On this day in 1991 Sunderland were relegated to the Second Division after a defeat to Manchester City. Future Sunderland legend Niall Quinn scored two of the goals for the Blues.
Sunderland had quickly risen from the Third Division back into the top flight, winning the third tier title in 1988 before being promoted in curious circumstances from the second tier in 1990. Despite us losing the play off final to Swindon Town, we were promoted instead because the Robins were found to be making illegal payments.
Survival would be easier than in previous years because, as part of a restructuring of the top flight to expand it from 20 to 22 teams, only two clubs would be relegated. Unfortunately in the end that wouldn’t be enough leeway to keep us in the league.
Relegation was always a concern, we spent the vast majority of the campaign lodged low in the table but it became an even greater worry after a 3-3 draw away to Derby County at the start of March. We found ourselves 3-0 up after only 23 minutes but we managed to avoid victory, conceding twice before the break and once after. That game left us 19th, a position we would be unable to escape from for the rest of the season.
Things got a lot worse in the following seven games though, as we would suffer six defeats and only win once. In the three games prior to the final day clash against Man City our form did pick up slightly as we picked up five points from a possible nine.
Travelling to Maine Road, we knew what we had to do to avoid the drop. Both Luton Town and Sunderland were on 34 points with the same goal difference of -21, so if we bettered their result we would survive. The Rokermen would have a much more difficult final day though, Manchester City were in the top half of the league whereas Derby County (Luton’s opponents) sat in 20th already relegated.
Our lineup was as follows:
Tony Norman, Gary Owers, John Kay, Paul Bracewell, Gary Bennett, Richard Ord, Colin Pascoe, Paul Hardyman, Peter Davenport, Marco Gabbiadini, Warren Hawke
And a bench of: Kieron Brady and Thomas Hauser
The opening goal occurred just ten minutes into the game and unfortunately it went the way of City. Niall Quinn did very well to chest a long ball down and take it round a defender before striking it just round goalkeeper Tony Norman.
With five minutes left of the first half, a well worked goal saw us equalise. Colin Pascoe played in John Kay on the left wing, Kay ran forward and whipped a ball to the edge of the six yard area. Marco Gabbiadini met the cross and his header struck the underside of the crossbar as it went in.
But the first half wasn’t quite done yet and we took advantage. We played a corner short and it eventually found Peter Davenport whose strike towards the far post went slightly awry and met Gary Bennett (who was hugging the post) and he nodded home our second to take the lead despite City goalie Martyn Margetson managing to make contact with it. 2-1 with a minute to go of the first 45 and surely we’d be going into the break with an invaluable lead.
Alas, we would not manage to see out the small remainder of the half without conceding and it was Quinn who found the net again. He would go on to play 220 times for Sunderland but on this afternoon he surely sent us down. Gary Owers messed up a clearance with a miskick and inadvertently sent the ball into the path of the Ireland international, who exploited the error perfectly and fired just beyond the reach of Norman.
At half time it was 2-2 and with Luton leading 1-0 at Kenilworth Road we would now need to hope that they didn’t score again (or that Derby County found an equaliser) and find the back of the net twice ourselves. A tall order but perhaps not completely out of the question.
A great individual run from Davenport in the second half, dribbling from the halfway line to the penalty area, was not rewarded with us retaking the lead as his shot was saved and we had an even better opportunity afterwards. Gabbiadini did well to get round the ‘keeper but took a moment too long to get his shot away and saw it go wide from a tight angle.
Luton had scored early in the second half so the score there was now 2-0 and that meant we would have had to have scored another three to remain in the top flight, we never did find the back of the net though and the deathblow came in the 89th minute through David White via a diving header at the near post.
The whistle blew for full time and we were relegated from the first tier for the fifth time in our history. It would not be until 1996 that we would return to the now Premier League.
