As a Sunderland fan supporting England, it’s important to make the most of opportunities to celebrate something, because you don’t know when it’ll next come back around.
Which is why Sunday’s European Championship final defeat to Spain hurt more than most.
Over the last 35 years of being a football fan, there have been several moments where England and Sunderland have conspired to rip my heart out within mere weeks of each other.
There have been times when Sunderland have been relegated and then a month later, England have disappointed in a major tournament – 2006, I’m looking at you.
There have also been times when our domestic season has ended on a positive and the good vibes have continued right into the summer. For me, that was 1990, when we actually learned of Sunderland’s promotion courtesy of Swindon Town’s financial irregularity during Italia ’90 itself.
But those moments are few and far between. And it’s those times when both club and country let you down massively that really hurt the most.
In 1998, Sunderland were a Michael Gray penalty away from the Premier League after a breathtaking 4-4 draw in the Division One play-off final at Wembley. And, a month later, spot kicks were once again on the agenda as ten-man England fluffed their lines in the shoot-out against Argentina.
The double sucker punch shook me to my core and made me question why I actually liked football. I was provided with compelling proof nine months later, as Sunderland lifted the Division One trophy with 105 points, of course – but that summer of 1998, which, as Baddiel and Skinner said themselves, ‘it was nearly so sweet, it was nearly complete’, just massively disappointed.
I hoped it would never, ever, happen again.
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Fast forward to 2004, when club and country were once more in cahoots to ruin my summer, and the summers of any other Sunderland and England supporters. This time, the double whammy was to be a triple whammy.
Sunderland had finished an impressive third in Division One under Mick McCarthy having bounced back from relegation from the Premier League with a then-record-low-points-total of 19, and had also reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup on the back of an incredible run of quite winnable games.
Only Millwall stood in our way of reaching the final, which would, barring a disaster, would automatically see us qualify for Europe as the other semi-finalists were Arsenal and Manchester United, who were both in the Champions League places.
Our summer was mapped out. Beat Millwall, reach the FA Cup final, plan a European trip, gain promotion to the Premier League, then watch England, buoyed by Wayne Rooney’s explosion on to the international scene, fire their way to victory in Euro 2004.
Of course, you and I know that precisely zero of those things happened. Sunderland lost at that Old Trafford semi-final. Sunderland reached the Division One play-offs but were defeated at the semi-final stage on penalties at home to Crystal Palace, and then England were dumped out in the knockouts by hosts Portugal, the winning penalty scored by the goalkeeper Ricardo who had already taken his gloves off to save England’s final penalty from Darius Vassell.
This was perhaps more crushing than 1998, mainly because this time alcohol was involved, and while I didn’t question my own love of the sport on this occasion, it didn’t fill me with optimism for the season ahead.
But crucially – and this is important now – in all of the years mentioned here where Sunderland and England have doubled up on my own personal grief, the club side have come up with the goods a year later.
In 1999, Sunderland were promoted in style. In 2005, we won the Championship under McCarthy. And in 2007, a year on from England’s second successive exit to Portugal in a major tournament and Sunderland’s 15-point Premier League season, we saw the Roy Keane resurgence and Niall Quinn’s carpet ride take flight as we returned to the top flight at the first time of asking.
You may be feeling disappointed now, on the back of England’s failure to win Euro 2024 alongside Sunderland’s underwhelming end to the Championship season, but history tells you that the year after will always, always be better. And what better history than the years I’ve carefully selected and not the ones where this doesn’t apply, of which there are many.
So let me be the first to congratulate Regis le Bris and Sunderland on their incredible promotion back to the Premier League after a hard-fought 2024-25 season.
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