On this day in 2017, Simon Grayson was sacked after a 3-3 draw with Bolton Wanderers on Halloween.
On June 29th, Grayson was named as the new manager of the recently relegated Championship side, Sunderland - replacing David Moyes. With the hopes of gaining swift promotion back to the top flight of English Football, Grayson had his first league game in charge against Derby County, where the lads drew 1-1. In his following fixture as manager, Grayson’s team beat Norwich City at Carrow Road, with the game ending with a pleasing 3-1 win. A positive start which would turn sour extremely quickly.
Sunderland went on to record another draw, before entering into a four-game losing streak before a single point was added to the table. After a 2–1 defeat to Cardiff City, we dropped into the dreaded relegation zone, a distance away from the promotion places many had once hoped to see the team sitting in.
In September, the manager slowly started falling out of favour with the fans and, if the previous scores weren’t enough, they suffered a 5–2 loss to Ipswich town, adding even more fuel to the fans’ fire. It was this fateful result that caused Sunderland to drop to 23rd in the league. Grayson's team then recorded three consecutive draws, sadly not moving from their league position.
We faced Bolton on October 31st, with the manager facing intense scrutiny from the fans. Former Mag Sammy Ameobi put Wanderers ahead with a long-range effort, before Lewis Grabban fired twice to give us the lead. Some shocking (or not so shocking if you followed SAFC that season) allowed Gary Madine to equalise. Then a hospital pass from Didier Ndong (again, not so shocking) led to Bolton going 3-2 up. Paddy McNair fired in a late equaliser, but the fans were still unimpressed. Bolton were bottom of the league, and we could muster just one point against the only team below us.
He was dismissed 17 minutes after the full time whistle, with Martin Bain thanking him, but blaming the results that ultimately, were ‘not good enough for a club of this stature’.
Phil Parkinson was in the dugout for Bolton that day, and said: "I feel for Simon. He is a tremendous manager, with a great record. Any manager who came here would find it a tough challenge. I had to turn Bolton round from a relegated team. Changing that mentality after relegation is difficult, but he will be back because there will be a lot of people interested in him. I shook hands as you normally do. You normally go for a drink in the office. I will probably just get on the coach and give him a call later in the week."
Of course, the Black Cats were subsequently relegated into League One. Simon Grayson being named as one of Sunderland’s ‘less favourable’ managers would turn out to be the understatement of the year, going down in history as one of Sunderland’s most unsuccessful managers.
