On this day in 1987 Sunderland became the first victims of a play-off relegation tie. The 86-87 season had got off to a good start for us, with a win at Huddersfield on the opening day putting us top of Division Two. It didn’t continue, as Lawrie Mackemenemy’s tactics quickly fell apart, and when a seven game run from mid-march brought five defeats and two draws, he disappeared into the night and in came Bob Stokoe. It wasn’t exactly mission impossible for a team to get the number of points...

On this day last year, Dan Ballard sent us to Wembley with that famous extra time header against Coventry. Here's Sobs' report from that amazing night. Well, what can I say? That's not something Sunderland normally do - fabulous buildup to the game, full house... in short, the sort of game we've buggered up in the past. Not this time, no siree, even if we did spend a while wondering who'd be taking our penalties before Big Dan invoked his inner Charlie Hurley for the second time in five days...

On this day in 2023 we came back from behind against Luton Town to give ourselves a one goal advantage going into the second leg of the Championship playoffs. Unfortunately Luton would go on to beat us at their place, and eventually progress to the Premier League, but this day filled us with great optimism. Here's Sobs' match report from leg one: As we say in Bishop... Girrruuup! The Lads welcomed Luton to Wearside for what had seemed an impossible dream at the start of the season - a playoff...