This was not the column I had mapped out in my mind for today.

At the start of the week, with an improved performance at Cardiff City delivering a long overdue victory on Good Friday and with an Easter Monday home game to come against a relegation-threatened Blackburn Rovers side winless in ten games in all competitions, I had hoped to write about a resurgence of positivity on Wearside.

Too late to salvage anything more than pride from this season, perhaps, but consecutive wins - or even four points - from two matches over Easter would have at least set things up nicely ahead of this weekend’s home game against Bristol City, before the much tougher back-to-back away tests at Leeds United and then West Bromwich Albion.

Scratch that. Cardiff turned out to be nothing more than a dead cat bounce.

Instead, Sunderland’s pitiful performance in the 5-1 humiliation at the hands of Blackburn saw their season plumb new depths.

 

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Given the context and the opposition, it ranks up there amongst the worst displays I can remember at the Stadium of Light.

No wonder when the third goal went in within two minutes of the start of the second half, many Sunderland fans decided they had better things to do on a Bank Holiday Monday.

Then, less than ten minutes later, the fourth goal was the signal for that initial surge to be followed by a mass exodus.

Teenager Chris Rigg pulled a goal back towards the end, but by the time Blackburn added their fifth - joining Coventry City in 2019 and Stoke City in 2023 to become only the third visiting side to score five at the Stadium of Light - the ranks of empty red and white seats told their own story.

We Are Sunderland: Sunderland were humiliated by Blackburn Rovers on Easter MondaySunderland were humiliated by Blackburn Rovers on Easter Monday (Image: Ian Horrocks)

It is hard to comprehend just how bad Sunderland were against Rovers compared to their showing in South Wales just 72 hours earlier.

Just as it is hard to believe how Sunderland’s season has nosedived since the turn of the year as six defeats and a draw from mid-February to mid-March put paid to their top six hopes.

Not to mention how the mood has changed from this season to last.

Win, lose, or draw, watching Tony Mowbray’s fearless young side fighting for a play-off place last season was a joy; watching this team toil in the second half of the current campaign has been an ordeal.

Sunderland fans could not wait to renew their season tickets 12 months ago, but many will be thinking long and hard about doing so once again.

Because with the summer fast approaching the club stands at a crossroads and, for the first time since owner-chairman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus arrived, serious questions are being asked about the direction in which the club is heading.

 

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Big decisions must be made - with little-to-no margin for error.

Mike Dodds’ latest unhappy tenure as interim head coach will come to a natural end and a new man will need to be identified and appointed.

The all-too-apparent inadequacies of the current squad in terms of experience and firepower, highlighted repeatedly by media and supporters alike for at least 12 months, must be addressed by signing players ready for immediate action rather than raw talents who *might* one day make the grade.

Not only that but the likelihood is that key players will move on this summer and sourcing replacements will be no easy task, yet it must be done.

And now, with the news this week that chief operating officer Steve Davison is stepping down, the club must quickly find a replacement who can come straight in and oversee the  recently-announced major infrastructure overhaul at the Stadium of Light that will take place during the close-season.

In the immediate aftermath of the Blackburn defeat, a clearly still-furious Dodds spoke to the media and warned his players that they were effectively playing for their futures at the club.

“If they want to play for this football club, they’ve got to put in a better performance than that,” he said.

It is a message that should resonate beyond the dressing room all the way to the boardroom.

Because, after this season of blunders, failure, and crushing disappointment, Sunderland fans have a right to expect better performances from those in charge of their club as well as those representing it on the pitch.

 

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It was 20 years ago this week that Sunderland reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup where they faced Millwall at Old Trafford - one of the great ‘what if’ moments in the club’s history.

For silverware-starved North-East clubs winning a major trophy is the Holy Grail, but here Mick McCarthy’s Black Cats had the opportunity to claim a victory even in defeat.

All they had to do was see off their fellow second tier side to reach the final against Manchester United at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium (the new Wembley was still under construction), and they would have all-but guaranteed European football for only the second time in their history - the first, of course, coming in the wake of their famous FA Cup triumph against Leeds United in 1973.

We Are Sunderland: Tim Cahill scored the only goal of the game as Sunderland were beaten by Millwall in the FA Cup semi-final in 2004 at Old TraffordTim Cahill scored the only goal of the game as Sunderland were beaten by Millwall in the FA Cup semi-final in 2004 at Old Trafford

At that stage, Man United were as good as assured a place in Europe by virtue of their league position (indeed, they went on to secure a place in the Champions League), and that meant that the UEFA Cup spot that normally went to the FA Cup winners would instead go to the runners-up.

But they blew it as Tim Cahill secured a 1-0 win which sent the Lions to Cardiff and on a brief foray into Europe, where they lost out to Hungarian champions Ferencvaros.

And it was there the Curse of Cahill began. More of that another time.