Away Day
We Went Back To Sunderland. This Time We Stayed Over.
· Admin
Sunderland 0-2 Brighton | Premier League | 10 October 2026 | Stadium of Light, 3pm
Same road as March. Same stotty cake. Different ending to the day, because this time we didn't turn the van round at half five and drive through the night. We booked rooms. Best decision I've made all season.
The Football, Briefly, Because There Wasn't Much Of It Early
Fabian Hürzeler named the same eleven that took Arsenal apart three weeks ago, which took some nerve after a three-week international break. Eight minutes, Kevin Danso's touch went astray, Diego Gómez was away, and Robin Roefs stood up tall and blocked it.
Sunderland had their moments. Xhaka slid Le Fée in on twenty-two and Wilson Isidor's effort came off the outside of the near post with Bart Verbruggen at full stretch. Nordi Mukiele hit one from thirty yards and Bart saved low. That was their only shot on target before the break. Ours was a Gross free-kick on 45+2 that found Pascal Struijk completely unmarked, and he planted his header against the foot of the post with Roefs frozen.
Four Minutes That Decided It
Fifty-three. Gómez flicked it, Gross picked it up and squeezed a pass through the lot of them, and Maxim De Cuyper rolled it low into the bottom corner.
0-1
Fifty-seven. Struijk hauled Isidor down as the striker broke clear, referee Thomas Bramall had a look on the monitor, straight red. Half an hour to hang on with ten.
We barely wobbled. Gross nicked the ball off Granit Xhaka and tried one from inside his own half, which Roefs somehow kept out. Then 90+3, a break, and Jaouen Hadjam — on in the 88th minute, signed from Young Boys in August — tucked away his first goal in English football within two minutes of setting foot on the pitch.
0-2
The Bit That Actually Matters
Sunderland fans were magnificent again. Nothing to cheer, bottom third of the table, four points, and that ground still sounded like a cup tie at ten to five. Nobody left early. I notice these things now.
And the city is fab. Genuinely. The evening we had after, the welcome we got in two pubs where we were clearly not locals, the food, the laughs — I've had worse nights out twenty minutes from my own front door. We're an independent minibus with a laminated seating plan and nothing to do with the club, but days like that are why anyone bothers doing it at all.
The Table, Briefly
Third. Thirteen points. Three straight league wins without conceding a goal.
Final Thought
Hundreds of miles, ninety minutes of football, one long evening in a city most people only drive past. If you've been putting an away day off, don't.
Take care of yourselves. And each other. Especially whoever's idea it was to book the rooms.
Sunderland at the Amex, Saturday 8 May 2027. Minibus from across Sussex, £25 return. Home game travel