Sunderland will spend a second season in League One for the first time in their history after the weekend’s play-off defeat against Charlton Athletic.
They’ve only ever had one season outside the top two divisions, winning the old Third Division in 1988. After finishing fifth this campaign they narrowly beat Portsmouth in the play-off semi-final, but couldn’t go as far as to win at Wembley.
They’re the second side in as many years to lose in the EFL Trophy final as well as the League One play-off final, following in the footsteps of Shrewsbury last season.
All of that will be academic to their supporters though who know they’ll be going into next season as firm favourites for promotion. With £5m worth of strikers available and another strong summer expected, the Black Cats have to be right up there in the betting markets.
Owner Stewart Donald has tweeted his apologies to the fans, claiming that the club ‘need to do better’ next season. Despite the disappointment, few seem to be blaming the former Eastleigh chairman, as you’ll see from a sample of the replies below.
https://twitter.com/JL_1973/status/1133173954909212673
https://twitter.com/boxing_buddy/status/1133259713381056513
https://twitter.com/notch_32/status/1133197048612818944
https://twitter.com/chips_73/status/1133161977600237575
https://twitter.com/xBlackcat__/status/1133166867672174592
https://twitter.com/GuzzlerSAFC/status/1133160791887294465
https://twitter.com/safc_tyler/status/1133158984892997632
https://twitter.com/belly19882/status/1133159969401049088
We had arguably the best squad in the league with financial backing to strengthen in the transfer window.we were less than impressive throughout the season and failed to dominate even the divisions basement teams.ross did not improve the team over the season ,we were if anything worse at the. end than the start.sad to say this but nice guys don’t always succeed Ross must be replaced now not 10 games into next season.