Relief as we celebrate rare away-day joy
The scenes at the final whistle following Michael Chopra’s late winner were surreal. You’d think we’d won the league. With three quarters of the ground empty after the Villa faithful had headed home with their tails between their legs well before time added on, grown men hugged Sunderland supporting strangers. There were tears of relief, clenched fists of defiance and every player in the squad took time to come over to the away section and salute their fans who have been fed on a diet of nothing but humble pie away from home this season.
Chopra said afterwards that the players in the dressing room were taken aback by the reaction of the fans and concluded that he couldn’t imagine the ferocity of the ensuing party if the club won a competition. I’m paraphrasing him there of course, because footballers don’t articulate in such a manner, but you get what I mean.
Whatever the projected result or opposition, Sunderland always sell-out their away allocation and make a good day out of it and have done so for as long as I can remember. We have not been blessed with generous allowances in the Premier League like the 12,000 tickets we received at Barnsley’s Oakwell in the Championship last season, but those lucky enough to get in endeavour to turn the trip into a party despite more often than not an inevitable defeat.
This gallows’ type humour was on display in abundance before the match at Villa Park with various shenanigans in the Cap and Gown’s beer garden. I use the term ‘beer garden’ very loosely because the only vegetation amongst the urban decay were the weeds growing between the pavement slabs. I’ve never been a admirer of the West Midlands and the surrounding areas of Villa’s ground sum up for me why it is the most depressing and run down area of post-industrial Britain. A concrete jungle is not place for a man with Donegal blood in his veins!
However, I digress, back to the pub entertainment. First off we had body surfing competitions across tables full of glass, followed by wheelie bin lifting contests (think weightlifting with big plastic rubbish containers and you’ve got it). Neither were particularly safe and I was always going to be more of a spectator than a competitor, but it was amusing nonetheless.
Despite the hilarious pre match bar antics I did draw the line and decide to leave the pub when a bottle throwing competition began 20 minutes before kick off. Once inside the ground a trip to the toilets took me back to my school days. With smoking banned just about everywhere in England, it was school toilet time as grown men sneaked a cheeky tab in the bogs to calm their nerves.
Once the game started our match preparations stood us in good stead as the alcohol fuelled Red and White Army roared on their side throughout, whilst the Villa faithful were almost silent in comparison.
The Villa fan in our party even ironically texted us from The Holte End asking us to be quiet so they could get a chant going.
On the field the players battled for their Premier League lives throughout and just when the game seemed to be heading for a goalless draw, up popped Chops to chip it in, cue mass delirium.
After the post match celebrations, we raced home up the M1, got the beers chilled in the fridge and the takeaways ordered in time to watch Match of the Day. I generally avoid the show after away trips these days due to defeats, but since we’d won we planned our night around it.
Interestingly enough, in the summing up of our chances of survival MOTD’s Mark Lawrenson didn’t mention the playing staff’s quality at all, but concentrated on the supremacy of our support instead by stating that our amazing fans would help us stay up because they make the Stadium of Light such a hard place to go to.
If that was how things worked and survival was based on superiority of support we’d already have qualified for next season’s Champions’ League!
* Martyn McFadden
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