Page 33 - 360633 LP236168 A Love Supreme 48pp A5 (April 2022)

should have as the Premier League side against Championship opposition, but this is Sunderland after all. The sense of ‘here we go again’ reared its ugly head when the hosts took a second half lead, but we had nothing to fear. Paddy McNair bagged
a brace to guide us through to the next round. This was to be the only time we would see David Moyes’ Sunderland win a football match. Grim.
By the time we were next able to get to a match together, relegation to the Championship felt almost inevitable. It was a balmy Tuesday evening in April, and the King Power stadium in Leicester was the destination.
Harry came from Northampton to Coventry, and then it was a case of going from Coventry to Leicester which by train is much harder than it should have been. Changing in Nuneaton, the journey time can be anything from 50 minutes to 90 minutes, for us it was around an hour.
The second pub we visited, the name of which escapes me, ran out of Strongbow Dark Fruit apparently halfway through my pint being poured. Happy days. Our fans, as always, were in good voice. Leicester, who were defending champions and just weeks before were playing Champions League football, coasted to a 2-0 win. A last gasp sprint to the train station to make sure I got back to Coventry that evening wasn’t appreciated, but then again one last pint after the game made it so this dash was no-one’s fault but my own.
The 2017-18 campaign got up and running and for the first time in over a decade, Sunderland weren’t playing in the Premier League. The single away match Harry and I moseyed on down to was the first of the season; Norwich. I was not yet back at university and lived back in County Durham, so this one was done on an ALS coach.
Leaving at 4.30am on a Sunday for an away match in Norfolk is not everyone’s idea of fun, but there you have it. Arriving in Norwich, pre-season optimism was still alive and kicking, and rightly so. The game ended 3-1 to Sunderland and we witnessed some of the best football we’d seen us play in a very long time. ‘Maybe we could bounce straight back to the Prem?’ I thought, heading back to the coach. How very silly of me. We were in League One the next time I was in a football stadium with Harry.
Meeting in a Coventry city centre pub for the lunchtime kick off against the Sky Blues, we were treated to a 1-1 draw, a result which would become synonymous with Sunderland that season, and
a lovely strike from Lee Cattermole. Fast forward
two months and Walsall was our destination. Harry came up to Coventry for a night out on the Friday, resulting in two very rough souls trudging to the train station on the Saturday morning.
The hangover wasn’t helped by Sunderland finding themselves 2-0 down and one man down after a Max Power red card, however it was medicated by the time Lynden Gooch pulled us level late on. The next time we were to meet would be at a Wetherspoons in Harrow. This was of course for the Wembley date with Portsmouth.
Now, I’ve seen some brilliant things through following Sunderland, but seeing Harry turn the corner onto an empty street in Harrow sporting the most incredible mop of blonde hair is up there. Quickly to be dubbed Carlos Valderrama, for obvious reasons, Harry joined us in a few drinks before making the journey to Wembley. The match result was a kick in the teeth, but the weekend is one of the most enjoyable I’ve ever had following this club.
October 2019 and playoff heartbreak was
little more than a distant memory. Harry and I pencilled in our first away trip of the season,
to Shrewsbury Town. At the time I was living in Aberystwyth through work, and therefore a train journey to Shrewsbury looked relatively straight forward. Silly me failed to take into consideration the Welsh weather, and flooded tracks badly affected the journey.
Nevertheless, I made it in good time (via rail replacement bus service) and met up with Harry at the train station. After a few pints in town, we made our way in the direction of the ground and watched a dire 1-0 defeat. Christmas and New Year came and went and we next made our merry way to Milton Keynes.
Crashing in Northampton, we made the very short train journey to watch a 1-0 win thanks to a Lynden Gooch beauty. No cancelled trains this time, which capped off an excellent day out.
Just weeks later, Covid-19 gripped the nation and football took a back seat. This meant that it would be over two years between away games for Harry and I, a wait that came to an end in South London. We got together for Sunderland’s trip to AFC Wimbledon, which looks to be our last together for this season.
Yet there’s always next season, and the one after that, because to me there are two things that I have SAFC to thank for; being able to create memories with my dad and a good mate.
ALOVESUPREME ISSUE258 33
BY PADDY HOLLIS