It was the second season of the magic carpet experience, and the relative success of eras like this one is all the time considered on the time by means of the lens of the place we had come from. Simply over twelve months earlier, Sunderland had sat backside of the Championship, and the Niall Quinn chairmanship was ready to get underway.
Enter stage left, Roy Keane. The previous Manchester United midfielder had taken some arm-twisting to take the job, however when he did, he made certain we knew it was well worth the wait. Effectively, he did from January. Looking back, it was a sluggish burner, and the January switch window was the match that lit the fuse, resulting in an unlikely league title.
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As cool and as calm as Keane appeared, I think that even he was shocked that we bought the momentum we did, and he was a Premier League supervisor in his second season within the job, however he knew he needed to take full benefit.
From the second Keane extinguished any ideas of an open-top bus parade to have a good time the success, we knew he meant enterprise, and extra to the purpose, he didn’t wish to simply make up the numbers within the Premier League.
So, on the opening day of the Premier League season, Craig Gordon, Dickson Etuhu, Paul McShane, Kieran Richardson, and Michael Chopra all made their debuts as Keane’s facet beat Martin Jol’s Spurs in entrance of the cameras courtesy of a last-minute Chopra aim.
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Three defeats and a draw introduced us again all the way down to Earth earlier than our subsequent win, which got here in a 2-1 win at house to Studying. The eight video games that adopted glided by with out placing a 3rd win on the board, with solely three attracts to maintain the factors ticking on. It could be December 1st when Anthony Stokes scored a last-minute aim towards struggling Derby County, when the third win got here, and subsequent up was a visit to Avram Grant’s Chelsea.
The rain lashed down within the capital as Keane’s trace that he may need to “park the bus” rang true, with Kenwyne Jones struggling up prime on his personal to maintain the ball and permit Sunderland to get out. The away group labored arduous however regarded outclassed for a lot of the afternoon.
It was nearly throughout after simply 23 minutes, when Andriy Shevchenko headed house a Salomon Kalou cross to place the house facet forward. Chelsea deserved to enter the break greater than only one up, and the longer it remained 1-0, the extra we thought we had been in with an opportunity, however when Danny Higginbotham pulled the shirt of Alex within the field, the referee pointed to the spot.
Frank Lampard stepped up and put the sport out of sight with fifteen minutes left on the clock. The distress was piled on with a few minutes left when Liam Miller was given a crimson card for a push on Pizarro, which accomplished a depressing afternoon that left Sunderland hovering simply above the underside three.
Sunderland: Ward, Halford, McShane, Higginbotham, Collins, Miller, Etuhu, Whitehead, Leadbitter (Stokes), Wallace, Jones (Murphy) Subs Not Used: Gordon, Yorke, Cole
Chelsea: Cudicini, Belletti, A. Cole, Obi Mikel, Terry, Alex, Wright-Phillips, Lampard, Kalou (Pizarro), Shevchenko, J. Cole (Sidwell) Subs Not Used: Hilario, Ben-Haim, Bridge
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