Match Day Thread Sunderland AFC v Sheffield United – Championship Play-off Final - Saturday 24th May 2025 - KO 15:00

I honestly don't know how people find the time to post stuff anywhere when a game is on. I don't think I've ever done this or read any. The game is on man!

 

What I seriously don't get is why, on a match thread, people have to keep going on about how bored they are and why the other team are playing better. Everyone knows the other team are playing better ffs we just don't have to repeat it every five minutes and explain why the manager is useless.

People keep coming on to say they're sickened off with all the whinging but they're ignored because the moaners just can't/won't stop. Almost every match thread ends up being derailed by this shyte even though RTB has asked for it to stop ...

... to the point whereby he's said he just can't be bothered to do more next season, when the moaners will be in their element.

These people NEVER start threads of their own, for likeminded people, because they know there'd be the same half dozen repeating the same things. Instead they come onto other threads whining about every bloody totally obvious thing ...

... the 'Non-Sunderland Games' thread gets the same moans about Sunderland as does almost every other.

Even on a thread, of mine, that said it was was daft optimists only there are post pulling the club down.

Seriously mate, how hard is it to grasp that people just don't want the relentless boring and humourless drivel?

 

After the 23153658575979573637573514275968462527586966342759672425576 rewatch.

the fact RLB just stood and let everyone else celebrate, showing he doesn’t have an ego. It wasn’t about him.
It was the team and fans.

RLB, Warra a guy

 

Just ignore those people then

I post during the game as I want to share my opinion with other Sunderland supporters, sometimes it'll be negative if I think the performance is poor and other times it's positive - I will do so on a game by game basis

Naturally some people will be more positive/negative than others

There was nothing wrong with this match day thread during the game, noone overstepped the mark

 

Nothing wrong with negative posts, it's the relentless and pointless whining that many people are saying stops them posting.

If Sunderland have played badly they don't need it explaining to them as if they're clueless dopes.

 

well i finally watched the full 90 again...

they could/should have won the game in the first 30 minutes, the VAR call certainly changed a lot of things, namely the mood in both sections of the stadium and both the teams, we clawed our way back into the match (pretty much what we have done a lot of the season) and i was convinced at the time that we would get the goals we needed and the re-watch had me wondering why i ever had a doubt.

sheffield fans made a lot more noise than i remember during the game (more so in the video smug posted) but it was a good atmosphere all round, shame there has to be a loser and i have nowt against SU so hope they are up there fighting next season, it could go either way for them.

 

Eldest and grand son - just after VAR...

 

He seems to be taking it quite well ...

... obviously appreciates the offside rule

 

This isnt hindsight mate as I always thought he should be trusted to play. I think he showed up great tbh, and maybe should have been used more in his time here. I think it would be almost impossible for someone in Watsons position to give anything less than 100% in any game for us.

The lad strikes me as shy and a bit unsure of how to come across. His interviews were a bit like that imo. But on the pitch he is anything buy shy. I think somewhere somebody has put the lad in a horrible situation by signing the deal early, or making it public. It is well known Brighton have wanted him for 3 windows and I have zero issues with him signing there. Jobe is in a similar situation in that he seems to have had the green light to go for a while. He is just better advised on when and how. In both cases the player was always going to be 100% committed. For me anyway.

 

I'm going to watch Look North tomorrow to see if any local MPs are asking Parliament to recognise Sunderland's achievement

 

I was generally supportive of Speakman but i have had times when i was slagging him off . Mainly due to not filling clear gaps in the squad .
However i think that negativity was a necessary process to change us as fans by getting re educated from expecting 10/12 new signing and spending daft money to bribe players to come and quick fixes that nearly always failed .
We as a rule are now seeing the benefit of long term patient planning and are in my view better fans for it …Well done Mr Speakman you deserve all the plaudits coming your way .

 

I asked the question at the start of the season about Le Bris. There is something about him I don’t get. Very stubborn - I call him the Le Brick he is so stubborn. I was unsure about him and posted Clough or Duff. Given what I’ve seen and his psychology background I’m thinking Clough and Brown combined. Onwards!

 

My thoughts on the game and the day, it's taken me that long to come down from cloud 9. I e not read all of the thread, so maybe I'm saying what others have already said. Sorry if it's long winded!

