Sunderland's Worst Ever Season

Was Mick McCarthy at fault for their performances?

15 points in 05/06 is sometimes forgotton.

In 2003, the world of football witnessed the relegation of Sunderland from the Premier League, with a then PL record low of 19 points. Potentially unsatisfied with this record, Sunderland would only have to wait two seasons to go worse again.

Mick McCarthy took charge for the end of the 2003/04 campaign, steadying the ship and driving Sunderland back up to the premier league with an impressive 94 points in 2004/05. It would not be fair to put the blame squarely on his shoulders for what followed. Despite the club's financial constraints, McCarthy had instilled confidence back into the team.

Promotion to the Premier League always presents teams with significant challenges. A lack of funds meant that Sunderland's most significant acquisition was Jon Stead for £1.8 million. Although Stead had previously shown promise, his performance in the subsequent season left much to be desired. Even the aquisition of the legendary Rory Delap on a free was not enough to make the squad of Premier League standard.

The Black Cats faced a challenging campaign, securing only 3 victories and 6 draws, amassing a mere 15 points throughout the season. In some respects, this may be a more positive reflection of their performances than they deserved.

This article will review the 9 matches where they left with points, to investigate how much worse the season really could have gone.

The wins

Middlesbrough 0-2 Sunderland

Possibly the only good win, with Tommy Miller slotting away neatly after a long goal kick, flick on and lucky scrappy 1-2.

The second goal should probably not have happened, with Andy Gray being a mile offside, though PGMOL mouthpiece and man who has to apologise to Brighton all the time, Howard Webb, overruled this decision. The free kick from Arca was nicely taken - over the wall and top bins from close range.

The game is a pretty tough watch all things considered. Sunderland's keeper, Kelvin Davis, did well and bailed them out on a few occasions. It was the only game of the 3 where I could find a full replay.

Even Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren, famous for his hair island, admits that Sunderland “...deserved to win”.

Things were about to get worse

West Brom 0-1 Sunderland

Luckily I wasn’t able to find a full reply for this game. If you find one then please don’t send it to me. The BBC describes the game as:

A dreadful game burst into life after 72 minutes when Liam Lawrence seemed to push Darren Carter to the floor.

But referee Phil Dowd played on and Le Tallec's shot was heading wide before taking a deflection off Steve Watson and wrong-footing Tomasz Kuszczak.

West Brom spent much of the last 15 minutes in the Sunderland half but rarely looked like pinching a point.

Sunderland failed to muster a shot on target before the goal but were rewarded for a battling performance.

Mick McCarthy described the game as “a justified three points”, and while I can’t find material sufficient to review this, I suspect it’s unlikely to really be the case.

Sunderland 2-1 Fulham

Significant for being the first and only home win of the season, this match was a replay of the fixture abandoned in April due to a blizzard. While I’m not convinced that there would be enough snow in April to call a game off, I will concede that the last time I went to the north east it was quite cold.

In the initial attempt of the fixture, Fulham were leading when the game was abandoned.

It also appears that the initial goal for Sunderland was following a foul which the ref did not penalise.