Sunderland face Sheffield Wednesday in the final game of the season, although some could argue our season finished in February. Here's how we've fared against the Owls over the years...
SUNDERLAND 3-0 SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY- JANUARY 1972
One season before our FA Cup win, we would defeat the Owls in the same competition to take us into the fourth round. Eventual cup final hero Ian Porterfield gave us the lead after 35 minutes and then a goal from Dave Watson on the hour mark and finally, with 15 minutes to go, a goal from Brian Chambers saw us progress. We would fall in a second replay to Cardiff City in the following round at Maine Road, being defeated 3-1 following two 1-1 draws.
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 0-2 SUNDERLAND- APRIL 2000
Sunderland travelled to Sheffield to face the Owls on the back of a heavy 4-0 defeat to Manchester United, but overall in good form having won three of the last four matches in the Premier League. Hopes of UEFA Cup football had probably been extinguished by this point, owing to a terrible run between December and early March but the possibility still remained and to even be in the question as a newly promoted team was a great achievement this late in the season. The Black Cats would leave it until the last moments to clinch all three points with goals in the 86th and 90th minutes from Kevin Phillips. Goals that were important to Phillips as they took him to just one away from 30 goals in the Premier League that season, as he looked certain to beat Alan Shearer to top goal scorer.
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 2-4 SUNDERLAND- JANUARY 2007
The season we won the Championship title for the second time in three seasons, but we weren’t even in the play offs until February, so every game before then was crucial to getting us into a position to potentially get promoted. Dwight Yorke made it 1-0 after 21 minutes and then Toby Hysen capitalised from a Carlos Edwards’ cross to double the lead just before the break. Hysen then earned an assist from a David Connoly goal in the 58th minute. At 3-0, the game was far from over just yet, Chris Brunt netted from a free kick with eight minutes to go and Wade Small made it all to play for with three minutes remaining. Just before stoppage time Carlos Edwards guaranteed all three points for the visitors however to avoid an embarrassing collapse late on. We would storm through the rest of the season to the league title, losing just once from our remaining 17 fixtures.
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 1-1 SUNDERLAND- MAY 2022
The drama of the play-offs always seems to follow Sunderland especially, and this time was no different. A narrow one goal lead was all we had travelling to Hillsborough for the second leg, in probably the biggest League One play off semi final in history given the attendances and the two clubs involved. The game was one of the most nerve-wracking in recent history for the Sunderland faithful and it would go down right to the wire. Everything happened in the second half, which probably didn’t help anyone’s nerves and the theatre began with a Lee Gregory goal in the 74th minute which definitely didn’t help. Witn the score at 1-1 on aggregate it was essentially ‘next goal wins’ and the home side looked more likely to find that goal. 10 minutes were added on due to an earlier head injury, and you couldn’t be blamed for thinking it was inevitable at this point we would be spending a fifth season in the third tier. Alas, Jack Clarke burst down the wing and found Roberts who aptly dispatched the back of the net, sending the away end into delirium. The job wasn’t quite done, as that aforementioned 10 minutes turned into 13, with Alex Neil seemingly about to murder the fourth official because of the extra time as we had to defend our lead for a whole 10 minutes which felt like 10 months. Eventually the whistle did sound and joyous scenes transpired as we had one foot in the Championship, with Gareth Ainsworth’s Wycombe Wanderers not causing anywhere near as much fear as Sheffield Wednesday had amongst our support.
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 2-0 SUNDERLAND- AUGUST 2022
Sheffield Wednesday did get a sort of mini-revenge three months later as they knocked us out of the first round of the League Cup. The game was personally important to both Alex Bass, making his debut in the starting XI and youngster Michael Spellman who made his debut off the bench. A Dennis Adeniran screamer gave Wednesday the lead after 16 minutes, and then in the second half Sylla Sow doubled the lead for the hosts. It was slightly disappointing to go out to a team in the league below but perhaps not that surprising given that Alex Neil hadn’t hidden the fact the League Cup wasn’t a priority and the weakened starting XI that was put out.
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 0-3 SUNDERLAND - SEPTEMBER 2023
This was actually quite a sad game to watch, despite the scoreline. I mean, of course it was a resounding victory but Wednesday really went down without a wimper. Dan Ballard put us ahead after five minutes and Clarke doubled the lead on eight, before scoring a penalty after half an hour to kill the game. Their fans were protesting against their owner Dejphon Chansiri, who derailed their matchday preperations by releasing a morning statement complaining about how he'd been treated and saying he would no longer put money into the club. At that point, there was no way anyone would have predicted them to stay up...
