Sssshhhhhh. Can you hear it? Something almost imperceptible? If you go outside your house and listen, there’s a noise quietly whispering to us through the breeze. It’s Sam Fender’s management asking Gateshead FC if he can have a free shirt as he wants to claim to support a team that he can actually be proud of.
He would be advised to head over Wearside for that, but I don’t think he’d be welcome here.
Anyway, this is part two of my piece from Saturday, but this time we have answers.
So what are we left
with after a frenetic, febrile, and exhausting day of loosely choreographed chaos against an insipid, clueless Newcastle side? (Who will forever now be known henceforth as “the Visitors”.) Well, we have the three points which we craved, we have the bragging rights and – most importantly – we can say with ironclad certainty that Sunderland AFC have earned the right to spend the next 22 games asking what might be achieved as opposed to looking over their shoulders.
How that has come to pass should be a surprise to nobody. Consistently Régis Le Bris and his team have found different ways to win. Not only that, they have fought off negative narratives that have been thrown at them on a regular basis.
It started with the assumption the three promoted sides would come straight down based on an incomparable set of prior clubs and circumstances which had dropped before them. Then, once they had shown they had far more about them than simply being competition winners, it was asserted they were defying the underlying statistics. The conclusion was, therefore, that things would eventually even themselves out and Sunderland would finish lower-mid table at best.
Why was this? Well, for some in the media it was probably because they were unable to adopt anything but a 2D look at Sunderland. For others, such as friends, family, and acquaintances of a Visitors persuasion, it was because it made them feel a tiny bit better about the fact that this season there would be no “thanks for an easy six points”. Or, as it turns out, three points.
Does it come as a surprise to any of you, though? It certainly doesn’t to me, as this side has consistently passed the eye test throughout the season. And that is the most important metric of all.
The truth is, it was never in doubt against a Visitors side that didn’t just fail to land a glove on Sunderland but failed to even complete the ringwalk. Rumour has it they didn’t even want to be in the building. Or sign the deal.
I am a big believer in karma, and the Visitors had that coming in the post. All those years of peacocking, telling Sunderland that they would forever be in their shadow. Well, it turns out they were less peacocks and more bus-station pigeons.
I’m not, however, one to believe in omens, but on Friday I realised that I had lost one of my “’Til the End” socks recently purchased from the Sock Council. It is no exaggeration to say I spent a good six hours searching for the elusive garment before being forced to admit defeat shortly before leaving for the match on Sunday morning. It wasn’t for the lack of effort. Kids’ bath times were delayed, they could make their own tea, and if my wife expected the vacuuming to be done, she could think again. This sock had to be found. Could this mean a certain defeat, I wondered?
I shouldn’t have worried – because you just cannot help but trust these boys; something we should all bear in mind as the season unfolds. And as far as I’m concerned, that sock will forever be known as the lucky lost sock.
Hopefully it will never be found.
