sunderland in the EFL

[LALASAM]

I spent most of that season attached with the USMC or my own mob in the Gulf. Season over when I got home.

 

Could say I dodged a bullet.....

[Optimistic Nut]

They've been linked with Chris Willock and Josh Murphy.

[et tu brute]

11 pages on losing a generation of fans. It's sinking in and as already mentioned, that match in January has totally broken them. 

 

 

Edited April 28 by et tu brute

[ponsaelius]

11 hours ago, Disco said:

TBF aside from Clarke they’re the ultimate midtable championship team. He’ll be off in the summer and if their recruiting is similar to last summer it doesn’t bode well. 

 

Their wage bill is about 21st in the league I think. The fact they got playoffs last year was massively overachieving. This year is more about right for where they should be.

[The Fountain]

2 hours ago, Wallsendmag said:

 

Not sure how many 0-0s we had at home that season but at the time as a 12/13 year old kid it used to feel like we drew 0-0 every week! Remember standing in some ridiculously low crowds back then. Remember a midweek game v Oxford towards the back end of the season (might have been game) and the crowd was 10,000.

Getting beat at home by Bristol Rovers sticks out as a particularly turgid performance. Devon White running riot .

[HalloNUFC]

10 hours ago, TheBrownBottle said:

They look likely to be another Sheff Wed to me - shuffling between the second and third tiers, with the occasional flirtation with the ‘Championship’ top six positions (while failing to go up), rattling round inside a ground too big for where they are and where they’re likely to be

They would definitely be in relegation battle next season.

You can always predict a clubs next season form based on how they finish previous season.

 

[Exiled in Texas]

Quote

We get 40,000 every home game, get a grip OP.

😄😄

[Pancrate1892]

8 hours ago, Sima said:

Who are these going to get in as manager?

 

You can guarantee that whoever they get in (unless it’s a big name ex-pro with zero experience) won’t be good enough for them.

 

Thing is, big name ex-pros will cost £££ these days.

Gary megson

Mick Buxton

Steve cotterill/Ferguson's lapdog Wilkinson 

Super kev rat boy

That bloke from the chipshop

[Groundhog63]

Cometh the hour, cometh the man

 

[Ben]

56 minutes ago, HalloNUFC said:

They would definitely be in relegation battle next season.

You can always predict a clubs next season form based on how they finish previous season.

 

 

The "Everton" effect

[Jonas]

3 hours ago, Beth said:

You have to go back to 1990/1 when we had as tedious a season outside of the top flight.

That's my yardstick for a boring, joyless, depressing season (pre-Ashley) and its actually markedly better than their current season (their second best in seven years)

11th to 15th, 15 losses to 21 and the FA Cup 3rd round day as one of the highlights of the season

Unfortunately at no point did I think we could give Red Star Belgrade or Milan a game, so they've got one over on us there.

 

 

Edited April 28 by Jonas

[Jonas]

Just now, Wallsendmag said:

 

Not sure how many 0-0s we had at home that season but at the time as a 12/13 year old kid it used to feel like we drew 0-0 every week! Remember standing in some ridiculously low crowds back then. Remember a midweek game v Oxford towards the back end of the season (might have been game) and the crowd was 10,000.

Had to go on a school holiday the following Saturday and miss the next three home games so I made the most of it.  Stands out as the turning point from boring humdrum late Smith era to entertaining, crazy and periloius Ossie one.  Great view of Simpson's goal from the paddock, right behind it.

 

Just now, Wallsendmag said:

 

Haha what a story! I was in the old benches in the East Stand and a couple of my mates from school were stood directly opposite me in the B Paddock. The atmosphere was so quiet they could shout across the pitch at me and I could hear them 

You could hear the away fans - bare in mind there was only about twenty - doing the cheerleader chant spelling out the letters than singing the name thing from across the pitch (albeit the leazes end of the paddock with them in the far leazes/east stand corner) and maybe only one doing the "give us an O" thing.

[Beth]

That Oxford game was originally abandoned due to rain and had to be replayed, I think it's our lowest ever post 1990 league attendance.

[Wolfcastle]

90/91 - the mackems had finished 6th and lost in the play-off final the year before but got promoted due to Swindon's problems, relegation was reduced to two teams and they still managed to get relegated. Fkn hell, shit as they were/are, they're lucky to even have that.

 

[Ben]

The two best Sunderland teams in my lifetime were the Dennis Smith team with Gates and Gabbiidini and the Peter Reid team with Phillips and Quinn. They had some good players in the Premier league but never good teams.

