As Wilson Isodor bravely placed the ball on the penalty spot for the second time in 11 minutes on Friday evening, a frisson of excitement coursed through me and, I suspect, all other watchers of a red and white disposition. Seven minutes beyond 90, level away to the team second in the table, no time left but the present. This was it: instant redemption for Isodor and Sunderland leaping into an automatic promotion spot.
And then it wasn’t. Isodor’s courage in attempting to right his recent wrong ended in tears – literally – while James Trafford, the first goalkeeper in footballing history to be seized upon by cramp, was rightly (annoyingly) lauded as the night’s hero. A draw away at Burnley? We’ll take that every day of the week. After two missed penalties and that second half performance? Who’s getting the round in? And make mine a double.
That draw was the end result of a dizzying tussle at Turf Moor, one where this young side grew yet further under the impressive leadership of Regis Le Bris. The manager has borne plenty of scepticism for his refusal to change things mid-game, and though substitutions still remained in short supply here it would be intriguing to know what was said at half-time. A tricky first half ended in relative relief, then was followed by one of our best 45 minutes of the season. The hosts dropped off, but this was a game Sunderland could have deservedly won even without those spurned spot kicks.
Isodor’s travails will unfortunately be the focus of the fallout but beyond those there is genuine reason to be excited about what the next four months could bring. This season is now 27 games old and it is a startling truth that across it Sunderland have been outplayed just the once, at home to a Leeds United side whose own profligacy is the sole reason they aren’t a few furlongs ahead of the rest.
Below them this league is anyone’s and while there’s an unavoidable element of bias in saying this it doesn’t make it any less true: Sunderland are the second-best team in the Championship this season.
That would be worth celebrating regardless but is especially so given what preceded those 27 games. It feels an eon ago now but Le Bris’ arrival on Wearside was met with no little concern, coming as it did on the back of a disastrous latter half of last season for both him and his new employer. Many, this writer included, felt a mid-table finish this season would be just fine if it was free of any real relegation concerns.
Relegation is now a laughable prospect. 51 points have been gobbled up at just shy of the promotion-indicating rate of two per game; already we are a mere two wins from surpassing last season’s total points tally. It is both a remarkable turnaround and one the manager and his players thoroughly deserve.
Most promising about the current situation is the prospect this side could actually get better rather than tail off. Look no further than Enzo Le Fée for supporting evidence. Universal acclaim for bringing his services to the second tier risks building him up to an unattainable level, but the early signs look good. Le Fée’s debut might not have been earth-shattering but it was, like any good trailer, sprinkled with just enough moments of quality to get you excited for the full show. That touch, run and weaker-foot pass to set up Isodor’s hitting the post soon after the break was the sort of viewing Sky Sports will have been relieved came after the watershed.
Le Fée’s arrival on its own is cause for optimism, marking as it does a shift in the club’s thinking when it comes to promotion. In each of the last two Januarys there has been no real effort put into building for a current season promotion push, regrettably in 2023 and more understandably last year.
Not so in 2025. Little cash has been spent other than the estimated £1.6 million it will cost to cover Le Fée’s chunky AS Roma wages to the season’s end, but there’s been a clear change in attitude at the top. Of the multiple rumoured or known bids this month, all have fit into a category that clearly separates them from the recent past. In the case of Le Fée and those others linked, all are players that would arrive to improve the first team not in six or 12 or even 18 months but right now. It is abundantly apparent those in charge have realised this season represents a neon-lit opportunity to get back to the Premier League, and though there are plenty of reasons behind why that’s the case, their realisation is no less encouraging for that. It is also the polar opposite of even just a year ago, when the club gave up on the season with months still to play out.
Would this team fare well in the top division? Who, to be frank, gives a shit? That’s for then, and it is one of the more maddening considerations of supporting a Championship club these days, a mental trap I’ve regrettably stumbled into previously as well. If concern the current side wouldn’t do well in the Premier League is viewed as valid reason to put off getting there, it begs the question of why we’re bothering to exist at all. Better to see it as a nice worry to have when the time comes than to waste energy fearing it now.
For all we know Le Bris needs more depth at his disposal, it’s increasingly hard to see who would move out of the starting XI should anyone new rock up. Isodor could do with being rotated more, though Eliezer Mayenda is gradually showing himself to be a ready-made understudy. Meanwhile even the ambitious signing of Le Fée brings the manager a selection headache. He deployed his latest recruit out of position on the left wing on Friday night, but that seems unlikely to be repeated for long. When it isn’t, who in the middle will drop out? A nice dilemma to have, but a dilemma all the same.
Whatever reinforcements may still arrive this month, there is already a rejuvenating quality to this team and these players, something few of their recent predecessors possessed. Crap week at work? Difficult Saturday morning? Going through a tough spell? Switch your brain off and we’ll chuck a ball between Dan Neil, Jobe Bellingham and Chris Rigg and watch them play with it. Put your feet up and enjoy Trai Hume tackling anything with a pulse. Sit or stand agog at Wilson Isodor thwacking ridiculous efforts into a bulging net (but maybe look away from the easier chances that fall at his feet).
This current side might not come equipped with a Drumaville & Keane-sponsored magic carpet, nor with the all-encompassing dominance of Peter Reid’s 1999 cohort. Instead they bring a joy of their own separate making. Consider any of the risks levelled at relying so heavily on youngsters each week and, at least so far this season, this group have made a mockery of them. Where last season a bad run of form proved ruinous to confidence and the rot set firmly in, this time around setbacks have been greeted as opportunities, as errors to correct rather than ruminate on. More rousing still have been the very clear reserves of fight this young group have shown at every turn. They are, in every sense, a team.
There will be twists and turns to come, as winter turns to spring and this campaign builds to its close. There will be bumps and blips and maybe even more penalty misses. But over the course of half a season and a tad more there has been greater cause for joy and pride than many of us expected.
Where Sunderland go in the remaining 19 – or, God forbid, 22 – games is impossible to predict, gambling on it a fool’s errand. But wherever we sit come the summer, it won’t have been boring. And if promotion sadly goes begging, this time it won’t have been for a lack of trying.