Sheffield United came out at us fast at the start before we could get settled and had the Moore chance inside 2 minutes. I think we might have started slowly due to nerves, at times we forget just how young this team is and I think the occasion got to us a bit at the start. Of the starting 11 only Cirkin, O'Nien and Patterson played in the League 1 play off final and only O'Nien was ages over 25. Credit to them for the start, the Patterson save is one of the best I've seen, I genuinely thought it was in until he clawed it from behind him. Sadly this is also when O'Nien got injured, which I also think contributed to us not settling down properly. Until we could get Mepham on, we had a period where Neil had to fill in at centre half and with the extra man they were able to boss us around for a while. When Mepham came on, we still looked unsettled and a bit disjointed, though in my opinion we gradually started to get hold of the ball more and began to play our way into the game. We weren't creating much and were too slow with possession, but at least we looked to take some of the sting out of them. Then they scored. Credit to Hamer for using his pace to get away the way he did, but we should have closed him down better and been more aware of Campbell's run to support him. The ball in from Hamer is top class and it's a good finish, but in the stands it felt like a self inflicted kick in the guts just as we were starting to get a bit of a foothold in the game. Not a great cross in that's cleared comfortably and not enough pressure on Hamer as he picked up the ball and ran with it, symptomatic of how unsettled we were in the first half hour or so. We still looked unsettled and slow on the ball after this, resulting in the slack play for the corner leading to the disallowed goal. It was a decent clearing header that Burrows caught well, but regardless of what Wilder and any Sheffield United fans say, it was offside. Two Blades players were offside in the middle of the 6 yard box, one of which is clearly in Patterson's line of sight, impeding his vision. From my seat just about in line with the dead ball line and corner flag I could see them, but not whether we'd been slow pushing out and played them onside. I feared the worst right then but was the first to spot the VAR check announcement in my block, once the ref went to check I think we all knew it was going to be chalked off and the sense of relief was palpable when it was. Whether that gave us a boost, rattled them a bit or it was a bit of both, I don't know, but I think we finished the first half the better team, though again without creating much.

Personally I thought Mundle had a poor game, rarely using his pace against them and a bit unsure with his distribution. It was probably due to him still not being fully match fit after his injury. ELF had been largely anonymous in the first half and Rigg struggled to get involved in a positive way in the first half, though he had our first shot on target in stoppage time with a volley he didn't connect with as well as he'd want to. The midfield was definitely unsettled, Neil was poor and Jobe struggling to get involved. The link up play was either slack or far too slow, stopping us getting any overlaps or stretching them. It allowed them to get back into shape quickly, crowd us out and starve Mayenda of any meaningful supply as well pick up the second ball too often and too easily. When it got to half time at 1-0 I was happy, we still were in the game.

We certainly came out stronger in the second half and took the game to them much more, though again we weren't creating much. We were just a bit better. Whether it was RLBs half time talk, Wilder wanting them to sit back and try to catch us on the break or a a mixture of both (possible), I don't know, but we were just more positive and looked better. When Roberts came on it was just another little improvement for us, even if we still weren't creating much. About this time I said to the lad next to me that I thought if we got an equaliser, we'd go on to win it. We just needed a chance, I just felt that if we got one decent chance we'd score. That feeling just increased when Wilder began making subs, Campbell had looked a threat all game with his pace and Hamer going off in particular took a lot of their creativity and threat away. They were still dangerous, though and Patterson's save on 70 minutes kept us in the game. It was slack play from Cirkin to let them have the chance, but I do think if it had been Brewster (not that he was particularly good, in my opinion) or Campbell they may have scored. Luckily both were off by then.

RLB has had a lot of stick about his substitutions this season, but for me he made the right changes at the right times on Saturday. I think the team he picked was the right one and his tactics were basically sound initially, even if we started poorly. To quote Mike Tyson, everyone has a plan until they're punched in the face. RLB adapted and changed tactics as needed and gradually made us the better team. When he took off Neil and Mundle, we effectively went to 442. Isadore might not have touched the ball, but it gave their back 4 something different to think about and deal with. The same applied to Roberts. By then I think ELF and Jobe were controlling the midfield, our movement was better and they were starting to struggle to cope. Finally, just after the changes we got the chance and equalised. lovely play in midfield and a superb through ball from Roberts to Mayenda and wallop! I went nuts hugging everyone around me.

When play resumed I said to those around me that they looked rattled, we dominated the last 15 minutes of normal time, it was funny seeing the time wasting they'd employed until we equalised stop. I thought Roberts was really unlucky when Brereton Diaz pulled him back when he was clear, though it was about the only contribution Brereton Diaz had in the game. Roberts would have been clear on the right wing with space to run into with support up and their back four stretched. It probably showed how rattled they were then. We were definitely on top and Wilder didn't look like he knew how to adapt to it.

When it got to 90 minutes and 7 minutes stoppage time was announced I was happy as I knew we'd get at least one chance before possible extra time. That was only increased when Ahmedhodzic went down with a head injury thanks to Tom Cannon. With him being down I knew we'd end up with at least 101 minutes to play, within a minute of play restarting Watson scored. The sloppy pass from Moore was probably symptomatic of how rattled they were then, but Watson deserves huge credit for a brilliant goal, after all the stick he's had recently (myself included, I'd not have had him anywhere near the squad in the last few weeks). And this is also where things went a bit weird for me. I saw him pick up the ball, run towards goal, shoot, the ball travel towards the goal and the keeper dive towards it. Then time stopped. Literally. Everything froze for a few seconds, like you see in some movies for dramatic effect. The nearest thing I can describe it as being like was about 4 years ago I was at a Derren Brown show at the Empire and myself (and a good chunk of the rest of the audience) were hypnotised and "lost" 5 seconds, only this felt as though everything stopped dead for 3-4 seconds and I could see it all. Then everything started again and I could see the ball in nestling in the back of the net. If I went nuts when we equalised, I went absolutely f@cking mental then! I don't know how many people I hugged and kissed, screaming "f@cking hell" over and over again. We were all nuts, tears in eyes, voices shredded. When play restarted the lass next to me asked how long we had left, because I'd clocked how long Ahmedhodzic had been down I was able to say we had 5 or 6 minutes to hold out. But watching the play, the Sheffield United players looked to have physically shrunk by at least two inches each, while we looked like everyone could outrun Usain Bolt and jump over a ten foot wall. They just chucked balls up front for Moore, but without Hamer and Campbell they barely troubled us right to the final whistle.

