Mick McCarthy was highly touted to take the Sunderland job before Howard Wilkinson took the reins, and he was given the chance to be manager in March 2003 to help stop the clubs slide out of the top division.
He had eight games to turn the season around and try to mount an unlikely survival charge – but his introduction did little to change the momentum, as the club fell to eight straight defeats and fell out the top flight.
The summer of 2003 was a huge one for the club, as budgets were cut and Sunderland got to grips with life outside the Premier League.
Long-term players and fan-favourites left the club, including Thomas Sorenson, Kevin Phillips, Gavin McCann, Michael Gray and many others.
McCarthy was given a tight budget, but the ambition was to return to the top flight at the first time of asking.
Sunderland had a solid season and were always in contention for promotion, but ended up finishing in third place. McCarthy also guided the team to an FA Cup semi-final, but they lost 1-0 to Millwall despite dominating the game.
In the Play-Offs, we faced Iain Dowie’s Crystal Palace, who had surged up the table to nab sixth place.
Unfortunately, though, it was not to be as we drew 4-4 on aggregate and lost the penalty shoot-out.
The disappointment of losing in the Play-Offs was quickly swept under the rug by the boss, and Sunderland went about building a team capable of returning to the top flight.
In came Stephen Elliot, Liam Lawrence, Dean Whitehead, Danny Collins and Steven Caldwell, who would become integral parts of the team that season.
The campaign started slowly, with Sunderland sat as low as 17th after losing 1-0 away at Reading in September, but their form up to Christmas – including a 2-0 home victory against fellow promotion rivals Ipswich - put the club up around the automatic promotion spots.
Eight straight wins in March and April put McCarthy’s men on the cusp of promotion, and a 2-1 victory against Leicester City at the Stadium of Light sealed their place back in the Premier League.
Victory the next week at Upton Park against West Ham confirmed the title, as Julio Arca and Elliot netted in a 2-1 victory.
The Premier League campaign in 2005-06 was never going to be easy, as McCarthy was given a strict budget.
Hard work and determination was not enough to make up for the lack of quality in the side, and even though the team did not take many hammerings, they struggled to score goals.
Five straight defeats to start the season put the fans under no illusions that it was to be a hard campaign, but a draw and a victory against West Brom and Middlesbrough followed and there was hope that the team were finding their feet.
Nine straight league defeats followed the Middlesbrough win, though, as Sunderland fell down the table and looked nailed on for the drop.
Defeat away at Manchester City in March was the final nail in McCarthy’s coffin, and Kevin Ball was installed as caretaker until the end of the season.
The McCarthy era at Sunderland was undoubtedly a success, as he guided the club out of a dark period and got them back in the Premier League despite having near enough nothing to spend.
Yes, he did oversee a tough PL campaign, but, realistically, it was never going to be an easy campaign due to the lack of resources available to him.
