The Stadium of Light is not a happy place at the moment, and Saturday may see the superb stadium less than half full for a league fixture when the Black Cats host promotion-chasing Blackpool.
Despite the game having the added spice of former manager Simon Grayson returning to Wearside for the first time since his infamous sacking in October 2017, a poor season is now starting to filter through to attendance figures.
0nly 26,538 turned up for their last home game against Burton which ended in a 2-1 defeat and the fall in numbers from last year’s average of 32,000 is clearly starting to be felt by the club. Yesterday they were advertising the availability of tickets for the penultimate home game of 2019 this weekend on their official Twitter feed.
If the club reads the responses on social media, they will undoubtedly get a taste for the mixture of apathy anger and disgruntlement amongst a fanbase that has watched only two wins in twelve games since Phil Parkinson succeeded Jack Ross in the technical area in October.
Judging by the reaction from supporters, many season ticket holders will be staying away from the game, and some are predicting a crowd of around 20,000 in a ground that holds 49,000.
Phil Parkinson has spectacularly failed to capture the imagination of a fanbase with high expectations. If this starts to affect the gate, it surely cannot be too long before we see the club make another change in the hot seat at the Stadium of Light.
Here is a selection of responses to the announcement on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/DSM1992_/status/1204458759977947137?s=20
https://twitter.com/Paulguy18/status/1204503781083361285?s=20
https://twitter.com/mackem_badger/status/1204662935869689856?s=20
https://twitter.com/SafcStarsky/status/1204467421228220422?s=20
https://twitter.com/Downsy102/status/1204457205724041217?s=20
https://twitter.com/NeilDillon12/status/1204474456699215872?s=20
https://twitter.com/ffs78948421/status/1204440962115784706?s=20
https://twitter.com/liam_latimer/status/1204449586489839627?s=20
https://twitter.com/Parkersafc/status/1204462455147126786?s=20
https://twitter.com/michaelearles1/status/1204458387221684224?s=20
https://twitter.com/RokerPark150705/status/1204506106179063809?s=20
https://twitter.com/Safcgolfer75/status/1204478432408719362?s=20
https://twitter.com/twangmackem/status/1204442629854892034?s=20
