All good things must come to an end at some stage and despite a run of seventeen games undefeated, I recall a sense of panic and slight frustration that did surround the 3-1 defeat to Colchester United on this day in 2007.
This sense of frustration wasn’t some irrational outrage that we lost a game after a fabulous run of form but rather a sense of insecurity that a defeat had occurred at what could be the worst possible time on the journey of our quest for promotion to the Premier League.
This was
the third-last game of the season and with Sunderland fighting with Derby County and Birmingham City for an automatic promotion position after a sensational run of form after Christmas, even one defeat such as this could derail things significantly.
Credit to Colchester – they were due full credit for their 3-1 win on this occasion where they used the intimate surroundings of Layer Road to their advantage and equally refused to be intimidated by the sideline presence of Roy Keane too.
Whilst this was a poor defeat for us, it still took two late goals from Jamie Cureton and Richard Garcia to give the home side the victory and leave us seeking three points at home to Burnley the following week to try to secure promotion back to the Premier League.
One would be forgiven for thinking that this would be the ideal situation for Keane to produce one of his infamous dressing-room tantrums or bust-ups but when he spoke to the media, the Corkman displayed a more mild-mannered and measured tone insisting there was nothing to panic about and it was all in our hands.
“We’re disappointed to lose but it’s still in our hands and we’ll try and bounce back next week.
“When we got back to 1-1 we thought we could get something from the game but it wasn’t to be.
“I have no problem with the effort and desire we showed and you have to give credit to the opposition.”
Even if he was tormented inside, Keane’s calmness in the title run-in surely played an enormous role in keeping his players grounded. His previous knowledge of situations like this would have been seen as massively reassuring and Keane’s defender, Danny Collins echoed his manager’s comments, insisting that they wanted to ‘right the wrongs’ of the Colchester game at the Stadium of Light.
“It would have been nice for the season to have finished with us unbeaten in 2007 but all I will say is that we are all hungry for Friday night now. It’ll be the last home game and hopefully there will be a big crowd.
“At this stage of the season there’s no time really for ranting and raving, just disappointment. There is, though, an attitude that we all want to put this result right on Friday night.”
It is clear to see why this promoted side earned so many results – with a large amount of them coming in the last few minutes of games – where Keane inspired a young impressionable group with his wisdom of winning big moments and key battles from his Manchester United days.
At a time when the Irishman was giving us countless memorable moments, one of the greatest ones from the Stadium of Light days was just about to occur when the squad made amends for the Colchester defeat with a huge 3-2 win over Burnley which put us on the verge of promotion to the Premier League.
Why were we all worrying?
