GUTTED, BUT PROUD

Beginning the season with a bang was going to be absolutely pivotal in giving ourselves every chance of avoiding relegation, which all of us would have taken at the beginning of the campaign. Our opening day 3-0 win at home to West Ham delivered in every metric, and outlined exactly what we’d aim to do to teams when they come to visit us.

As we have witnessed in recent seasons, the longer newly promoted sides go without picking up their first win, the harder winning any game seems to become. The belief that winning is possible dwindles, as does squad morale, and the club becomes a place of negativity and anxiety, as opposed to a place where players and fans alike are ruthlessly confident in their sides ability to compete. Winning our first Premier League game at the first time of asking nailed us our first three points, but it also got a monkey off our backs and proved that we could win games in this division. The atmosphere was electric, the game plan was executed to precision and three players who had been part of the squad who got promoted from The Championship got themselves on the scoresheet, making the game feel like a momentous occasion.

We then came from behind to beat Brentford in our second home game, which set a real trend of picking up points from losing positions. From our twelve home fixtures which predeceased our defeat to Liverpool, we had to come from behind in six of them, including fighting back to salvage a point at home to Aston Villa, despite also being a man down, scoring a 94th minute equaliser against Arsenal to end their ten game winning run and beating Bournemouth 3-2, despite the Cherries being 2-0 up after fifteen minutes.

Speaking of the Arsenal game, we were also the first team to score a goal against them in eight games. Dan Ballard thundered a ferocious half volley into the roof of the net to give us the lead, as the SoL erupted in jubilations joy, giving us the lead in the 17:30 kick-off, as fourth and first place battled it out. What ensued was a dramatic 2-2 draw, with Brobbey’s aforementioned late equaliser ensuring that the top-of-the-table Gunners didn’t end our unbeaten run. What was most impressive about that specific come-back was the composure we demonstrated as we searched for a late equaliser. With the odds stacked against us and Arsenal’s defence seemingly water-tight, we could have resulted to taking desperate pot-shots from distance, in the hopes that one would luckily fly into the net. Instead, we methodically worked an opportunity and waited for the perfect time to strike, as Trai Hume’s ball into the box found Dan Ballard, who flicked it onto the Dutchman to score a spectacular goal which we’ll talk about for years to come.

Newcastle came to the Stadium of Light for a league game for the first time since 2016. The nature of such a big occasion could have got to some of our younger players, but we showed how much we really wanted it that day, and defeated the richest club in the world courtesy of an exceptional second-half header.

Despite finishing 0-0, our New Years Day stalemate with Manchester City was an exceptional spectacle and made for very entertaining viewing, with both teams having had good opportunities to win the game. Going head-to-head with one of the best teams in world football and coming out of the other side of it with a well-earned point was probably the first time we all started dreaming of finishing the 2025-26 Premier League season undefeated at home. The players looked absolutely exhausted at the full-time whistle, showing the great efforts that we’d gone to, to keep the streak alive.

The exceptional effort required to come back against Arsenal and keep Man City out for ninety minutes really demonstrated just how much the undefeated run meant to us. There was a pride in not letting that record go, and an unwillingness to accept that we’d be beaten in our own back-yard. After Man United defeated Arsenal, we became the only top flight English side yet to lose a league game at home. Holding onto that status for even just a bit longer would have meant so much, and is a real testament to how uncomfortable coming to the Stadium of Light must be.

The reigning League Champions took advantage of a Sunderland side who didn’t look at the races, and cruelly broke our undefeated streak. We do, however, now hold the Premier League record for the longest it has taken a newly promoted team to lose a home game, with twelve, going one better than the previous holders, Ipswich Town, with eleven in the 1992-92 season.

With thirty six points from twenty six games, however, we are now probably only two wins away from confirmed safety, which was this season’s ultimate objective, creating some excellent memories along the way.

With a trip to 23rd placed Championship outfit Oxford United in the fourth round of the FA cup coming up next and our Premier League objective all-but already complete, Regis Le Bris’ men still have the opportunity to make history this campaign...