Wembley Stadium. March 2nd, 2014. A game that encapsulated every what Sunderland should be about, passion, optimism and spirit. Having gone from one up to three down, the eleven men on that pitch never looked defeated or broken, despite facing the would-be champions of the league. They did the fans, the club, and the red and white proud that day, and we can all look back fondly on the occasion.
Now skip forward a season to the opening day of the 15/16 calendar. Some of the players may be different, the backroom staff certainly is, but they’re still a sporting our red and white. The day opens with a lengthy trip down to Leicester, a team that were amongst Europe’s in forms at the tail end of last season, but with momentum gone and a scandal or two playing out over the summer, this was a game our boys could take points out of. Vital points at that, with the odds being that the Foxes would be swimming in the deep end of the table with Sunderland come the end of the term. Whether it could be called a six-pointer on the first day of the season is up for debate, but it certainly felt like it.
So the game starts, and we start well at that, for about ten minutes, and…well best not to talk about it. The problem with this result was not the fact that we showed extreme defensive frailty, nor was it that going forward we had as much bite as a Chihuahua wearing a muzzle. It was the spirit or lack thereof, and that is our greatest weakness when it comes to games such as these.
We may dive headfirst into battles against the ‘big boys’, and fight tooth and nail when our backs are against the cliff edge that is relegation, yet we meander into the ‘easy’ games like a cocky teenager who thinks he’s Messi because he plays a lot of FIFA. This lack of true spirit and passion for the game that creeps in when we are facing ‘lower’ opponents, and sense of entitlement because of the size of our club is insidious in its destruction of discipline and professionalism in these games.
So is where does the problem lie at Sunderland? Surely it is a question of spirit in the camp that has been together for many years. Should we be winning these so called ‘six pointers’? Probably. Can we win these games? Definitely. Do we deserve to win these games, just because we have higher attendance figures, and higher wage bill and a greater history? Absolutely not. It is high time this entitlement is shed, and we learn to fight for everything we can get. It is definitely not about the size of the dog in the fight, and that must be drilled into our boys if we’re coming out of this fight alive.
