I’VE heard a few folk saying that due to the way teams set up nowadays, there’s no real advantage finishing higher in the league in order to be awarded the second leg of the play-offs at home.

But while I agree with them on a footballing level, I rather think they’re missing the point.

In our last two play-off campaigns, we’ve had the first leg at home and the second leg away. On both occasions, the home leg was a spectacle – a rocking Stadium of Light, with tifo displays and pyrotechnics. And on both occasions, we won.

However, there’s not much celebrating that can be done after the first leg. As Coventry fans keep reminding us, it’s half-time.

While finishing higher in the league has not necessarily made our task easier on Tuesday night, it will give Sunderland fans a chance to – fingers crossed – celebrate something en masse, something we haven’t really been able to do since Wembley 2022.

Our task is simple – avoid defeat to Coventry and we’re one game away from the Premier League. It promises so much. It could be one of the greatest nights we’ve ever seen at the Stadium of Light.

In previous play-off campaigns, we’ve got the job done at Hillsborough and Fratton Park, and we’ve fallen short at Kenilworth Road. Imagine replicating the Patrick Roberts moment at Sheffield Wednesday but in front of 40-odd-thousand Sunderland supporters? It would be incredible.

Ironically, if we’re talking about enjoying shared experiences at the Stadium of Light, I missed Ross Stewart’s goal against Sheffield Wednesday.

I was attending the game with two non-Sunderland supporting blokes who were from out of the country – Brazil, to be precise. They’d seen Sunderland Til I Die and wanted to sample the atmosphere. Well, we’d done quite a lot of that before the game itself and fancied another beer before half-time.

Rather than letting two Brazilian men tackle the chaos that is getting a pint on the concourse at the SoL, I volunteered. So down I went on 40 minutes to get the pints in.

Anyone who has bought a round of drinks from the concourse before would know how pathetic the cardboard carriers are, especially if you spill even a millilitre of fluid on to them.

So, as Ross Stewart bounded down the left wing just before half-time that night, I was pathetically wrestling with a sodden cardboard drinks holder containing three pints making their inevitable journey to the floor.

While the spillage, in the end, was in fact minimal, I realised quite quickly that the big roar from the crowd and then the concourse wasn’t for my heroics in beer protection, but was for Stewart, who had at the second attempt fired home to give Sunderland a 1-0 lead in their biggest game of the season to date.

The Brazilians were in dreamland. I thought about drinking their pints there and then but no, my generosity will, in time, be rewarded. Maybe we’d score again?

A year later, we’re back at the Stadium of Light for the play-off semi-final against Luton and, when half-time neared, I sat still. I had learned my lesson. No beer for Bernardo!

Had I gone down for a pint I’d have likely missed Amad’s equaliser – but there’d have been no chance of missing Trai Hume’s winner around the hour mark.

While that was another famous night at the Stadium of Light, it was only half-time. And we fucked the second leg on account of having zero centre-halves against a team of giants.

On Tuesday night, there are no such injury concerns. And it is decided on the night. It could be a famous night. One that many of us can talk about for years to come, rather than hearing the stories passed on by the few that were there at Hillsborough three years ago.

That’s the opportunity. And with this team, this year, I am convinced we can take it.