Hello again. Despite myself, I feel I should return to the subject I ought really to have rinsed from my caring by now: Sunderland AFC.
So I thought I would say my bit on the astonishing escape from Premier League relegation a few weeks ago by this hardy perennial of under achieving football teams. I doubt if there has ever been such a turn around.
For anyone who might read this and who comes from outside of England, (I know there have been a few!), some facts bear repeating.
When Gus Poyet arrived at Sunderland we were in a truly terrible position. One point from seven games, which was soon to be one point from eight after Poyet took little more than a watching brief for his first game, which was lost 4-0. So, in what is, if not the best league in the world, certainly the most competitive, we had effectively given every team an eight game start.
To compound this grisly state of affairs, the club was, (once again!) in a state of shambolic chaos on and off he pitch. Players had been in open revolt at the antics of the previous manager Paolo DiCanio, whose brief impact at the end of last season kept the club up that time. Keeping up it seems is what we do, just about. There was turmoil everywhere you looked, and signs that the off field governance of the club was just as bad added further to the gloom. It was all awful, almost as bad as I can ever remember it feeling.
But Poyet set about his job with a manic and wildly celebrated home derby win in his second game,. He slowly managed to bring his own passing style to the team, and bit by bit, despite this new style contributing to some very high profile and costly errors, the results improved. But by Christmas we were still at the bottom of the league, a position from which most usually consider it almost impossible to survive.
But we were in a vein of good form, including a sensational cup run which eventually saw the team make it to Wembley for the first time in twenty two years. Just before that final, which we eventually lost 3-1, we suffered a disappointing home loss to Hull City. Before that game most thought we had almost got to the point were we had a good chance of survival. This loss however presaged a horror run of form which eventually saw us staring at what looked like an insurmountable task.
After a run of about nine games without a win, most of them lost, we had six games left and were seven points from a safe position. Just to rub the wound a bit with salt and vinegar, we had at that point won eight of the previous 39 home league games, going back two years or so. The three games we had at home offered only limited hope. So it would have to be done away form home wouldn't it? But wait! The three away games were Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United, in that order. A hopeless task surely?
This run of six games to save our skins, started with the first two of those away games. With only a minute to go in the first of them away to City we were, incredibly, 2-1 up after going behind to a soft goal in the first minute. Of course this is Sunderland and so one of our players of the season, goalie Manone, let in a soft goal and we draw. But this result, and stirring performance, galvanised the team. Onto Chelsea away, but again we fall behind to a a soft goal. No problem! Connor Whickam scores an equaliser, his third of the week after his double during the week against City, and then with ten minutes to go we win a penalty and score. This time we hang on. Amazingly we have managed four points from two of the hardest games of the season.
A thumping 4-0 win against Cardiff, was followed by an astonishing away win at Manchester United, scoring the only goal and hitting the posts twice. What astounding stuff! We were almost there, and in a night of bedlam at The Stadium Of Light we beat West Brom to complete what is now regarded by almost everyone as the greatest escape in Premier League history. We eventually finish five points clear of the drop. Staggering, just mind blowing.
But. A story like this shouldn't really have a but should it?
But, will the club now, after all of this, take the brave steps needed to try and make sure this does not happen again? GusPoyet has surely done enough to be allowed the opportunity to do this job exactly as he sees it.
We cannot afford to lose this chance. It really might not come again. Over to you Sunderland AFC.
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