OTD: CHRIS MEPHAM BORN

Born on this day in 1997 in Harrow is former Sunderland centre back Chris Mepham. Mepham spent the 2024/25 season on loan with the Lads from AFC Bournemouth, making 40 appearances in total and contributing massively during the season as we were promoted via the play-offs.

Mepham got his football career underway at the age of 10, joining Chelsea before moving to Brentford’s academy four years later. In 2016, he signed his first professional contract with the Bees and made his senior debut just under a year later in the FA Cup.

He made 23 appearances in the 2017/18 season and netted his first senior goal in a 1-1 draw with Sheffield United in March 2018. In the following half-season he played another 24 times, before completing a permanent move to AFC Bournemouth in January 2019 for a fee of £12 million.

The Wales international played sporadically in his first season and a half in Dorset but curiously scored his first goal at his new club in a 1-1 draw with Sheffield United, as he did for Brentford. An injury in January 2020 kept him out for a few months and he returned to the side in July for a game against Newcastle United but it recurred and he was out for the rest of the season. Bournemouth were relegated in the end and he started the next season as a regular, appearing in the starting XI 16 times out of the first 17 league games. After this though, he only made another seven league appearances before the next season started, often appearing on the bench.

2021/22 was a similar story, just five of his 22 league games came after the turn of the New Year. Still, he put a promotion on his CV as the Cherries finished second in the Championship and returned to the top flight following a two year absence. Weirdly, he actually made a higher number of league appearances in Bournemouth’s first season back in the big time (26), starting the first 15 games in a row.

His team survived but he didn’t feature all too much the next season and that was likely the reason he was sent out on loan to us. We were reeling from a poor 16th place finish in the Championship in 2024 before the start of the 24/25 campaign, the wheels had really fallen off from February onwards. Optimism came at a premium on Wearside going into the campaign and an extended search for a new manager to replace Michael Beale hadn’t helped the mood. Mepham joined us on the 30th August, by which point we’d won all three of our opening Championship games. So the place was bouncing, especially the day after he joined when we made it four wins from four.

However, after a defeat away to a poor Plymouth Argyle side late on, Mepham started at home to Middlesbrough and played the full 90 minutes as we kept a clean sheet and won narrowly. This proved a catalyst for regular game time, he missed just five games in all competitions for the entire rest of the season, often starting. During his time here, he played a role in 13 clean sheets. The most notable of those was probably away to eventual automatic promotion winners Burnley. At the end of the regular season, we finished fourth with, appropriately, the fourth best defensive record in the league (conceding 44). Only the two promoted teams (Leeds went up as champions) and third place Sheffield United bested us on that front. His only goal in a Sunderland shirt came at home to Cardiff City, he scored the winning goal in a 2-1 victory.

The last five games of the season had been a disaster, we lost all five. We had, admittedly, taken our foot off the gas to preserve energy for the play-offs, which we knew we’d be taking part in with almost certainty from about February onwards. How much of that talk about us purposefully not trying as hard to avoid over exerting ourselves was just bluster and excuses though? Were we all just kidding ourselves? After all, no team had ever been promoted going into the Championship play-offs in such bad form. To make matters even better, we had to face Coventry City over two legs in the semi-final. We hadn’t beaten Coventry away in 40 years and at home since 2007. Optimism, once again, was at a premium.

Our temporary centre back proved a casualty of a change to the backline going to the first leg, away from home. Regis Le Bris instead opted for Luke O’Nien and Dan Ballard at the back. Ballard’s height and more physical presence complimented O’Nien’s smaller, more agile and attacking-minded style well. We took the lead, they equalised quickly and Mepham came on in the 86th minute. Just two minutes later, we unexpectedly scored again after a defensive mishap on their part and so took a narrow advantage travelling back to the North East.

Mepham was stuck to the bench for the second leg, Coventry took the lead in the 76th minute as we looked shakier and more nervous in general. In extra-time though, the game switched and we were back on the front foot. In literally the last second of the game, Ballard sent us to Wembley through a header resulting from a corner. This probably vindicated Le Bris’ defensive change-around alone. In the final, versus Sheffield United, he was once again on the bench but was called into action after O’Nien was injured only eight minutes in. For their goal, his lack of pace was exposed but he played well after this and we dramatically won promotion at the death, beating them 2-1 in the end.

Some expected us to sign him in the summer of 2025 but we chose not to for whatever reason. Given how well our new centre backs have been faring though, we can hardly complain about this decision. Mepham has since moved to West Bromwich Albion on a permanent basis. A team who, at the time of writing, are very much in the hunt for a play-off spot in the second tier.

Internationally, Mepham has 52 caps for Wales and represented them at Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup.