Here's a new extract from The Irish Uprising. More to follow...
Sunderland’s 2006/07 season began with the same fixture as in the Championship-winning campaign two years before, away at Coventry City. The Sky Blues were now residing at their new home, the Ricoh Arena, another of the epidemic of purpose-built identikit football stadiums that are slowly draining the individualism and heart from British football. Helpfully, the stadium is also located in the middle of nowhere. Coventry took the points in the opening fixture two years before, but the Black Cats went on to take the Championship title that season. With the momentum of the Drumaville takeover, a better start was expected this time.
Sadly, the message that the 2,500 fans who made the trip to Coventry in 2006 got was that a losing mentality had become as much a part of Sunderland’s identity as the red and white stripes themselves. Sunderland started vigorously despite the blazing sunshine, conditions which weren’t helped by a 1.30pm kick-off dictated by Sky Sports. For an away side, they looked well-organised, spirited, and keen to probe their opponents’ final third in search of an opening goal. As the half progressed, Coventry regrouped and began to find their feet, but Sunderland had good reason to be satisfied with their performance by the time the interval arrived. Granted, there was the odd comedic throwback to the previous season’s travails – the sight of two Sunderland defenders challenging each other for the ball and neither of them actually winning it acted as a swift reminder for anyone who thought that the horrors of the previous season had been forgotten.
If they could sustain their momentum in the second period, a point or perhaps all three were surely there for the taking, and indeed it was Sunderland who opened the scoring in the 52nd minute. While he had been goal-shy in the Premiership, Daryl Murphy had gone on a pre-season spree against lower league opposition and his run continued as he stabbed the ball home from six yards out after Coventry failed to clear a corner. A blatant handball was missed or deliberately ignored by the referee and Elliott cleverly hooked it into the danger area where it fell to Murphy to get Sunderland off the mark for the new season.
Now was the time to take hold of the game – to be strong and press for a second goal while remaining diligent in defence. Unfortunately, it never happened. Coventry knew an equaliser was there for the taking if they continued in stick to the tactics with which they had ended the first half. Sunderland’s players began to visibly wilt and it wasn’t just down to the heat. The team that had performed so catastrophically on the field throughout the previous season had required leadership and direction for far longer than the fortnight or so that Quinn had allowed himself and Bobby Saxton to mould the team into their desired shape.
The inevitable equaliser came in the 71st minute with the strong, purposeful Stern John receiving the ball with his back to goal, turning away from Kenny Cunningham and working an angle before lofting it into the far corner beyond Ben Alnwick’s reach. It was a rare moment of genuine quality in the match and it sealed Sunderland’s fate. By now the Black Cats were bereft of ideas as well as belief and it was a case of when rather than if Coventry would finish the job off.
The winning goal was so riddled with defensive incompetence that a DVD of it would belong on a coaching course; to show how not to react to a set-piece. Conceding a foul on the left hand touchline, Sunderland’s players began trotting amiably into their positions as Coventry tried to exploit the situation with a quick free kick, releasing Gary McSheffrey unmarked into the penalty box. Fortunately, referee Chris Foy whistled to allow himself to catch up with play before the Sky Blues retook the kick. They did this in exactly the same way again, Sunderland still seemingly oblivious to the impending threat as McSheffrey was allowed to ghost into the box unchallenged and drill a deflected shot through a gang of jelly-legged “defenders.”
So one game gone and one defeat, but at least Sunderland’s failings were there for all to see. Quinn described Coventry’s winner as a “giveaway goal”, calling it, “a little glitch that's in there that I've got to get out very, very quickly. It's intelligence and it's professionalism and we have to get it sorted.” Whether they could iron out that glitch in time for the arrival at the Stadium Of Light from promotion favourites Birmingham City would remain to be seen.
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