With one sole fixture of 2025 left to play, it’s time to reflect on what a brilliant year it has been. For many of us, it’s arguably been the best calendar year of our Sunderland-supporting lives. And after years of complete misery, there isn’t a single fan base in the country who deserve it more.

We began the year by welcoming Sheffield United to the Stadium of Light on New Years Day. From an entertainment point of view, it still goes down as one of the best of last season. In the first 35 minutes alone, we witnessed a missed penalty and three goals. Sheffield United had clearly came to Sunderland wanting a win, enjoying 65% of the possession, but the counter-attacking threat of our striking duo proved too much for the Blades, as we picked up a 2-1 victory. This game represented one of the earliest and most obvious examples of a Regis Le Bris masterclass; allowing Chris Wilder’s side to seemingly pin us in before hitting them on the counter-attack ruthlessly. The pace of our strikers was something they simply wouldn’t cope with, but is now simply a staple of our game plan, and has since brought us so much success.

Mayenda netted the opener that day, with the goal coming at a pivotal time for him personally. After missing big chances away at Blackburn and Stoke over the festive period, blame was brutally placed on him for us dropping five points over those two games. Having not scored a single goal since his double against Sheffield Wednesday in August, who knows what would have happened to him in the January transfer window, or what his form could have looked like going into the second half of the season, if it wasn’t for that confidence boost?

That win also marked the beginning of an eight-game unbeaten run, which included our agonising 0-0 draw away at Burnley where we somehow only managed to come away with a point despite having two penalties in injury time. We also beat Middlesbrough 3-2 away at the Riverside in February, a fixture which we hadn’t won in, in the league, since 2005. Breaking the curse with a late winner felt massive for confidence, and winning fixtures that we’d not been able to for multiple decades was a habit we’d need again at the end of the campaign…

After seemingly throwing the last five games of the season with our play-off spot confirmed, the last side we’d have want to have to beat over two legs was Coventry City. They’d secured their place in the top six with a victory on the final day, so had momentum on their side. What they also had on their side was history. We hadn’t beaten them in ten attempts, not to mention the 3-0 battering they inflicted upon us in March.

We’d played them at home in November 2024, earlier that season. Despite us being top of the league after fourteen games, and the Sky Blues finding themselves in 17th, we still squandered the 2-0 lead that we held at half time, drawing the game 2-2. It felt like no matter the occasion, we’d simply never be able to beat them, let alone over two legs!

What transpired in May, however, was nothing short of a tactical masterclass, executed to perfection. We let them dominate the ball, frustrating them in a low block, defending bravely but also with great structure, waiting for the slightest mistake to take advantage of. A smash-and-grab 2-1 away victory marked our first win against Coventry in over 18 years and made for another memorable evening. The atmosphere is always as loud as it is intimidating away at the Coventry Building Society stadium. Chants to the tune of ‘Mucho Mambo- Sway’ rang out all game from the home supporters until Mayenda rounded the City Keeper and scored the winner, meaning we’d go into the home tie with a goal advantage, at which point every Sunderland fan in the away end seemed to have the same idea: singing the tune back at them, mocking them. Someone then added words, instead of simply singing the tune, and thus a new chant of ‘Dennis Cirkin running down the wing’ was born.

Days later when the song was played as part of the pre-match build-up in the SoL, everyone seemed to know all the words, as if they’d been rehearsing. The atmosphere for the second leg was one of the best the SoL has ever known, and created just a hostile environment for the City players as it did an encouraging one for our own.

Welcoming the team buses with flares, flags and chants was a welcome addition. Getting through this game un-beaten meant a one-off game to take us back to the Premier League, the home we’d missed so dearly over almost a decade.

As we’ve all re watched hundreds of times, Dan Ballard towered above the other 21 players on the pitch to head in the tie-winner, actually leaping too high and having to awkwardly hunch himself over to guide the ball in the net, writing himself in Sunderland history forever.

Finishing fourteen points behind our final opponents Sheffield United, who’d won their play-off semi final against Bristol City 6-0 on aggregate, made us obvious underdogs. Starting terribly at Wembley, we were deservedly a goal behind. VAR then came to the rescue, ruling out what would have been a second for Chris Wilder’s side, a deficit which would have been very difficult to overcome, considering how much we had struggled to compete. But we went into the interval only a goal behind, and Le Bris worked the magic he so often does at the break and we got our reward through Mayenda’s lethal equaliser.

Le Bris made a monumental call when he brought off club-captain Dan Neil for Tommy Watson, who’d received a mixed ovation each time he’d entered the field since agreeing to join Brighton at the end of the season. Like many of the decisions made by the Frenchmen, this one paid off big time. As a result of the tenacious energy that we had left at the end of the game, and the pressure that we’d been applying all second half, Kieffer Moore misplaced a pass right into the path of the boyhood Mackem. The next few seconds seemed to pass in slow motion, and still do when watching re-plays as the careful, delicate finish from the youngster bent beautifully into the corner, past the outstretched arm of Cooper in-goal. The celebrations of returning to the best league in the world continued long into the night as absolute bedlam unfolded in the capital, giving us memories to last a lifetime.

The following summer transfer window is one I still can’t quite get my head around. From the sixteenth best footballer in the world (according to the Balon D’or rankings) in Grant Xhaka choosing to come to us, to convincing Reinildo Mandava to come to Sunderland after three years at Atlético Madrid, to bringing the likes of Nordi Mukiele and Omar Alderete to the Premier League, we achieved a remarkable job, considering no one gave us a chance in the summer of staying up.

We were given a realistically winnable, but still challenging fixture of West Ham at home, who’d managed to avoid relegation and win a European trophy during our absence from the Premier League. Starting the season with a win would be the perfect way to set the tone and would be great for confidence going into the early months of the season. Thrashing the Hammers by three, keeping a clean sheet and nailing our first three points of the season at the first possible opportunity was the best way to start the season. The proof is in the pudding, as we still haven’t lost a game at home yet.

Beating Chelsea away also brought great pride. After starting spectacularly, we’d been told that we hadn’t played anyone yet. We then faced the Club World Cup Champions and beat them in their own back yard, having to come from behind to do so. The same fans who saw us lose away to the likes of Gillingham were there to revel in the glory of beating one of the best teams in the world, making for quite an emotional away end.

Our unbeaten home record is one to be extremely proud of. From a stoppage-time equaliser against Arsenal to coming from two behind to beat Bournemouth and, of course, beating the richest club in the world who have looked down on us for so many years, there’s now an extra feeling when we’re at home. We aren’t just playing for points; we’re playing to protect our unbeaten streak.

Beating Newcastle was just so good. It wasn’t a pretty game of football by any means, but we wanted it more than them and got the job done. Taking a team photo in front of the Roker End was the perfect poetic justice after their team photo after they beat us in the cup, rubbing salt deep into the wounds, just like they did and have done over many recent years.

2025 has been filled with some of the best memories we’ve had as Sunderland fans. From the important victories in the early months of the year, to our unforgettable Play-Off campaign, to the best possible start to our new life in the Premier League, to proving our doubters wrong over and over again, to finally being able to say that we are currently the best football team in the North East of England once more, there’s a whole array of options to choose from as our best moment of the year. How long has it been since we could say something like that?

We’ve got one more fixture to go, as we welcome an in-form and hungry Leeds side to the Stadium of Light. A victory takes us to thirty points before the half-way stage of the season, and ensures we finish 2025 undefeated in the Premier League at home. Good times…