View From The Away End: Wolverhampton, Via The Watering Holes Of Birmingham
Still reeling from the shocking, humiliating and generally bizarre thumping at the hands of Nottingham Forest, it was time to face our third consecutive Midlands side in the shape of already-relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers. That home loss had felt completely incongruent with the mood around the city before kick-off. The streets had been filled with red and white stripes, the sun beamed overhead, and songs filled the air as we headed across the Keel Crossing, beholding the “Welcome to Sunderland” sign ahead for the first time.
What transpired after has been dissected and analysed appropriately, and it’s time to consign that one to the dustbin of history and move swiftly on. Even before the Forest game, the trip to Molineux might have been pencilled in as a typical “banana skin”, but in the context of that defeat, it felt like a crucial chance to steady the ship and regain some pride as the season draws to a close. Wolves had enjoyed a brief mid-season revival, where they bloodied the noses of several high-profile sides, before fading away again and reverting to their horrendous early-season form.
Lowly Spurs had even managed to notch a win against them, so this seemed like a golden opportunity for Sunderland to turn things around. Wolverhampton City Centre has an infamous reputation as a “home fans only” stronghold, so we opted to start proceedings in Birmingham instead. I’ve never understood places that insist on this small-minded policy, which only drives away thousands of potential customers to their nearby rivals, depriving local venues of much-needed income in these tough times for the hospitality industry.
Sunderland fans in particular are known to be prolific supporters of local hostelries, and we’re generally a good-natured bunch, so it’s ridiculous that fans aren’t able to mingle freely in the same way they do before Sunderland home games. Anyway, we kicked off proceedings by returning to the Figure of Eight beer garden, one of the best sun traps in the city centre, though its reputation was tarnished for me at the weekend after seeing a sizeable group of patrons doing that irritating single-file queue at the bar trend. Covid restrictions have been over for a while, people.
We dropped in briefly at the Railway pub next to New Street, hoping to enjoy some EFL final day drama. Sadly, Ipswich quickly put paid to those hopes by racing into a two-goal lead against QPR, so it was time to jump on the local rattler train to Wolverhampton, hoping to see a similarly professional job from Sunderland to get us back on track. Our last trip here back in December 2017 was a completely different affair.
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