On this day, 10 November 2012, Sunderland travelled to Goodison Park and came away with nothing.
Martin O’Neill had endured a poor start to the season, overseeing only one win in the first nine games. That win had come at home, a 1-0 victory against a Wigan side that would go on to be relegated in May.
Sunderland starting XI: Simon Mignolet, Craig Gardner, John O’Shea, Carlos Cuellar, Danny Rose, Jack Colback, Seb Larsson, Adam Johnson, Stephane Sessegnon, James McClean, Steven Fletcher.
Sunderland
had the best of the early chances and could have been ahead well before they were. Within the first ten minutes, Sessegnon and Fletcher combined twice. First, a lovely through ball by Fletcher sent Benin striker Sessegnon away. Tim Howard pulled off an excellent save on that occasion, then moments later Fletcher slid a shot just wide after having the favour returned by Sessegnon.
Everton rallied and began to control the midfield. Belgian pairing Marouane Fellaini and Kevin Mirallas started pulling the strings, with the latter providing a through ball for Steven Pienaar on the half-hour mark. Mignolet saved the shot comfortably, but Mirallas pulled a hamstring while providing the pass and had to be replaced by Steven Naismith.
Another great chance was created when Fletcher and Johnson combined to put Colback in a decent shooting position, but the resulting weak shot didn’t trouble Tim Howard much. After a 30-yard piledriver from Phil Neville was saved comfortably by Mignolet, down to his left, Sunderland looked to get to the half-time oranges on level terms.
As the clock ticked over into one minute of injury time, James McClean won a corner on the left. The corner was headed away, only for Gardner to gather the ball and loft it back into the area. Johnson caught Leon Osman napping and slipped in to slot home.
Having failed to score in their previous three games, coming out for the second half 1-0 up was a novelty. An early corner for Everton nearly cancelled out the lead straight away, but a goal-line clearance by Johnson from a good Johnny Heitinga header protected the clean sheet.
Unfortunately, a goal was coming as Everton dominated possession and created chances. Another header from Heitinga, followed by one from Pienaar, and the pressure eventually paid off. A ball from Osman into Fellaini at the edge of the box resulted in the equaliser. To be fair, it was a decent turn and shot, but O’Shea maybe could have made more effort to close the shot down before it came.
The Lads had held onto the lead until the 76th minute, but once they conceded, the winner was not far behind. On 79 minutes, Fellaini cemented his Man of the Match performance when he found himself on the edge of the box again. A ball into his feet from Osman found the Belgian with his back to goal, but a deft backheel flick put Jelavic through one-on-one, and he made no mistake.
From leading to losing in four costly minutes. The Toffees saw out the rest of the game comfortably and the Lads fell to a 2-1 defeat.
David Moyes oversaw yet another game that Sunderland failed to win, his eighteenth in a row in which Everton had taken points from us. It might be cruel to say that he carried on that run when he was in our dugout, but I’m still not over it.
The tenth game of the season for O’Neill, and only one win. The parallels to the 2026/27 season are there to see: a lack of goals and a lack of points. But, on a positive note, Sunderland did go on to avoid relegation that season. Time will tell.
