Sunderland FA Cup preview for the second season running

[Sweden Stag]

For the second season running, the Stags have been awarded an away FA Cup tie against the same opposition. And the opponents are a side which have won the FA Cup twice, last time out as a second division club way back in 1973, namely Sunderland.

Last season, the Stags went through by the only goal of the game, eventually reaching the third round after beating Dagenham & Redbridge at headquarters in dramatic fashion by virtually the final extra-time kick odf the game to a 2-1 scoreline. In the third round, the League Two champions-to-be, Cheltenham Town kayoed the Stags in added time as well. And that was also to a 2-1 scoreline

And a few weeks after last season’s FA Cup game, Phil Parkinson had to leave the Black Cats, and was replaced by Lee Johnson, who as Oldham boss faced the Stags in the 2013-14 FA Cup second round. But Nigel Clough, appointed a year ago, faced Sunderland a few times a couple of seasons ago as Burton boss inasmuch as Burton and Sunderland were relegated together from the Championship in 2018. But league results and form count for nothing this weekend.

Sunderland are a club with a famous past, and played at the highest level consecutively from 1890 to the 1957-58 season when they were relegated for the first time ever. Since then, the Black Cats have see-sawed between the top tier and current Championship and two of their relegations have subsequently resulted in relegation to the third tier. This happened for the first time in 1987, two years after ending a five-season-stint at top level. After losing playoffs against Gillingham, Sunderland were to face the Stags in the third tier during the 1987-88 in which the Stags were heavily beaten in both games.

A decade earlier, Sunderland had been relegated from the top level after playing something like eleven consecutive fixtures without even scoring, among them nine straight defeats, an unwanted record which were to be broken in 2003, and were due to face the Stags at the second level after Mansfield’s 1976-77 Division Three Championship season. Just five seasons after Ian Porterfield’s memorable strike against Leeds at Wembley where Jim Montgomery made a famous save from a Peter Lorimer shot, Sunderland faced the Stags and beat the Stags both times with a narrow margin. At home, the Stags were unlucky to lose with 1-2 in front of 12,827 (Stags scorer: Syrett, Sunderland scorer: Rostron 2) on October 22, 1977. The return fixture at Roker Park saw the return of a Sunderland all-time great, Billy Bingham, but as manager of the Stags! Bingham had just taken over the hot seat from Peter Morris only a month before the game was played, March 18, 1978. Bingham’s return was a sad one as Sunderland won by the only goal of the game. Ten seasons later, in 1987-88, Sunderland found themselves in the old division 3 for the first time in their history and thus had to face the Stags. This time around, Sunderland’s winning margins were more clear-cut. After the latest Sunderland PL demotion in 2017, Sunderland were relegated straight to the third tier the following season, and have since then been stuck there with currently three straight defeats, the latest two heavily away to Yorkshire opposition, 5-1 at Rotherham and 3-0 at Sheffield Wednesday respectively

In fact, this is the first time in 30 years, the Stags have been drawn against the same side in consecutive FA Cup campaigns. In 1990-91 and 1991-92 respectively, their opposition was Preston. Further back in time, the Stags faced Tow Law in successive season. While the away game in 1967-68 ended in disaster, the home fixture in 1968 -69 was the first step to the quarter-finals.

Sunderland have won the FA Cup twice, first time was in 1937, one year after Sunderland’s last out of six top-flight titles but they have also been on the wrong end of one of the biggest FA Cup shocks of all time. On January 29, 1949, Sunderland travelled all the way down to Yeovil and were dumped out of the Cup big style to 2-1 scoreline at Huish Park and the scorer of Yeovil’s winner, Eric Bryant, had previous Stags connections.

Sunderland connections had the scorer of the Stags’ third goal in the famous giant-killing of West Ham two decades later as Nicky Sharkey had previously played for Sunderland as well as for the side where were to beat the Stags in the quarter-finals, namely Leicester City.

Last season was also the first time the Stags faced Sunderland in the FA Cup and at the Stadium of Light as previous League games between the sides were played at Roker Park. But the sides faced each other in the League Cup early on in the 2003-04 when the Stags were very unlucky to lose in stoppage time. One of the Stags players then, Liam Lawrence, were later to play in the top flight for Sunderland and subsequently Stoke City.

Several famous names have played for Sunderland over the years. One is Brian Clough and some have also played for the Swedish National team. To name but two: Sebastian Larsson and Ola Toivonen, the latter stemming from one of the previewer’s fave Swedish team, Degerfors IF, last year returning to the Swedish equivalent to the PL after an absence of 23 years.

Two previous Stags bosses did play for Sunderland: Billy Bingham and Raich Carter.

Played for both sides: Tony Ford, David Kelly, John Lathan, Liam Lawrence, Dennis Longhorn, Bobby Mimms, Matt Piper, Nick Sharkey, Darren Ward, Steve Whitworth.

Jimmy Grattan was on Sunderland’s books and played only one Stags game, at Southend in November 1978. Blair Adams, Fergus Bell and Brian Thompson had also been on Sunderland’s books without making their first team.

If someone finds more players having appeared for both sides than those above listed, they can be but onto Stagsnet in the preview thread.

Stats facts with the Stags figures first

Home: P 2, W 0, D 0, L 2, GF 1, GA 6
Away: P 2, W 0, D 0, L 2, GF 1, GA 5

Home games Away games

1977-78 1-2 1977-10-22 0-1 1978-03-18 Div 2 (old)
1987-88 0-4 1988-04-26 1-4 1987-08-31 Div 3 (old)

Cup games

2003-04 1-2 2003-08-14 League Cup 1st round at Field Mill
2020-21 1-0 2020-11-08 FA Cup 1st round at Stadium of Light

Hope for a good game on Saturday. Come on Mansfield!