I Was At The Stadium Of Light To Watch Stunning Sunderland Qualify For Europa League

May 24th has now become one of the most memorable days in the footballing calendar for the Sunderland faithful. 

Last year, Regis Le Bris’ Black Cats beat Sheffield United 2-1 with a stunning comeback win, completed with then-Brighton-bound, academy graduate Tommy Watson’s last kick for his boyhood club. 

Fast forward 12 months, and the newly-promoted Sunderland planted their flag back among the Premier League elite, with a seventh-placed finish and qualification for next season’s Europa League. 

Whether you believe in fate or not, there seems to be something of a self-fulfilling fairytale prophecy taking place on the banks of the River Wear. 

A tale fitting for theatres, with all the drama and emotion to fulfil this season’s Sunderland story.

Hours ahead of kick-off, as the sun shone across the streets of Sunderland, anticipation and excitement was tangible around the city.

Not fear, not nerves, not dread. The return to the top flight has been nothing short of stupendous, with the allure of European football being the metaphorical cherry on top. 

As red smoke billowed outside of the Stadium of Light, the Black Cats were welcomed into battle by a cacophony of controlled chaos.

Kick-off ensued, and as the opening exchanges were played, it felt that those of a red-and-white persuasion would be heading home happiest that afternoon. 

Within the stands, the vitalised home crowd spurred Sunderland on, with Le Bris’ team playing in the style worthy of a top-seven side.

Luke O’Nien notched just his second assist in as many seasons with a flick-on for Trai Hume, who dispatched emphatically on the volley. 

Two players who arrived on Wearside in the depths of League One-enforced despair, for less than £1m combined, connected to send Sunderland on course for Europe. 

Those two stalwarts will have heard the chant based off Bob Marley’s ‘Three Little Birds’, with the Sunderland fans then singing that song in the club’s third tier era with delusional optimism that the Black Cats’ matters could ‘only get better’, because they could not possibly get any worse.

As the same song chorused around the Stadium of Light stands with a 2-1 win over Chelsea secured, after the billionaire-backed Blues left Wearside with a mood matching their jersey, it took on a different meaning. 

Now, Sunderland fans believe ‘things can only get better’, because they’ve never been this good. 

Granit Xhaka as the captain and conductor, playmaker Enzo Le Fee the magician in midfield, the bullish Brian Brobbey leading the line and the marauding Nordi Mukiele marshalling the defence. 

This ending to the 2025/26 Premier League campaign would have been unfathomable to even the most diehard Sunderland supporters on that infamous afternoon under the Wembley arch last year. 

Almost magnetically, the stars that shine over Sunderland have aligned over the last 12 months, culminating in clinching a return to European football for the first time in over five centuries.

A team built by Le Bris on the foundations of grit, determination and endeavour, much like the surrounding city entrenched with working class roots itself.

Some of the 48,000 home fans inside the Stadium of Light stands scratched their eyes, some wiped their tears away and others sang at the top of their lungs, all tethered by the red-and-white stripes, deserving of this unifying moment for their unwavering dedication. 

Nobody knows what the next chapter of the Sunderland story will hold, but one thing is for certain, it is that the Black Cats are back, and back where they belong.