Last time we spoke, it was a different time. The UK was still gripped by Coronavirus fever. You couldn’t move for lateral flow tests on the streets.
Kids were listening to recordings of Boris Johnson’s Covid briefings and Chris Whitty couldn’t walk down the street without being recognised.
It was our two summers of love - if you define ‘love’ as keeping your distance, not making contact, wearing a mask and being constantly anxious about catching a killer disease.
But now, because a man said so, Coronavirus is no longer a thing.
Of course, we weren’t allowed to be giddy for too long. Literally the next day Russia started bombing the shit out of Ukraine and we’ve now pivoted from a really bad crisis where lots of people have died, into another really bad crisis where lots of people have died - BUT THIS TIME WITH NUKES! - so forgive us if everything feels a little rubbish at the moment.
On the plus side, Sunderland won a game! And, if it was a month or so ago, it would have been an important win that would keep us right in the mix for promotion. But that’s over now, and we’re in the really awkward spot where we need to maintain momentum going into the play-offs while knowing there’s only the slimmest of chances of going up automatically.
Also, it’s really positive how Alex Neil talks about us. Going from about 15 months of hearing Lee Johnson repeat phrases he’d heard from The High Performance Podcast or that he’d read on LinkedIn or a TED Talk, to Neil, who speaks no less eloquently but is so much more direct and relatable.
The confidence levels across the squad were absolutely shot so a 3-0 win at a promotion candidate will do so much for the spirit.
As we travel to Charlton this weekend, there will be belief rather than fear.
Mind you, if the players took the time to look at the head to head record between us and the Addicks, they’ll notice that the last win at The Valley came in November 2000, when Alex Rae fired us to a 1-0 victory against Alan Curbishley’s band of brothers.
Our supporters travelled on masse, many with incredibly rigid hair wearing those stupid twisted jeans and those daft Levi jackets with one pocket, and probably sporting an FCUK t-shirt, with a CD-R in their Peugeot 106 packed full of the hits of the time including Leann Rimes’ Can’t Fight The Moonlight and Baha Men’s Who Let The Dogs Out.
They witnessed a Peter Reid masterclass and celebrated by sinking copious bottles of blue or red alcopop cocktails washed down with a bottle of Reef. HALCYON DAYS.
A similar result this weekend would do very nicely indeed.
Ha'way the lads!
