There is no rhyme or reason to it, no cunning plan for others to dissect, or look for a hidden secret. As to why, that is, Sunderland, a club now penniless and in debt, and hunting for a buyer, can rally and find the fight to make a fight of staying in the Premier League.
Each season it looks lost and each season somethings stirs inside a dressing room largely detached from the heartbeat of the club’s support. Usually the presence of a new face in the dugout or an old foe in opposition (Newcastle) acts as an unlikely launchpad to safety.
Traditionally it goes to the wire, traditionally there is wonderment that such previous mediocrity can fashion such passion and spirit. It is a bizarre formula. The Sunderland chief executive, Martin Bain, this week admitted that buying 46 players and finding the value increase in only three does not work.
And yet.
And yet Sunderland somehow scrape around with a directionless recruitment policy, with a manager not best pleased to learn he has nothing to spend in January. The club’s debt is £134 million and Ellis Short, the owner, has had enough of bankrolling things. And yet they found enough for victory once more.
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“You really cannot write off a football club that has made an art form of hanging on
Sunderland, under David Moyes, looked dead and buried — an admittedly familiar feeling — when October finished. Two draws from 11 Premier League games. It is a football club that puts both legs in the relegation trapdoor, not the odd foot.
Since then, however, a remarkable team spirit, or good fortune, or the indifference of opposition, or the growing influence of Moyes (take your pick) has fashioned the most unlikely, and yet paradoxically predictable fightbacks.
You really cannot write off a football club that has made an art form of hanging on.
Seven games have been played since yet another grim start to a season finished, and this victory, after a dreadful first half, was their fourth. Bournemouth, Hull, Leicester and now Watford, have provided the springboard for life, or a celebration at full time yesterday, or even for the man in charge of the PA to blast out Jackie Wilson’s The Sweetest Feeling.
The unrest of a club lurching towards chaos (debt and wantaway owners and relegation is a dangerous combination) was forgotten. If there is a Sunderland way then this is it. If there is a way, it will be found, despite the planning.
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Watford should have been ahead by half-time. There were fine chances for Walter Mazzarri’s side. Nordin Amrabat fired an excellent volley goalwards in the second minute. Jordan Pickford, a rising star, was at full stretch to tip the effort over. These can be season-changing saves. Odion Ighalo went close; Miguel Britos headed over a fine chance and Sebastian Prodl was similarly wasteful in front of goal.
Only in added time at the end of the first half did Sunderland fashion a chance, Heurelho Gomes denying Patrick Van Aanholt’s angled shot. The Watford goalkeeper would be less successful four minutes into the second half, when Adnan Januzaj broke, found Jermain Defoe whose cross was evetually forced in by van Aanholt off a post.
That was enough for another victory, to create more belief that Sunderland might once again have enough to at least make a fight of staying in a division they often look hell bent on getting out of.
It was their game after that. Defoe, the reborn Victor Anichebe and Lamine Kone all went close. At the death, Pickford again stood strong, a player growing immensely in confidence to deny first Daryl Janmaat and then Ighalo.
Pickford is Sunderland born. He will understand the way the club goes about staying up better than most.