We’ve done these ‘On This Day’ for around five or six years now, and there are just days where there is an obvious pick to write about, but all of us who contribute to these pieces try to pick out the more obscure game/event from the day, rather than the obvious one if we can.
For anyone who bought (and read!) SAFC365 a couple of years ago, firstly thank you, but secondly, you might have got around to some of the older or less well-known stories in there. For instance, I’ve just opened it randomly
and come across the story of Sunderland winning the Durham Challenge Cup in 1887.
If we have the time to go through the archives, I think we all as a group prefer to write about those days than anything in recent history. As you can see, I’m trying to justify looking back just two years in one of these features, and at first I dismissed doing it before thinking again.
In the context of there being three games left this season, I feel it’s worth putting this current year into context of where we were just two years ago. It’s so crazy that this game I’m writing about was just two years ago, that I genuinely had to look at another source, as well as count on my fingers to make sure I was right, and this was actually just two years ago.
We all might have the odd gripe with the performance of the team or an individual from week to week, or not agree with a decision Le Bris has made, and that’s natural, but let’s go back two years and put it all into perspective.
Because it’s easy to forget just what a rollercoaster our first season back in the Championship was following our Wembley win against Wycombe. Alex Neil took us up to 5th in the table after five games, before buggering off to take over at Stoke, who we’d just beaten.
Martin Canning (remember him?! – nope, neither do I – he’s now at Millwall with Neil) took charge against Norwich, before Tony Mowbray was appointed. Mowbray then won just three of his first eleven, seeing us slip to 16th going into November, before a huge turnaround saw an unexpected play-off campaign that ended at Kenilworth Road.
That unlikely play-off campaign ramped up the expectation and, of course, increased the pressure on us to better that. After ten games, however, we’d won six, and we were sitting pretty in 4th in the table. Happy days.
We then won just two of the next nine and found ourselves in 9th, three points off the play-offs.
Just as the club had done with Lee Johnson in the past, they deemed this wasn’t good enough, and after a draw at Millwall, Mowbray was out. Mike Dodds took charge as caretaker for a second time, and there was a feeling this might be his time to step up, and wins over West Brom and Leeds supported his cause.
The rumour mill was doing its thing, and one rumour that not many people had heard was that Mike Beale would get the job. His reputation as a coach at Chelsea, Liverpool, Sao Paulo, Rangers, and Aston Villa with Steven Gerrard led to his managerial appointment at Queens Park Rangers.
His record at Loftus Road meant he was hot property, and he was linked with a host of Premier League positions before taking the Rangers job in Scotland. It all went wrong north of the border, however, and two months after his departure at Ibrox, he was unveiled as the new head coach at Sunderland.
Fans weren’t on board with the appointment. He managed eleven league games and won four. There was a cup game in there somewhere as well, if memory serves me right, but anyway, after eleven games, he was gone. And by the way, his last game was a defeat against Birmingham City, whose manager was, yep, you’ve guessed it – Tony Mowbray.
Mike Dodds took over again and won just two of the last twelve, which meant we were going into the final game of the season against Danny Rohl’s Sheffield Wednesday, who were aiming to secure survival from relegation on this day in 2024, having won four of the previous nineteen games.
We lost 0-2, and the headline for Andy’s player ratings after the final whistle was straight to the point and simply said “Shite”.
In Paddy Hayes Matchday Musings that night, he wrote, “from the ownership to the head coaches, the last six months have been shambolic; however, the players must take accountability for what’s been a dismal sequence of disinterested performances. We’ve watched a group of players who once played with confidence and unrestrained freedom become a team crippled by an apathetic malaise, and a considerable period of soul searching and introspection is needed at squad and boardroom level during the coming weeks”.
After reading the above and looking at the players below, view these last three games of this season, and while you do, have a quick thought to how far we’ve come in the past twenty-four months – and while you’re at it, look at where Sheffield Wednesday are…
Saturday 4th May, 2024
Championship
Sunderland 0-2 Sheffield Wednesday
[Palmer 29’, Windass 38’]
Stadium of Light
Sunderland: Bishop, Hume, Alese (Hemir), Ballard, O’Nien, Styles (Evans), Ekwah (Ba), Aouchiche, Roberts (Rigg), Clarke (Watson), Bellingham, Substitutes not used: Patterson, Pembele, Dack, Mundle
Sheffield Wednesday: Beadle, Valentin (Diaby), Johnson, Palmer (Ihikwe), Iorfa, Bernard, Windass (Paterson), Vaulks, Ugbo (Smith), Bannan, Musaba (Gassama) Substitutes not used: Dawson, Famewo, Diaby, Cadamarteri
Attendance: 41,222
