Sunderland fans react as club seals last-gasp play-off spot

Sunderland have finished the 2022/23 Championship season in 6th, landing themselves an unexpected play-off place.

Author:
Luke Phelps
Publish date:
May 8, 2023 2:34 PM EDT

Sunderland were at the centre of a whirlwind final day of the 2022/23 Championship season, with the Black Cats moving up into 6th after beating Preston North End.

Tony Mowbray's side started the day in 7th. They were two points behind Millwall and so the Black Cats needed a win to stand a chance of finishing inside the top six, and they needed Blackburn Rovers to do them a favour at Millwall.

But at half time Millwall were 3-1 up against Blackburn and Sunderland's game v Preston was goalless, so at that point Sunderland were finishing outside the top six.

Mowbray's former club Blackburn did him a huge favour though when they put three second half goals past Millwall to seal a 4-3 comeback win, and Sunderland then scored three of their own through Amad Diallo, Alex Pritchard, and Jack Clarke to beat Preston 3-0 and finish the season in 6th.

Sunderland returned to the Championship just last year after spending four long years in League One. The last time Sunderland played in the Premier League was in the 2016/17 season and now the club has a chance to seal what would be an extraordinary, successive play-off promotion.

So how did the Sunderland fans react to today's win? Here's some of the best tweets from today...

@Ian_Crow3: WE ARE IN THE PLAYOFFS!!! What an effort!!! What a squad!!! A season to remember and a dominant 2nd half gives us playoff place. We will play Luton and bring them on. We won't go down without a fight, and no matter what, it's been a fantastic season. HAWAY!!

@JimRaff88: Madness to think how we have done this missing a striker & our defence and practically a full 11. Best football I've witnessed us play!!

@Jst1992: Isn’t it nice to finally have a club we can be proud of again

@Keys_Safc94: What a day! Absolutely unbelievable! Well done lads!

@davidboyle1985: Unbelievably proud of this squad. What was expected, what they went through, injuries but the quality of football they played… genuinely incredible

@TAFKAHM: What a season sunderland afc , so many injuries etc and to finish in the play offs, the football, especially away from home is best I've seen , so proud!

@janey1000: I’ve said all season, I just wanted a stress free #safc season I said it in terms of hoping we weren’t needing points to stay up. It never even entered my head we’d need them to make the play offs This squad and Tony Mowbray deserve the keys to the City.

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