On this day in 2002, the final day of the season, Sunderland avoided relegation from the Premier League with a 1-1 draw with Derby County.
Our penultimate game at Charlton brought a 2-2 draw in which both Kevins scored - Kilbane equalised after only two minutes, Jason Euell having scored after only one, and Phillips put us ahead nine minutes later. Crazy game, crazy team – and Kevin Lisbie spoiled our day with the Addicks’ second goal on 82. That left us in 17th place on 39 points, three ahead of Ipswich but with a goal difference inferior by four. If we lost to already relegated Derby at home, and Ipswich won at Liverpool, we’d be down – hey, we’d one it at Anfield in the eighties, why not Ipswich in the noughties? If it was going to happen to any team, it would be us.
It hadn’t been a good season by any stretch of the imagination, ending a run of four good’uns on the bounce, even though we’d been in a happy tenth place at the turn of the year. A 1-1 draw at Villa on New Year’s Day was OK, but things slid after that as we lost six of the next eight games, and by April were hovering just above the sticky stuff in 17th place. After the previous two seasons had brought consecutive seventh place finishes and 62 goals from the Quinn/Phillips partnership, this one had brought only seventeen between them. Defensively, we only conceded 15 at home – but only scored 17 – and away conceded 35 (ouch) while only replying 11 times.
In midfield, Hutchison played only twice before leaving for West Ham, and even the undoubted quality of Schwarz and Reyna couldn’t replicate the magic of the previous two seasons. Quinny’s purported replacement, Lilian Laslandes, proved to be less of a replacement than a hindrance on the field, and the goals were drying up – from 57 in 99-2000 to 46 in 2000- 01 to 28 in the season in question. The stats are pretty easy to interpret, but the reasons behind them less so.
We’d won the opposite fixture at Pride Park in February thanks to the game’s only goal, a late one from Quinny, so there was perhaps justifiable confidence that we could repeat the trick – after all, they were statistically worse than us and therefore rubbish...and they lined up with former mags Warren Barton and Rob Lee in their side. Mind, they did have future Lad Danny Higginbottom in defence and certain Mart Poooom in goal, and he proved to be a bit handy. We lined up:
Thomas “Tommy One” Sorensen
Darren “the Dazzler” Williams, Jody “Paintbrush” Craddock, Joachim “Jocky” Bjorklund, and Michael “Speedy” Gray in defence
Claudio “Captain America” Reyna and Jason “Trigger” McAteer in central midfield, and
Thomas “The Irishman” Butler, “Sir” Niall Quinn, “Super” Kevin Phillips, and Kevin “also Irish-ish” Kilbane up top.
As ever, with our life depending on the events of the last day of the season, there was a big crowd – 47,989 – inside the SoL to roar the Lads to safety, but it was with more than a hint of real nervousness that we watched events unfold. Just before the quarter hour, murmurs of a Liverpool goal swept around the ground. John Arne Riise, you’ll do for me, that was surely us safe, but the explosion of relief when SKP netted his 14th (and what turned out to be his final) goal of the campaign four minutes later was immense – hold on to the win or even avoid defeat and we’d be safe.
“Ipswich have goals in them, mind” I was reminded by my neighbour, and memories of the 0-5 defeat at their place came folding back, even though I’d slept in and missed it. Surely we’d avoid the perfect storm of results that would send us down? Then at just after half past, Riise scored again and our nerves eased even further back from breaking point.
At the break it was 1-0 to us, and 2-0 to Liverpool, so there was no need to worry any longer. Safety, barring an unthinkable combination of results - which we were more than capable of contributing to, while Ipswich certainly weren’t – was assured. Straight after the break Warren Barton for some reason got over-zealous to earn a the game’s only yellow card, then Lickle Michael Owen added a Scouse third, and that was followed by a fourth from Smicer.
Sub Marvin Robinson levelled for Derby on 68 minutes, which was a bit of a nuisance but in truth I didn’t really care. The time for caring about clean sheets and wins had gone out of the window with the four Liverpool goals, and Reidy sort of went for it anyway by replacing Quinn (OK, he was probably knackered anyway, and was making his last start for us) with the goal machine that was Patrick Mboma with twenty minutes to go.
Nobody really bothered after that – Derby knew their fate, we knew ours, no point getting hurt or upset. Game over, another season in the sun guaranteed – which didn’t go too well at all...
