Last Saturday at around 5 pm Sunderland fans across the country turned off their television sets in anger, flocked out of the King Power stadium in fury, and stormed out of their local pub in dismay. All thinking the same thing, ‘why do we put ourselves through this every year?’.
Since gaining promotion to the premier league in 2006/7, Sunderland have been flirting with relegation, and the performance at Leicester at the weekend gave little hope for the upcoming season. Similar clubs such as Crystal Palace, Swansea and Stoke City have gained promotion and have gone on to become an established set of premier league clubs. These teams are now capable of attracting top quality European players such as Yohan Cabaye, Andre Ayew and Xherdan Shaqiri, which surely must leave a bitter taste in Sunderland supporters mouths. Despite this, all but one of the away allocations sold out last season, with supporters continuing to turn over a 40,000 plus attendance to all home games.
So let us start with the geographical location of the football club. Derby day in the north-east of England is like a national holiday. You can feel the anticipation and unease throughout the city in the weeks leading up to the game, and you begin to realise that it means more to supporters than just league points.
When 47,500 Sunderland fans saw Defoe’s volley bulge Tim Krul’s net back it is likely that not one of them were questioning why they support Sunderland AFC. They sacrifice moments of potential disappointment and frustration for moments of sheer ecstasy like Defoe’s derby goal in April.
It’s in the supporter’s genetic makeup in the North East. Childhood friends will be seen still going to game together years down the line. Whether it’s which pub is visited beforehand, what time bus is caught. Tradition is installed in the routine and in the fabric of a supporter. Fathers would bring their son’s who would bring their son’s. It would be engraved throughout the family as tradition. When you hear the stadium erupt for the first time there is no feeling like it as a Sunderland fan.
