On This Day (20th April 1991): It’s “Win Or Bust” For Smith’s Sunderland!

Marco Gabbiadini, Sunderland (Photo by Neal Simpson/EMPICS via Getty Images) | PA Images via Getty Images It’s getting to the business end of the season and in most of our ‘on this day’ articles you will no doubt be reading about high pressure games – and this one was huge. To set the scene, Denis Smith had taken Sunderland from Division Three to the top flight in three seasons as manager and once we were there, the club struggled to back him up. This was evident in the fact that the seven out of the starting XI on the opening day of the First Division campaign at Norwich City turned out for Sunderland in the Third Division.

Our two most experienced players departed to make room for wages, with Eric Gates heading to Carlisle United and John MacPhail left for Hartlepool United, and Kevin Ball and Peter Davenport arrived to replace them. Even though we were promoted despite being comfortably beaten by Swindon Town in the play-off final, hopes were raised for survival due to the fact only two sides were to be relegated. The Football Association had decided to increase the number of teams in the top flight to twenty-two, so only two would drop out.

By the beginning of March, Sunderland dropped into the bottom two having kept their head above water until that point – but there were still twelve games remaining. In the first eight of those fixtures, Smith’s Sunderland picked up just four points from the twenty-one available. In three of those games, the Lads took only one point after taking the lead.

This meant that with four games remaining it looked grim. Derby County were rock bottom with 21 points on the board, we were eight points better off in the second relegation spot, and above us was Luton Town who were five points above us, but they had played a game more – and next up, on this day in 1991, Sunderland travelled to Luton. The day before the game, Smith had ruled out the comeback of star striker Marco Gabbiadini who had been struggling with injury, but when the team was announced, Gabbiadini was on the bench to everyone’s surprise.