It was the year of the escape we didn’t quite notice, or want to believe. Everyone wanted the Peter Reid era to ultimately count for something in terms of a trophy or to establish itself as a long-term top-flight club, but the 2001-02 season rang the alarm bells.
Two successive seventh-place finishes were the most fun we’d had as fans for a long time, but there were signs that Reid was struggling to replace players who had transferred away from the club, or players who were simply coming to the end
of their distinguished careers.
This was no more true than for anyone other than Niall Quinn. Signed for a club record fee of £1.3m in the summer of 1996 after Reid’s first promotion as Sunderland manager, his time on Wearside wouldn’t begin in its truest form until we’d gone back down, and he would partner with Kevin Phillips.
During the 2000-01 season, as we repeated the feat of finishing seventh, the goals began to dry up slightly for the two strikers, with Phillips scoring sixteen fewer in the league than the previous year, which saw him claim the European golden boot, and Quinn was seven short and scored one fewer than midfielder Don Hutchison.
It was also a sign that only five sides in the Premiership that season scored fewer goals on home soil.
Nobody knew more than Peter Reid that his goalscoring partnership was breaking up, and in the summer of 2001, French striker Lilian Laslandes signed for £3.6m from Bordeaux and highly-rated 18-year-old French forward David Bellion signed on a free transfer from Cannes.
The only other player to join the ranks was Switzerland international Bernt Haas, who joined from Grasshopper Club Zurich for around £850,000 and with Don Hutchison leaving for West Ham after the opening game, it didn’t appear to be the large evolution in the forward positions that was maybe required.
But, in front of 47,370, we got off to a good start on the opening day as we claimed all three points against George Burley’s Ipswich Town, who had finished above the Lads in fifth the season before, courtesy of a Phillips penalty five minutes or so before half-time.
Laslandes made his debut against Ipswich, but other than a couple of neat touches, didn’t pull up any trees and for the last twenty minutes, Reid turned once again to 34-year-old Quinn to see the game out.
Next up was a trip to newly promoted Fulham, who had former Sunderland defender Andy Melville marshalling their defence after his release by Sunderland two years prior. Laslandes once again was brought off and replaced by Quinn in almost the same minute as the Ipswich game, but this time the change was made with the game still goalless and by the final whistle, the Cottagers ran out 2-0 winners via goals from Barry Hayles and Louis Saha.
Next up was the Tyne-Wear derby against Bobby Robson’s side at St James’ Park, and it was maybe telling that Laslandes wasn’t in the squad, and we went back to the trusty Quinn-Phillips partnership. A report in the Guardian simply stated “with Niall Quinn surprisingly included ahead of Peter Reid’s summer signing from Bordeaux, Lilian Laslandes, Sunderland had a familiar look and, for the first 40 minutes, a familiar fluency”.
Craig Bellamy cancelled out Phillips’ opener a couple of minutes before half-time, and the game ended all-square in a game lacking quality and unsurprisingly described as a “battle”.
Graeme Souness’ Blackburn Rovers were up next at the Stadium of Light and Laslandes was brought back into the starting XI and although the Lads were the better side early on, it was a scrappy game that saw Phillips miss a couple of early chances – with the pressure on to become Sunderland’s post war record league goalscorer – while Matt Jansen had the visitors first shot on target on the half hour mark.
In a second half that was described in a report as “pretty tedious stuff”, Laslandes had a golden opportunity to open the scoring soon after the break but missed when he opted for the top corner rather than anywhere else.
Unsurprisingly, soon after the miss, Reid gave Quinn the signal and sent him on once again in place of the Frenchman, and ten minutes from time, the Irish striker nodded home a Stefan Schwarz cross to ultimately hand all three points to Sunderland.
Quinn would start the next two, and Laslandes never gained the trust of the manager to become a serious option to replace Quinn long-term.
FA Barclaycard Premiership
Stadium of Light
Sunderland 1-0 Blackburn Rovers
[Quinn 81’]
Sunderland: Sorensen, Haas, Craddock, McCartney, , Gray, Rae (Kilbane 76), Schwarz, McCann, Arca, Phillips, Laslandes (Quinn 62) Substitute not used: Ingham, Williams, Bellion
Norwich City: Friedel, Berg, Bjornebye, Taylor, Duff, Flitcroft, Mahon (Hughes 60), Gillespie (McAteer72), Jansen, Neil, Bent (Tugay 60) Substitute not used: Hignett, Miller
Attendance: 45,103