[Beth]

10 minutes ago, Ben said:

The two best Sunderland teams in my lifetime were the Dennis Smith team with Gates and Gabbiidini and the Peter Reid team with Phillips and Quinn. They had some good players in the Premier league but never good teams.

They were second at xmas in one of the 7th placed seasons, punched well above their weight for half a season. Totally unthinkable for them now.

[Wolfcastle]

iirc Middlesbrough were 2nd behind us at Christmas in 95/96. 

 

 

Edited April 28 by Wolfcastle

[500bhp]

18 minutes ago, Beth said:

They were second at xmas in one of the 7th placed seasons, punched well above their weight for half a season. Totally unthinkable for them now.

From memory I think it was that season where most of their best players were on loan from other clubs. I'm sure they won 3-0 at Chelsea with five loanees playing.

 

It's a model they've followed ever since including last season with that young lad from Man U. Its was never sustainable long term then and still isn't now. 

[Beth]

38 minutes ago, Wolfcastle said:

iirc Middlesbrough were 2nd behind us at Christmas in 95/96. 

 

 

 

No they were 6th.

[Beth]

22 minutes ago, 500bhp said:

From memory I think it was that season where most of their best players were on loan from other clubs. I'm sure they won 3-0 at Chelsea with five loanees playing.

 

It's a model they've followed ever since including last season with that young lad from Man U. Its was never sustainable long term then and still isn't now. 

That was the season we beat them 5-1, they were never that high that season.

[Wallsendmag]

51 minutes ago, Beth said:

They were second at xmas in one of the 7th placed seasons, punched well above their weight for half a season. Totally unthinkable for them now.

 

Aye remember it well. We played Leicester away over Xmas/New Year probably early 00s. I remember our train back wasn't till late and Sunderland v Man Utd was the late KO so we watched that down there and it was a big top of the table clash. Man Utd won of course.

[Nucasol]

53 minutes ago, 500bhp said:

From memory I think it was that season where most of their best players were on loan from other clubs. I'm sure they won 3-0 at Chelsea with five loanees playing.

 

It's a model they've followed ever since including last season with that young lad from Man U. Its was never sustainable long term then and still isn't now. 

99/00 - the year Phillips won the Golden Boot. They beat Chelsea 4-1 at home and iirc drew 2-2 with Man Utd. Went off a cliff in the New Year. I’m still bitter we let that late equaliser in at their place.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999–2000_Sunderland_A.F.C._season

[Paullow]

Sunderland have finished in the top 12 of English football only 3 times since 1955/56, the 2 back to back 7th place finishes under 'Reidy' and that 10th under Brewcy (where they passed up on the final day after our Pardew WBA home debacle), and all 3 of those seasons they were decently placed fairly well into the season.

 

1999/20 - they were 3rd heading into Christmas and 8 points clear of 6th place.

 

 

2000/01 - they were second after 23 (and 24 games)

 

 

And finally that weird season under Bruce in 2010/11 - they were 6th after 24 games, well clear of 7th, but then only got 1 point from their next 9 matches, and I think they were 13th or 14th on the final day before beating already relegated West Ham and passing 3 or 4 clubs (including us) to claim a lucrative 10th place finish.

 

 

So that's 3 fairly decent league finishes, or perhaps 2, in 70 years. If you got into football when you were like 8 or 9 then you'd have to be around 80+ years old to remember anything better, yet despite 3 top 12 finishes in 70 years (and counting, as they're unlikely to get there again anytime soon) I'd imagine many, or most, of their fans would consider them a top 12 club in the country.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 28 by Paullow

[Paullow]

They were 14th on the final day, and ended up gaining 4 places. Really tight from 9th to 14th. We were 3-0 up at home to West Brom past the hour mark, and ended up conceding a 90th minute equaliser to draw 3-3:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/13444173.stm

 

 

 

 

Edited April 28 by Paullow

[TheBrownBottle]

12 hours ago, et tu brute said:

11 pages on losing a generation of fans. It's sinking in and as already mentioned, that match in January has totally broken them. 

 

 

 

I love their crack on this stuff.  Always have - bizarre anecdotes about seeing Sunderland tops in small former pit villages in County Durham showing that everything is ok, or how formerly red and white enclaves are now filled with mags - as if tiny hamlets and villages in Durham are proof of anything either way.  In their minds, everything is about a mythical no man’s land from roughly Gateshead to Hartlepool - to the victor goes the NETG trophy.  They haven’t a clue that not a bit of it matters, and that in the modern game capturing supporters from relatively local places isn’t what turns a club into a ‘big club’