OTD: BOLTON 6-0

The last thing you want to read about in an “on this day” piece is what happened at The Reebok/Toughsheet Community Stadium four years ago (0-6, despite debuts for both Jack Clarke and Paddy Roberts, in case you’d forgotten...and if you had, I apologise for bringing it up) so let’s concentrate on what that day meant in terms of the recent history of our club.

I’ll happily admit that I’ve never seen the film Sliding Doors, but I do know that it’s responsible for introducing its title to modern parlance since its release in 1998. In the film, the vastly different directions a young lady’s life could take were explored, depending on whether she got onto a train or didn’t. A pivotal moment that defines what happens to a person or, in our case, a football club, in the future. In the case of the film and the main character Helen, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, the event affected her and her immediate social and work circle. In the case of Sunderland, that defeat which precipitated the departure of Lee Johnson affected tens of thousands of fans (many of whom thought that a return to the Prem wouldn’t happen in their lifetime), dozens of football players and local businesses, and it impacted the regeneration of our city centre, which has brought us Regis le Bridge, aka the Keel Crossing, and the general feel-good factor that’s sloshing around Wearside at the moment and potentially for a good while to come. Oh, and that mantra - ‘Til The End. In short, it’s simply made Sunderland a better football club and Sunderland a better place. It’s made us what we are today.

Anyway, back to 2022. KLD had been chairman and a minority shareholder for nearly a year, during which time he’d given Lee Johnson the chance to prove his worth as manager/head coach. We’d been around the playoff places all season - the top two for over a month - when we headed to Bolton and were utterly useless. KLD acted swiftly to hand Johnson his P45 and began the search for a replacement. After a draw and a defeat under regular caretaker Mike Dodds, in came Alex Neil. Initial signs weren’t that good with two draws and a defeat, but then it settled down as the pragmatic Scotsman’s tactics were taken on board and we went undefeated for the rest of the season. Then came the playoffs against Sheff Wed, with the second leg at Hillsborough (their very own Sliding Doors moment, it would seem) producing an event that would become the club’s mantra since. Three minutes into added time, at 0-1, we were heading for an aggregate draw when Paddy Roberts poked in the equaliser to send the visiting fans radged. Never mind that another ten minutes were played - that just added to the drama. Of course, that took us to a Wembley takeover and demolition of Wycombe Wanderers to take us back to the Championship in what proved to be the next step in our resurrection. Oh, and inspire KLD to initiate the next stage in his plan and become majority shareholder while reducing what was left of the Madrox legacy.

Following Neil’s unexpected and as yet not fully explained departure early the following campaign, we had Tony Mowbray for just over a year in which he did much to reinstate the relationship between club and fans. After he left, Dodds was back for a couple of weeks before, despite him ticking all the boxes in terms of what we KLD wanted in a manager, the failure of Michael Beale. The rest of that season was spent basically seeking a genuinely suitable person to take the team forward. As we all know, that person arrived in July 2024 and is Regis le Bris.

As they say, the rest is history. We’ve all had such Sliding Door moments in our personal lives, some we look back on fondly and others with regret, and there have probably been dozens of such moments in the story of our club, which we can pick out if we look back. Appointing Bob Stokoe? Signing Charlie (Buchan or Hurley)? Signing Will Grigg and Jack Rodwell? I wonder what the world would be like if Gwyneth had not married Chris Martin - would he still be writing miserable songs? What if we, SAFC, in second place on the morning of January 29th 2022, had played as second-placed teams should have, and won, keeping Streaky Lee in his job? What if Alex Neil hadn’t chosen the delights of Stoke over the passion of Wearside? We’d definitely not be where, or what, we are today.

Gwyneth Paltrow, I salute you.