WEMBLEY REVISITED
With the Europa League beginning and so many exciting matches coming up, my dad and I have been reminiscing on our lives as Sunderland fans and when the question came up of my favourite game I knew the answer immediately. What else could it be but the game that brought us into the Premier League?
As a child I grew up watching Sunderland struggle in League One and the stadium was so empty that me and my dad would often move seats and sit wherever I fancied because people simply didn't care. Although I don't remember much about those games and can't say I took football very seriously as such a young kid, I am very grateful my Dad consistently put up with me because if it weren't for him I would never have fallen in love with this club. Although a full season in the Premier League has been and gone, and the club has achieved many great things in that time, I can still hardly believe we got through the play-offs and I will always look back on that trip as one of my best memories…
The sun had not yet risen and I was already wide awake, sitting in the back of the car and listening to the playlist I'd curated just for this day. After a few seasons of seeing how much I enjoyed spending a Saturday afternoon at the match, two of my cousins joined us and quickly became avid fans. So, after taking one detour to pick them up, and a second to collect my dad's best mate, we were all finally on the road to London! We passed the time by making up our own quiz questions about the club and after a few hours in the car and a quick trip on the underground, we had finally arrived on Wembley Way. As many fans did that day, I wore my replica shirt of the 1991-92 away kit and normally I would not be so happy to be seen matching with both my dad and one of his friends but seeing so many people in those shirts making their way towards the iconic arch of the stadium gave me a real sense of community. That feeling only increased once we got inside and everybody was chanting and waving their flags in the build-up to kick-off.
I hate to admit it but I can be a bit of a pessimist when it comes to football so as soon as Sheffield United took the lead, my heart dropped. The match had not got off to a great start; O’Nien sustained an injury just a few minutes in and Le Bris later described the players as “a bit nervous” which I think we all felt. At the time I thought to myself, this is just typical Sunderland, but how wrong I was. Thanks to the players' hard work and Le Bris’ tactical changes, the hope in me slowly crept back and I started to really get into the game. Once our possession had improved and we gained confidence in attacking, it wasn't long until Mayenda scored. I was up and out of my seat before the ball had even passed the goalpost but amongst all the chanting and cheering there was still a small part of me that couldn't believe what had happened. It wasn't until the scoreboard changed that I finally sighed with relief. Considering how relieved I was at simply equalizing I can hardly find the words to describe how I felt when Tommy Watson really made the most of added time and we had finally won.
After so many seasons of ups and downs in League One and the Championship I feel very lucky that the second time I ever visited London was to watch a team I care about so much do so well. I suddenly felt very hopeful and with a head coach who had turned the team around so quickly and so many players who seemed to not just care about playing football, but about playing for Sunderland, I really looked forward to the season ahead of us. But, most importantly, I looked forward to going with my dad. For the entire car ride home, he joked about how jealous he was that mine and my cousins’ first trip to Wembley had been such a good one, while he had been suffering long journeys home after depressing games since the 90s. I was pleased that he, and so many other loyal fans, finally got to see the win they deserved.
