sent-off 37’)]
The Hawthorns
Sunderland: Perez, Makin, Holloway (Craddock), Williams, Gray, Summerbee, Clark (Rae), Ball, Johnston, Quinn (Dichio), Phillips
WBA: Adamson, McDermott, Van Blerk, Flynn, Beesley (Murphy), Carbon, J. Quinn, Nicol, Hunt (Sneekes), Hughes, Kilbane. Substitutes not used: Coldicott
Attendance: 20,181
