Many comparisons and puns have been made in the past days of how Sunderland have failed to complete a miracle Easter resurrection. In the space of three days, we have gone from unfamiliar highs to the lowest of lows.
The thumping victory at Derby on Good Friday gave everyone related to SAFC a much-needed boost. We had swept aside a team pushing for promotion. The squad stepped up to the plate and delivered three points which put us, even if only temporary, just three points from safety. For the best part of two days, we had some ill-deserved confidence to hang on to. If we could do this against a side in the playoffs, then surely, we could finally lift our home hoodoo against a side not too far away from us in the standings? I don’t know why I tried to kid myself.
In reality, the players and the club pleaded for fans to go to the SoL on Easter Monday to get behind a football club which had let them down on many occasions this season. They wanted the fans to come and cheer on a side who had only picked up one point from the last 15 available on home soil for the promise of actually putting a shift in and securing back to back wins for the first time in over a year. This was a promise they failed to keep and for the 12th time this season as the opposition walked away with all three points. They made a rallying call to long suffering supporters, and they disappointed once more.
The Good Friday victory should have meant that the squad received a much-needed confidence boost ahead of a huge home game just days later. They shouldn’t have needed Chris Coleman to say anything to them, that is if they truly knew how much Sunderland AFC means to the people of the city, which I feel they mostly don’t.
Even if we had picked up a point against Sheffield Wednesday, it would have at least kept our points total ticking over and we’d still have a chance with matches against Burton and Reading coming up. But instead it was yet another hopeless defeat and thanks to back to back Easter victories from Birmingham we find ourselves eight points from safety.
I have now totally given up any chance on us being a Championship team next season. We can almost assume results won’t go our way on Saturday and if this is the case we could be relegated with a defeat to Norwich on Tuesday night. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone with an interest in football; our slide down the Football League is picking up speed.
Leeds aren’t in the best form, but let’s be honest they’ll probably sweep us to one side on Saturday, I can’t wait to welcome Accrington Stanley to the SoL next year. Happy days will return, one day…
