My time covering Sunderland and the best is yet to come

I learnt that quite quickly after being given the role of Sunderland AFC club reporter at the Evening Chronicle back in November 2020. The Black Cats were a shadow of the club we look at today, with Stuart Donald still looking for his way out of the club, William Storey preaching to Sunderland supporters that he was the man to take over, all while Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and co worked behind the scenes to complete their deal.  

A Christmas Eve statement from the Frenchman the perfect early gift for Wearsiders who welcomed the new dawn. 

It took me five games until I saw Sunderland win, albeit that was against Oldham in the Papa John’s Trophy with covid restrictions limiting travel for reporters to away games. A 2-1 defeat against MK Dons my first at the Stadium of Light, a precursor for some of the results that would follow. Draws at Doncaster Rovers and Fleetwood Town saw Phil Parkinson sacked as Black Cats head coach. A draw at home to Burton Albion would follow before the Lee Johnson era at Sunderland would get underway. 

It was a season rarely short of drama with Aiden McGeady reintroduced from the cold for Johnson’s first game against Wigan Athletic, another 1-0 defeat for the Black Cats. Having been one of the favourites to win promotion, it was hard to see how Sunderland were going to turn it round at that point, but to give the former boss his dues, they did just that. 

In part he was helped by the incredible performances of McGeady, who remains one of the best players I’ve ever watched in the third tier of English football. His partnership with Charlie Wyke that season wasn’t quite Kevin Phillips and Niall Quinn, but it was as close to a dynamic duo that red and white supporters were going to get.  

Johnson would get his first win in the league at Lincoln City – a 4-0 win over Michael Appleton’s side who I’d covered earlier in the season and had left a lasting impression on me, but little did I think they’d be the side to end Sunderland’s play-off push later that season. 

It took me three months to see Sunderland win in the flesh, leaving me questioning whether I was some sort of unlucky charm sent to resign the club to life in League One forever. 

Close friends of mine who support the club were quick to tell me not to go to home games, in the hope the Black Cats would shake their hex, but they finally did so with a 1-0 win over Shrewsbury Town on January 23rd, 2021. It was far from the classic, but McGeady and Wyke’s partnership was in full flow. 

Sunderland would go on a ten-game unbeaten streak to take them into the Papa John’s Trophy final, an occasion that emphasized the privilege of covering a club the size of the Black Cats.  

Saturday March 13th, welcomed in an eerily quiet train journey down to the capital on what should have been one of the most exciting days of the year for Sunderland fans, in a season which had delivered little to shout about prior to January. 

Carriages which should have been packed to the brim of red and white supporters heading down to Wembley Stadium for the showpiece finale, were near enough empty with no Trafalgar Square takeover in the diary. 

A day later, I sat in an empty Wembley bowl as Lynden Gooch ended the club’s 48-year Wembley hoodoo, one of less than 200 or so people in the ground to witness McGeady’s through ball and the Sunderland Academy graduate roll the ball into the back of the net.  

The Papa John’s Trophy may not be the most esteemed piece of silverware to win, but it remains an ‘I was there moment’ for plenty of reasons. It was a sign Sunderland were going in the right direction, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus watching on as his new club held the trophy aloft. 

Another poignant moment for me, was the return of supporters as 10,000 die hard red and whites were allowed back into the ground as covid-19 restrictions were relaxed. From sitting in an empty Stadium of Light, listening to every word of Max Power, Grant Leadbitter and co on the pitch, to a deafening roar as fans welcomed the players onto the pitch for the play-off semi-final defeat to Lincoln City, it was a hair-raising moment and one I won’t forget. 

You could see how much it meant to supporters to be back at their second home and that wasn’t lost on me despite the result. 

My role at the Evening Chronicle changed at the end of that season, bringing an end to reporting on the club on a day-to-day basis and little did I think that 14 months later I’d be back to watch them win promotion back to the Championship on a one-off outing. 

The club got under my skin for all the right reasons and there’s been some fantastic stories along the way, which is why I’m over the moon to be back reporting on Sunderland AFC with We Are Sunderland. I’ll endeavour to cover the football club in a way that highlights issues important to supporters and we’ll also take a deep dive into some of the analytics behind the club’s upward trajectory. 

So, fasten your seatbelts, because if my previous tenure covering the club is anything to go by we’ll be in for a ride.