Page 45 - 370167 LP253351 A Love Supreme Magazine - A5 48pp (Issue 260)

19. It is perhaps the most ‘Sunderland’ thing ever that just days after topping the table, the residual effects of a virus which reportedly originated in a Chinese laboratory were to have negative consequences on Wearside.
We were far from the only club affected by this, but the timing was especially cruel, as the club either had to take the option of postponing a handful of our forthcoming games and risk a fixture backlog or soldier bravely on and risk dropping points and falling behind in the title race.
We plumped for the latter and won just once in January and Lee Johnson went from December’s Manager of the Month to being jobless just 30 days later. For Anthony Patterson though, this was the start of the series of events that would see him emerge as our undisputed number one goalkeeper.
Prior to the 2021-22 season, other than a handful of appearances on loan at Sunderland RCA, Patterson had played just two senior games, both coming in the previous season’s Papa John Trophy. The early stages last season looked promising for Patterson, where he doubled his tally of senior appearances for Sunderland, in league wins over AFC Wimbledon and Wycombe as well as cup successes over Port Vale and Blackpool.
However, the door once again appeared to be temporarily closing on his first team prospects, as Lee Burge returned to full fitness and the highly rated, Ron-Thorben Hoffmann arrived on loan from Bayern Munich. Patterson was subsequently loaned out to National League side Notts County where he won rave reviews for a string of impressive performances.
He would be further frustrated when he was recalled following an injury to Lee Burge and spent seven successive games warming our bench. On New Year’s Eve, he was loaned back to County, but then Covid struck and the wheel of fate spun dramatically in Patterson’s favour.
In his first game back against Wycombe he was subjected to an aerial bombardment and despite making a couple of decent saves, question marks over his ability to command his area lingered. Things failed to improve in the short term, as just days later, we lost 3-1 to Lincoln and he was beaten too easily from a Chris Maguire shot from outside the area.
After this Hoffmann temporarily came back into the team and it looked as though Patterson would have to see his
development stunted and take a place on our subs bench for the foreseeable future. However, Hoffmann again went down with illness and was ruled out of a 2-1 defeat to Cheltenham Town.
While the result felt like rock bottom for the club, it proved to be just solid foundations for Patterson, and he played every minute for Sunderland between then and the end of the season. After a string of impressive saves against Burton Albion to keep us in the game, new boss Alex
Neil kept faith for the trip to Wigan where Patterson commanded his area very well, produced some fine saves and looked transformed from a rabbit in headlights to a newly confident figure.
This trend continued throughout the rest of the season where the new number one made a number of excellent saves and appeared to look more physically imposing, while his bravery and communication improved on a weekly basis. This all culminated with his day in the sun at Wembley, where he made a crucial one vs one save to keep the score at 1-0 and negated any aerial threat Wycombe traditionally posed.
After being on the receiving end of the Buckinghamshire club’s ‘shithouse’ tactics it was also a refreshing change to see him kill the game every time he got the ball at 2-0 and wind the clock down. After earning a new contract in the summer, this assurance has been exemplified throughout his debut Championship season.
It has been an incredible rise from playing in the National League, to looking an assured goalkeeper at Championship level in under 12 months, and while this hasn’t been down to luck, for once I feel as though the stars have aligned to give him a pathway to regular first team football.
If Lee Burge hadn’t suffered his heart complication, if Hoffman hadn’t taken ill when he did, or if Alex Neil didn’t choose to keep faith with him when the German returned, things could have been very different.
Thankfully for us, none of the above happened and it looks as though one of our academy products will be our number one goalkeeper for a long time to come.
ALOVESUPREME ISSUE260 45
BY MICHAEL LOUGH