It is pretty clear that over the last few seasons or so Sunderland’s start to a premier league campaign has simply not the expectations of the fans. But with January entering its final fixture for all the top flight clubs, Sunderland can only look back on their recent first month of the year performances and pray that it’s an omen for the weekend against AFC Bournemouth. We always tend to see the January month be an absolute shine for the Black Cats, with one stand out performance which lifts the confidence levels throughout the squad. We have also seen the lads come up against really tough hard working sides in the January month but have pulled off top results out the bag.
3. Sunderland 2-0 Swansea City 21st January 2012
With Martin O’Neill just one month into his Sunderland career, the Black Cats heading into this fixture were looking to start a string of home results, that would confirm their survival for another season, along with top individual performances to go with it. This performance on a chilly afternoon certainly proved that with two fantastic strikes from first Stephane Sessegnon, which was later voted goal of the month for January on BBC’S match of the day. Then from Craig Gardner after taking the ball down on his chest to then strike it to perfection into the top corner.
2. Sunderland 3-0 West Ham United 12th January 2013
Going into this fixture it was a case of the lads simply having no choice to give the fans something to smile about, with Sunderland coming out second best in most of their Stadium of Light battles during the start of the season. But when Seb Larsson blasted home on his weaker foot to give the lads the lead, an explosion of delight hit the Sunderland crowd along. Things then got even better early on in the second half, when Adam Johnson on the counter bundled the ball home after some sloppy West Ham defending. James McClean slotted home on a tight angle to round off probably the best home day out of all the fixtures for the lads that season.
1. Fulham 1-4 Sunderland 11th January 2014
To sum up this clash, there was simply one name of everyone’s lips that the Sunderland broke into songs about throughout the 90 minutes. That name was ’Adam Johnson’, who bagged himself a man of the match award after scoring a hat trick on a memorable afternoon at Craven Cottage. The pick of the bunch was his first half free kick, which sailed right into the top corner to give the lads the lead. After an early scare from Fulham at the start of the second half, Johnson then managed to put the game to bed with a strike on the counter attack after a brilliant pass from Ki. Then Johnson completed his hat-trick in the dying moments from the penalty spot after a challenge on Jozy Altidore. Sadly the rest of the stand out performances from Johnson for the rest of the season was not enough to secure a place on the plane for the Fifa World Cup which then became a huge talking point after the tournament whether if he would have made a difference in Brazil for England who underperformed.
