The 2023-24 season had more than its fair share of downright awful results but here’s the worst of the bunch. If you want to read about the best results of this season click HERE.
SUNDERLAND 0-4 MIDDLESBROUGH
A completely infuriating afternoon at the Stadium of Light, we were playing well and probably would have gotten at least a point out of the game and then referee Jarred Gillett decided that he had to prove he was indeed a referee to the Sky cameras and he sent Dan Neil off right before half time…for swearing. After the Australian had his school prefect moment we capitulated in the second half. Sunderland fan Sam Greenwood broke the deadlock and then Matt Crooks doubled the lead two minutes later, Isaiah Jones got in on the action before Marcus Forss wrapped things up in the 90th minute. At least this result wasn’t really our fault.
SUNDERLAND 0-3 COVENTRY CITY
Our final home game of 2023 wasn’t a fun one as the Michael Beale era, already plagued by hostility to his appointment, got off to the worst of possible starts. The score remained level up until stoppage time of the first half when Japan international Tatsuhiro Sakamoto gave the visitors the lead. Callum O’Hare and Kasey Palmer then both scored within three minutes of each other in the second half to put the result beyond reasonable doubt. The stadium was practically empty as the full time whistle went, there were chants for Tony Mowbray and boos for Beale. A pretty horrid day overall.
SUNDERLAND 0-3 NEWCASTLE UNITED
Losing to your local rivals is the worst moment of any season but it's especially true of this defeat. Looking at it purely from a footballing perspective helps to alleviate some of the shame that resulted from this match, a second tier team losing out to a side who had recently been in the Champions League and had a striker worth more than our entire squad is hardly unexpected. However, based on how we set up we seemingly accepted defeat before they had scored. There was also the matter of decorating the Black Cats Bar in Newcastle United colours, which (appropriately) caused huge amounts of backlash and cheapened the derby massively (granted half of the Newcastle end going to corporate also did that). We were unlucky to go into the break 1-0 down as a Dan Ballard clearance went slightly awry but thing went a lot more wrong after the restart as Pierre Ekwah gave the ball away and Alexander Isak gave the Mags their second. The third came via an Isak penalty. At least they didn’t go onto win the FA Cup or even get to Wembley because we would never have lived that down if they had.
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 1-0 SUNDERLAND
Our away form was a lot worse than our home form but most of the worst defeats we had happened at the SoL. Our defeats on the road usually came in the form of annoying matches where we lost by one or two goals and where we really should have gotten something out of them. Although we only lost by a singular goal this time around, the penultimate match of the Beale era felt a lot worse. Huddersfield would go on to get relegated, which tells you about their quality but in terms of chance creation and defensively we were absolutely woeful during this 90 minutes. A first half goal from Matthew Pearson was the difference in the end and based on this performance it's no wonder Beale wouldn’t last more than a few days longer as head coach after this (plus a defeat to Birmingham City).
SUNDERLAND 1-5 BLACKBURN ROVERS
The scoreline says enough about this match and unlike the Middlesbrough game where we lost by a four goal margin but had a decent first half performance, there was nothing redeemable about this at all. A quickfire brace from Sammie Szmodics in the first half (helping in his successful quest to be the Championship’s top goalscorer) gave the visitors a decent lead going into the break and Ryan Hedges made sure of things just two minutes into the second 45 to make it 3-0. Mercilessly though, they continued to try and score more and they did via Tyrhys Dolan pretty soon after the third. Chris Rigg grabbed a consolation at close range but that preceded a fifth for the away team, this time around it came from Andrew Moran. An utterly pathetic performance.