I remember posting on here that after the league one play off win against Wycombe that it felt as though a huge weight was lifted off our shoulders, but the emotions this time outstrip that by a million miles. Relief, joy, pride, sadness for those no longer with us to witness it. I guess we all felt something similar to differing degrees, something personal that only you personally can understand, but a thing that unites us all.

Afterwards I met up with the rest of my group and ended up spending a lot of money on beer in Marylebone before heading back to the hotel late, then travelling back the next day exhausted, happy and proud to have been there.

we have to give huge credit to RLB. RLB may not have been first choice last summer, but he's been exactly what needed this season. RLB has made mistakes, but has got most things right tactically, he has a clear way of playing and utilising the players at his disposal, even if at times we've been underwhelming. We might disagree with some of his selections and substitutions, but he knows the players better than we do. He's not afraid to change things by tweaking around the margins rather than wholesale changes. And that is what got us over the line against Sheffield United. He trusted the players to sort themselves out, especially after the poor opening, adapted the tactics that gradually got us back into the game, meanwhile Wilder never adapted to take advantage of how we were in the opening 30 minutes. His tactics were largely to keep hitting Moore or to try and catch us on the break, but he never tried to stretch us or press us back. He allowed us, shaky as we were in the first half, to actually have more possession. We might not have created much with it and have been too slow and sloppy at times, but it allowed us to regroup a bit, clear our heads and slowly get back into the game. Had they not scored, you might have seen them run out of ideas earlier and it looks a more eventful match. Once we made the substitutions, we gradually took the initiative away from them, with Wilder's changes only reinforcing his pretty negative tactics. He can moan about how many points they got last season and how far ahead of us the finished, but in truth they were never great to watch. Attritional, ground out results but largely down to being defensively solid with a couple of high quality players to create something. Against us, Leeds and Burnley, they only won one game out of seven, against us at Bramall Lane when even they admitted we were probably the better side and they were lucky to win. They lost the other six, with the talent they have in the squad, with the majority of the games being close, it boils down to management tactics not adapting to changes to win tight games. In the end, we deserved to win and but for some inexperience and errors on our part, plus RLB resting players in the last 5 games, we'd have been much closer to them.

And this was never more apt.

 

I knew I missed a trick when I was talking to Jonathan Reynolds in TGI's after the match.

Spoke to David Bruce down the beach earlier. He's was over the moon of the togetherness and support we've given the lads. Told him it felt like perfect harmony in the 2nd half.

Regis was also down the beach walking his dog with the Mrs.

 

I always thought a Sunderland manager needs a certain personality like Keane allardyce or Reid, where they’ve got proper passion but control it in a way that keeps the fans on side.

What RLBs greatest quality imo which Keane and allardyce (I’m a bit young to remember Reid) also had is that they never get too low or too high with what’s happening. He’s been so calm even through some tough situations (looks at the Watson one and how that turned out) and it’s been mirrored by the players who have never folded.

I’ve had my concerns about the last few months but he’s been simply incredible and has set up this club for the future if we handle the financial side right. Will go down in history imo and possibly the most important promotion of all time for us. What a classy bloke he is and what a job he has done.

 

And just to follow up on RLB, some points across the season.

-came in late for pre season and implement his style immediately with a team who finished 16th
-brought no new staff with him in his first season in a new country (3rd as a senior head coach)
- wasn’t given a striker and what he did with mayenda
-moving jobes position and how he improved him
-development of Rigg
-attracting ELF to the club
-not getting a lot of help in January but still finding a way to get us to grind out results for the season with injuries/fatigue
-boro away performance
-handling of the Watson situation
-putting himself under pressure and criticism by conceding points/performances so we were fresh for play offs
-going 4-4-2 away at Coventry and pulling off a tactical masterclass
-bringing Ballard back for Coventry over meptham
-players coming on strong in extra time second leg after his subs
-changing the system for the final and brave subs that changed the game and led us to promotion

A legendary season.

 

I was trying to find anyone but Roberts to come on but he was class and I was wrong.

 

A masterstroke appointment. Well done to all involved, and well done to RLB. What a manager. Our manager

 

He was given Isidor and

He was given Isidor who he wanted and Ahmed Abdullahi has been unlucky with injuries.

Mayenda has had a great season. I feared for him after some of our lot were giving him grief for the Blackburn and Stoke misses.

Hopefully the boo boys might see that being a bit patient with these young lads pays off.

 

From Luke Edwards in The Telegraph. Bit of a shill for the Saudis now really, that's more or less all he does, but he's had to break his fast on us!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/a19c0c8145e02c80