In 2003, Sunderland were relegated from the Premier Division with a
miserable tally of just 19 points, it was a record low in the Premier League era.
But that terrible record wasn’t destined to
stand for very long.
And you’ll never guess who broke it...
Mick McCarthy was at the helm when Sunderland slipped beneath the
waves that year, but it wasn’t really his fault.
After a bad end to a season was followed by a bad start to a season.
Peter Reid was sacked in October 2002.
His replacement Howard Wilkinson was able to win
only two league games in 20 before he too was given the bullet.
McCarthy, who arrived in March, was given a dubious inheritance and he duly
lost all of the remaining nine Premier League games.
But...despite heavy debts and restricted spending, he did slowly restore confidence to the club.
In 2004, they reached the Championship play-offs and in 2005, after
recovering from an inauspicious start, they were promoted as champions with
a whopping 94 points.
But the Premier League is a very different challenge to the Championship.
Generally, you need a certain calibre of player to survive.
You need money to buy those players.
Sunderland did not have that money.
In a summer that saw Shaun Wright-Phillips move from Manchester City to
Chelsea for £21m, Sunderland’s biggest signing was Jon Stead ...for £1.8m.
Now, Stead is a lovely man and had scored freely for Huddersfield as a
youngster, but there were a few clues that he might not bring enough
firepower.
Yes, he’d scored six goals for Blackburn in their successful battle
against the drop in 2004, but he’d hit only two in 29 the following season.
Mind you, 2 in 29...
Surely he couldn’t do worse than that?
Stead was joined by Kelvin Davis, Nyron Nosworthy, Andy Gray (not that one) and Daryl Murphy ,
all good, solid players.
But not enough.
Oh, not nearly enough.
The new season started with a whimper.
Five straight defeats from day one.
Charlton, Liverpool, Manchester City, Wigan and Chelsea all ran off with
maximum points.
But there was a glimmer of hope.
Sunderland drew with West Bromwich Albion, they beat Middlesbrough
and they drew with West Ham.
Five points from a possible nine.
They moved up to 17th!
This was far and away their best period of the season.​
It was followed by NINE straight defeats.
On October 29, Sunderland shuffled into 20th place.
They would stay there for the rest of the season.
But hey, at least there was a late Christmas present on Boxing
Day.
It was a 0-0 draw at home to Bolton Wanderers.
It was followed by THREE straight defeats.
McCarthy would pick up just four more points before the axe fell in March.
“We fully expected it to be a tough first season back,” said chairman Bob
Murray, “But none of us expected to be in the position we are today.”
Club legend Kevin Ball took over for the final ten games of the season, but
he couldn’t stop the rot.
He did, however, oversee something extraordinary.
Jon Stead’s first, and indeed his last, Premier League goal.
Poor Stead.
2 in 29 looked like a hot streak compared to the...
1 in 30 he scored for Sunderland.
Relegation was finally confirmed on April 14.
Baffling to the end, Sunderland went to Old Trafford and drew 0-0 with title-chasing
Manchester United.
But it wasn’t enough.
They ended the season with 15 points, four fewer than they’d
managed in 2003.
Oh, Sunderland.
Towards the end of this miserable campaign, supporters of other teams
began to find amusement in the swathes of empty seats visible at the
Stadium of Light.
They missed the point.
In fact , they missed two points.
Firstly, one end of the stadium at that time was given over to away fans and
Sunderland was a really, really long way away for pretty everyone else in the
league.
But secondly, and most importantly, if there were 18,000 empty
seats, that meant that there were 30,000 full ones.
THIRTY THOUSAND PEOPLE kept paying money to watch what was
then the worst Premier League football team EVER even when they were already
relegated.
That’s not something to mock.
Sunderland were down, but they weren’t out.
They returned the following season, powered into the Premier League by
Roy Keane’s fury.
And that Worst Team Ever Record?
It didn’t last for long.
Two years later, Derby County did something even more extraordinary.
But that, I’m afraid, is another story.