Sunderland 2-0 Wycombe Wanderers
by Layth Yousif

AMID joyous scenes at Wembley, Sunderland won promotion back to the Championship after six long seasons in the third tier, beating Wycombe Wanderers 2-0.

A first half strike from Elliot Embleton and a late goal from Ross Stewart sealed a well-deserved victory as the Wearsiders won the League One Play-off final on Saturday. 

On a memorable afternoon, Alex Neil’s buoyant side were simply too good for Gareth Ainsworth’s Chairboys.

Speaking after the match, a delighted Neil said: “My emotion is satisfaction and relief.

“I don’t get too high with too many things. My fear in football is letting people down — as a player, a coach or a manager — and so that, for me, gives me great satisfaction.”

Sunderland came into the match unbeaten in 15, which allowed Neil the luxury of a single change, albeit an inspired one, with opening goalscorer Embleton coming in for Jack Clarke, who dropped to the bench.

Wycombe, bolstered by lower-league leviathan Adebayo Akinfenwa on the bench in the final match of his sterling 22-year career, were unchanged from their semi-final second-leg game against Milton Keynes.

The Wearsiders started in a fury, perhaps stung by a pre-match jibe from the Wycombe chairman Rob Couhig about Sunderland being “the team that is a Netflix show,” a reference to the fly-on-the-wall docuseries revealing a David Brent-style set of characters and chancers hogging the limelight while loyal fans suffered across a succession of miserable League campaigns.

Buoyed by the raucous support of nearly 50,000 Wearsiders — who had movingly belted out their club’s unofficial anthem, Can’t Help Falling in Love, moments before kick-off, Sunderland started the match determined to finish it early.

Alex Pritchard fired into the side netting from an early free-kick, prompting many Sunderland fans massed at the other end to conclude their side had scored.

Moments later their fans were teased again when a ball into the Wycombe box saw No14 Stewart agonisingly fail to connect, after Ryan Tafazolli fluffed clearing the ball with a strange low header.

The pressure was to tell after 12 minutes, when Embleton embarked on a driving run through the heart of the Wycombe defence, including a backpedalling Tafazolli, before unleashing a powerful but saveable shot.

Whether 36-year-old Chairboys keeper David Stockdale was bewitched by the slight curve on the strike, or unsighted by his backline, momentarily overwhelmed by the occasion, or if it was simply the tortured ghosts of Sunderland’s past play-offs finally showing benevolence, the ball inexplicably flew by him as the Wearsiders deservedly went 1-0 up. 

The hordes in red and white erupted into paroxysms of joy, their fervour and frenzy a vibrant articulation of their frustrations of long years in the wilderness. 

Embleton clearly relishes playing at the national stadium. This time last year he played his part in helping his Blackpool side recover from the shock of conceding a first-minute goal to beat Lincoln City  in the League One play-off final. 

Twelve months later the only people stunned inside Wembley were the shellshocked Wycombe players, struggling to stay in the game after Sunderland’s opening onslaught. 

On 25 minutes, the lively Stewart cut inside and curled a shot that forced the beleaguered Stockdale to dive full-length low to his left to palm the ball away as Neil’s side hunted for a second goal. 

Yet despite Sunderland’s dominance, despite their excellent movement on and off the ball, despite their unwavering tenacity, desire and commitment, they went into the break with only Embleton’s goal to show for their efforts — a fact that also had to be attributed to Wycombe’s refusal to be browbeaten after such an ebullient start by the Wearsiders. 

Would the slender lead be enough? Certainly, given their past travails at Wembley, no-one in red and white was taking anything for granted. 

Veteran witnesses of the desperate Championship play-off defeat in 1998 — 7-6 on penalties after their 4-4 draw with Charlton — and those with memories fresh from their loss three years ago against the Addicks in a heartbreaking reprise were wary of getting carried away at such a fragile advantage. 

A Sunderland connection told this correspondent, only half-jesting, that no-one at the club could face the prospect of another season in League One.

Fears were raised of a new 2022 edition in the seemingly never-ending succession of Black Cats’ play-off doom when Stewart’s header flew inches wide from player-of-the-match Pritchard’s deep cross. With the 25-year-old former Ross County striker well-placed, it was another chance missed in a rare attacking foray amid Wycombe’s new-found ascendancy after the interval. 

And when keeper Anthony Patterson blocked a chance from the Chairboys’ Sam Vokes shortly afterwards, you could feel apprehension rise in the ranks of Sunderland fans.

Wycombe boss Ainsworth — long dark hair and brown shoes to match — has worked miracles for a humble club of their size and he started to shuffle his pack, bringing on Brandon Hanlan and then threw on the “legend” Akinfenwa, as Jurgen Klopp dubbed the 40-year-old Wycombe giant. As the clock ticked down, Hanlan drove down the left flank before cutting inside to test Patterson. 

The thought increased: could little Wycombe grab an equaliser against the mighty Mackems? 

In a short stoppage, Wembley paused momentarily for a restorative collective breath after such intensity prior to the final chapter unfolding.  

It was instructive to note that while tens of thousands in red and white had taken to Trafalgar Square on Friday evening as promotion fever swept down from the north-east to central London, with Black Cats fans even populating Wembley’s upper tiers above the Wycombe contingent, the Chairboys, in prosaic contrast, saw a local butcher produce a pack of celebratory sausages to highlight their big day out. 

But as Sunderland know to their cost all too well, it’s what you do on the pitch that counts, and in a glorious moment, one that will be long savoured, Stewart dovetailed well with Pritchard before showing quick feet in the box when dragging the ball away from his man to fire low past Stockdale to make it 2-0. 

It was his 26th goal of the season, his fifth against Wycombe this term:  game, set and match to Sunderland. 

After their all-too-public failures on the pitch, miserably amplified on the small screen; as chairmen, messiahs and martinets came and went; as managers arrived in fanfare only to depart in derision; as heralded players signed and promptly exited; the one constant, the only constant, at Sunderland has been the loyalty of their fans. 

Overjoyed boss Neil said after the game: “For what we’ve managed to deliver for so many people — there were 46,000 here, so many at Trafalgar Square — my job here has always been to satisfy the people and deliver something that they’ve been craving.

“It makes me the proudest person in the world at the moment with the fact we’ve managed to do that, and I’m so pleased for them more than anybody.”

If you love football, if you love sport, then you can only be pleased for Sunderland and Neil after so long in the wilderness, after what was a wonderful day for Wearside at Wembley.  

The Championship awaits. Good luck to them.