Régis Le Bris said the 19-year-old Tommy Watson’s dramatic stoppage-time winner to clinch Sunderland’s promotion to the Premier League encapsulated a rollercoaster season and suggested team spirit will be key if they are to cope with the step up next season. The French head coach masterminded Sunderland’s return to the top flight after eight years in his first season at the club.
Watson, a 73rd-minute substitute, scored in the fifth minute of added time to complete a dream comeback victory after Eliezer Mayenda cancelled out Tyrese Campbell’s well-taken opener. Watson, who joined Sunderland aged eight, will move to Brighton next month after the clubs agreed a £10m deal in April, but the forward gave his boyhood club the perfect parting gift. “We’ll see each other in the Premier League next year, in the big time,” Watson said.
The finale brought more joyous scenes for Sunderland, who had reached Wembley thanks to Dan Ballard’s header in the final minute of extra time in their semi-final second-leg victory over Coventry, but playoff agony for Sheffield United. “At the end this game is a good example of the season,” Le Bris said. “Emotionally, it’s impressive … The end of the second leg was absolutely crazy. It was the case again, to create this connection, this emotion, these memories for the fans and for us. We need to live these tough moments and it will be really important in my life.”
Sunderland finished 16th in the division last season and a young side – on average they fielded the youngest team in the Championship this campaign – triumphed despite falling behind to Campbell’s strike at Wembley. “We showed a strong character even when we are not dominant, even when we struggle as a squad,” said the former Lorient manager. “We stayed connected, we stuck to our plan and maybe later in the game we found an opportunity to change the momentum.”
One of Sunderland’s stars, the 19-year-old Jobe Bellingham, is the subject of strong interest from Borussia Dortmund, while the 17-year-old Chris Rigg also has outside admirers, but Le Bris stressed it is a team game. “We need to remember that the connection between players is often more important than the talent of one player,” he said. “For me as a manager and in football in general sometimes we forget that it is a collective sport and effort. We tend to focus on one talent but it’s not the main point, it’s about the way we work together.”
A deflated Chris Wilder, a boyhood Blades fan who was in the crowd when United were beaten in the playoffs by Wolves and Burnley in 2003 and 2009 respectively, conceded defeat was a bitter blow. “We had an opportunity to change the narrative around the playoffs and we’ve not taken it,” the United manager said.
Wilder also questioned the use of the video assistant referee system, which was influential in disallowing Harrison Burrows’ volley at 1-0, when the offside Vinícius Souza was deemed to have interfered with the view of Anthony Patterson in Sunderland’s goal. “We play 46 games, two playoff games and all of a sudden it’s a subjective decision by the referee,” he said. “I don’t think the goalkeeper saves it, I don’t think he gets anywhere near it. I thought it gave them a lifeline with some real energy.”
Wilder said the manner of Sunderland’s goals was painful from his perspective. “We don’t secure the ball at the top of the pitch, the middle of the park is wide open and it’s amazing what the stories bring up, a local lad who is on his way to Brighton counters and finds a fabulous position and a finish and then the game has gone past us, it’s 97, 98 minutes, so fairytale stuff for the boy and Sunderland,” Wilder said. “For us, it’s going to take quite a while to get over it.”
