https://www.a-love-supreme.com/single-post/otd-west-ham-united-0-3-sunderland BY BEN HARDIE OTD: WEST HAM UNITED 0-3 SUNDERLAND please log in to view this image On this day in 2011 Sunderland secured a top half finish in the top flight for the first time in a decade with a comfortable win at the Boleyn Ground on the final day of the season. European football returning to Wearside after a 38 year hiatus was a real possibility for much of the 2010-11 season. After a 2-1 win away to Blackpool in our final fixture in the month of January, we moved four points clear of 7th placed Newcastle and were just one point off of 5th placed Tottenham Hotspur. Unfortunately a horrific run of form would bring any chance of trips abroad for competitive games in the following season crashing down. We would take just one point from the next possible 27, our only point during this came somewhat ironically away to a very difficult Arsenal side. The season was turned on its head and we were now an uncomfortable five points clear of 18th place but luckily we managed to find some points in our final few games. We beat Wigan Athletic 4-2 at the Stadium of Light, all six goals came in the second half and Jordan Henderson netted a brace, and a last minute Bolo Zenden goal saw us beat Bolton Wanderers away from home either side of a defeat to Fulham. In the final home game and penultimate game of the season we slumped to a 3-1 loss against Wolverhampton Wanderers, with ex-Sunderland man Jody Craddock and future Sunderland man Steven Fletcher both scoring in that one. That meant going into the final day of the campaign we were 14th. The good news was that that was the lowest we could possibly finish as we were four points ahead of 15th place, the bad news was that if we were going to finish anywhere above the bottom half of the table we’d have to win and hope quite a few results went our way. We could still finish as high as 9th though. Newcastle and Aston Villa sat in 12th and 13th respectively, both one point in front of us, and Stoke City, Bolton Wanderers and West Bromwich Albion were 9th, 10th and 11th all with a two point advantage over the Lads. Villa hosted Liverpool, Newcastle and West Brom played each other at St James’ Park, Bolton faced off versus Manchester City at home and Stoke would battle it out against a Wigan side who started the day in the bottom three. Our lineup was this: Simon Mignolet, Ahmed Elmohamady, Phil Bardsley, Jack Colback, Anton Ferdinand, Nedum Onuoha, Bolo Zenden, Jordan Henderson, Asamoah Gyan, Stephane Sessegnon, Steed Malbranque And we had a bench of: Trevor Carson, Blair Adams, Christian Riveros, Billy Knott, Jordan Cook, Craig Lynch, Ryan Noble West Ham had Wayne Bridge, who would go on to make 10 appearances for Sunderland in their starting XI. A win would be expected for us, even with our poor form because the Hammers were bottom of the league already relegated. It was the hosts who created the first chances of the game though, with efforts from Freddie Sears and Thomas Hitzlsperger (the latter being a free kick from 30 yards out) both forcing saves from Mignolet. Gyan had two chances prevented by Iron’s goalkeeper Robert Green before Zenden opened the scoring in the 17th minute. Elmohamady whipped a cross in and the Netherlands international headed home. A scare was created by Zavon Hines just minutes away from the break, a close range shot of his made Mignolet pull off a save but at half time we led 1-0. Elsewhere, Villa led Liverpool 1-0, Stoke were in a 0-0 deadlock against Wigan, Bolton were a goal down to Man City and the Mags enjoyed a 2-0 lead versus West Brom. That meant we were moving up to 12th as it stood, an improvement but still below our North-East rivals and outside the top 10. Looking just at our game though, the Sunday afternoon became much more enjoyable with Sessegnon grabbing our second six minutes into the second half. He ran from the halfway line all the way to just outside the penalty area and fired home. Gyan and Colback both missed chances and Victor Obinna nearly got our opponents back into the game but Riveros wrapped things up in stoppage time and we won 3-0. Villa saw out the game against Liverpool and their narrow 1-0 victory meant they finished above us but that was actually the only result that didn’t go our way on this day. Wigan beat Stoke and Man City doubled their lead over Bolton. Most hilariously, Newcastle actually made it 3-0 over West Brom early in the second 45 but a hattrick from Somen Tchoyi, the last of which came in the final minute of the match, produced a 3-3 draw. 10th placed finish secured in the end then. Concerningly, this is actually the last time we’ve finished in the top half of the Premier League. Let's hope we can return to the promised land and finish amongst the top clubs sooner rather than later.
I was there. Cracking away end that day. We had some lovely footballers back then, really thought we were gonna kick on the following season…
