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After four years away, Sunderland made their return to the Championship today, against a youthful and energetic Coventry City side.
Almost 41,000 crammed into the Stadium of Light to witness the occasion, with many being a part of an impressive pre-match flag display.
The display depicted the ship shown on Sunderland badges of old, with Alex Neil hoping that his side would set sail into the season with an opening day win. The atmosphere was raucous and passionate, tinged with expectation, but nerves too.
As the lyrics to ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ echoed and then faded, the match began, with Coventry immediately trying to nullify the noise. They managed this briefly, and kept the ball moving for the first few minutes.
Sunderland had to capitalise on the crowd whilst they were still with them, though, and this they did as they grew into the game quickly. The Black Cats have several gifted players, and it was one of them, Jack Clarke, who gave them an early lead after 12 minutes.
A delightful cross-field ball from Alex Pritchard was met by Lynden Gooch, who glided past his marker and delivered into the area. Simon Moore in the Coventry goal rushed out in an attempt to meet the cross, but got nowhere near the ball, presenting Clarke with the simple task of heading down into the net. Cue delirium in the Stadium of Light.
The famous Roker roar from years gone by made a triumphant return as the ball hit the net. After possibly the worst spell in the club’s history, the visual and audible relief could be felt in that goal.
Many on Wearside are probably aware that this season will likely be a one of consolidating; of cementing their place in the second tier, and building for years to come. The emotion released from Clarke’s goal would have made most of them believe anything was possible.
Clarke almost had a second not long after. Pritchard again showed his range and picked out his teammate, who could only find Moore’s gloves on this occasion.
Mark Robins has built his Coventry side to not be overawed by such occasions, however, and they showed that as the first half drew to a close. They came unbelievably close to being on terms via Jonathan Panzo in the 37th minute, as he hit the crossbar from 30-yards, causing a collective sigh of relief amongst the home support.
Those in red and white would have been mostly pleased with the opening half of the new campaign, but they would be aware that their opposition posed a significant threat. Recent memories of a 4-5 loss to the Sky Blues at the Stadium of Light, that helped to derail automatic promotion hopes from League One in 2018/19, would still be haunting them.
Coventry were perhaps spurred on by this, and began the second half on top. Despite this, they squandered chances to draw level, with the most notable moment coming as Dan Neil gave the ball away around the edge of the box, before it fell fortuitously to Matt Godden.
With all the goal to aim at and only Anthony Patterson in the way, Godden managed to fire wide, to the dismay of all those of a Coventry persuasion. Missing chances had been the story of Coventry’s game.
Their man leading the line, Viktor Gyökeres, had not had the best of games, and made several errors.
Therefore it was only fitting that when they finally did draw level, after knocking on the Sunderland door relentlessly as the second period drew on, that Gyökeres should be the one who scored. On 84 minutes he drifted effortlessly past two Sunderland men, before sending a bullet into the bottom right corner.
It was a deserved equaliser for the performance put in by Coventry, and one which Sunderland had no reply to.
The change of emotion around the home support would have been confounded if Luke O’Nien had been sent off deep into stoppage time. His reckless challenge was deemed only to be a yellow card, but replays showed it could, and possibly should have been worse.
The final whistle drew proceedings to a close, with both sides perhaps thinking that victory could have been theirs. Sunderland will know that they will have to use their support to full advantage as the season continues, whilst Coventry will look to build and progress higher up the table.
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