During this series, we take a look at classic matches from the last decade that will be sure to live long in the memory of Sunderland fans.
In today’s feature, we head back to December 2011 when Martin O’Neill began his reign as Sunderland boss and Blackburn Rovers made the trip to Wearside.
Despite only being 15 games into the season, the clash was touted as a six-pointer, with the Black Cats and Rovers 18th and 19th respectively.
Team News
Lee Cattermole and Nicklas Bendtner were unavailable following the 2-1 defeat at Wolves, so O’Neill opted for Craig Gardner and Connor Wickham as their replacements.
David Vaughan was also restored to the starting XI in place of Ji Dong-Won to form a five-man midfield.
Sunderland: Westwood, O’Shea, Bramble, Brown, Bardsley, Larsson, Colback (Ji 76), Vaughan, Richardson, Sessegnon, Wickham (McClean 76)
Subs not used: Kilgallon, Meyler, Carson, Elmohamady, Noble
Blackburn: Robinson, Salgado (Hanley 51), Samba, Dann, Givet (Olsson 22, Henley 46), Lowe, Dunn, Pedersen, Vukcevic, Formica, Yakubu
Subs not used: Bunn, Blackman, Goodwillie, Roberts
Match Recap
O’Neill made his entrance to a deafening roar at the Stadium of Light for the beginning of a new era at Sunderland.
But the wind was knocked out of the Black Cats inside 20 minutes when Simon Vukcevic headed the visitors in front.
Moments later, Stephane Sessegnon provided the spark and crossed for Kieran Richardson, but the midfielder squandered the chance and fired straight at Paul Robinson.
After the break, the Lads continued to press and Richardson was once again denied by the acrobatics of Rovers’ stopper.
But just as time was running out, Vaughan delivered a bolt from the blue and smashed in a 25-yard effort leaving Robinson rooted to the spot.
And deep into injury-time, Sebastian Larsson curled in a free-kick at the near post to spark electric scenes at the Stadium of Light and move Sunderland out of the relegation zone.
Moment of the Match
Larsson’s last-gasp winner.
The Swede scored some sublime free-kicks during his time in red & white, but perhaps none were more important than this effort.
After the ball curled into the net in what seemed like slow motion, it triggered jubilant scenes from O’Neill as his Sunderland tenure got off to a dream start.