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OPENING DAY MEMORIES
Ah, the opening day of the season... the sun is shining, there’s a sea of red and white making its way to the Stadium of Light, you’ve met up with your mates who you only ever see on a matchday, and everything feels good with the world. Then half time comes around, you’re getting beat, the beer you’ve just paid £5 is warm and you wonder why you’ve signed up for another year of this. Except sometimes, just sometimes, reality matches expectation, and the lads get off to a flyer. In this piece we look back on some of those occasions (and one of the bad ones).
Sunderland acquitted themselves well and had the best chance of a very even contest when Etuhu failed to control a Ross Wallace free kick with the goal gaping. Just as the 44,000 Sunderland fans in attendance were preparing to settle for a very creditable draw, the ball fell for Michael Chopra in the penalty area, who slotted home. What followed was an absolute eruption of noise, bodies flew everywhere
and all the pent-up frustration of the previous two Premier League years was released in that moment. Sunderland were back and we weren’t just there to make up the numbers this time.
SUNDERLAND 1-0 SPURS 2007
We’ll start off with possibly our most significant opening day victory of the 21st century. This was more than three points, it set the tone for a season where our never say die attitude would secure our Premier League survival. Coming into this fixture, across our last two Premier League campaigns we had accumulated a grand total of 34 points, which would usually
be insufficient to stay up at the end of a single season. In that time, we won an abysmal seven games out of 76, losing 58 of them, Sunderland just didn’t win Premier League games during that era. Therefore, it was imperative that we banished the ghosts of topflight seasons past at the earliest opportunity.
The first game of the 2007-08 season
saw Spurs visit the Stadium of Light with expectations of a top four finish and the likes of Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane, Steed Malbranque and JonathanWoodgate amongst their ranks. The lads had spent £36 million over the summer and handed debuts to Craig Gordon, Paul McShane, Dickson Etuhu and Michael Chopra for the season’s curtain raiser.
SUNDERLAND 2-1 CHARLTON 2018
Following back-to-back relegations, winning just six home games in the process, it really felt like we had hit rock bottom. But the summer
of 2018 had initially breathed life back into the club, we had new owners who were promising the earth and hadn’t been exposed as conmen yet, an up and coming new manager with a reputation for attractive, attacking football and we even had some new seats to sit on. Just ten minutes into the new era, it felt like it was going to be the same old Sunderland after we conceded a penalty and summer target Lyle Taylor converted from the spot.
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