Given Sunderland’s on-field progress, are early exits from the Stadium of Light justified?

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During the 2007/2008 season, Roy Keane’s Sunderland side became known for their last-gasp goalscoring exploits at home as we fought our way to Premier League safety.

Late winning goals against the likes of Tottenham, Derby County, West Ham and Middlesbrough were all part of the rollercoaster ride, and they created moments that remain as iconic now as they were back then.

Going back another season, during our 2006/2007 Championship title-winning season, we salvaged late results against the likes of Stoke City and Derby, developing a ‘fight until the very end’ mindset and laying the groundwork for a decade of top flight football in the process.

Fast forward seventeen years and a similar story seems to be being written under Régis Le Bris, as a cavalier band of young footballers continue to impress and demonstrate their top six credentials, even if the titanic tussle with Leeds ended in front of a much sparser crowd than it began.

It’s true that the image of a increasingly empty seating bowl during the final ten minutes didn’t look brilliant either in the flesh or on TV, and those who did opt for an early exit missed out on one of the great Stadium of Light moments as we rescued a late draw thanks to an all-time classic goalkeeping howler from Illan Meslier.

In terms of sheer drama, the conclusion to Friday’s game was up there with ‘It falls for Chopraaaaaaaaa!’, but it was a real shame that so many fans didn’t stick around to share in it.

So, what’s the definitive answer to this question, if indeed one exists?

As unpalatable a truth as it might be, it nevertheless is the truth that if you’ve paid good money for a ticket, you retain the right to either remain inside the stadium until the final whistle or to leave early, and for reasons that may well be unique to you.

In the first instance, it’s an unavoidable fact that the urge to try and beat the often-gridlocked Sunderland traffic will always be there.

The queues at Park Lane Interchange and the volume of traffic around Priestman Roundabout, Barnes Park and the Durham Road Lidl (as well as the frequency of the buses themselves) can be troublesome during evening games and sometimes, you simply want to get home as quickly as possible, come what may on the pitch.

Indeed, I walked through the door at at 10:50pm on Friday night, but the elation of snatching a late draw more than made up for it.

The second point concerns the tendency for faith to waver if we’re losing a game, because it’s incredibly easy to lapse into a defeatist mindset, even as an established Championship club, when you consider of the weight of history and the fear of a return to the bad old days.

We’re now taking positive steps forward after almost a decade of strife and a turbulent 2023/2024 season, but perhaps confidence in the club’s direction of travel remains fragile in some quarters and it would’ve been easy to say ‘Typical Sunderland. Falling short in a key game once again’ before Friday’s late twist.

That’s natural, and after so many years of false hopes, mockery on a national scale, setbacks and heartbreaks, it’s understandable that some fans might not want to open themselves up to the prospect of that again.

On the other hand, what we learned on Friday night is that this team is developing the kind of team spirit and resilience on which successful seasons are built, and that had we lost, it wouldn’t have been via a lack of effort.

This wholehearted and supremely talented bunch of lads deserve our backing even during tough times at home, and I can’t imagine it would’ve done their morale a whole lot of good to see swathes of supporters heading for the exits with over ten minutes left on the clock.

I remember Sunderland playing Bolton Wanderers on a bitterly cold day in December 2008. This was Keane’s final game in charge of the Lads, and I sat in the stand until the bitter end as the visitors stomped all over us on what was a thoroughly dispiriting day.

For those of us who remained, what was the driving factor? An inborn feeling of loyalty that simply couldn’t be shaken? An enduring sense of pride even in defeat, or just sheer stubbornness? If we could tap into that back then, surely we can do it now, with the club starting to move forward again.

For this club to continue to progress, everyone needs to be pulling in the same direction and the signs so far are broadly positive, with our away followings setting the standard for sheer fanaticism and several electric home atmospheres to boot.

Leaving a game early can result in missing out on those mad, unpredictable and joyous moments that made so many of us fall in love with football in the first place, and although it’s everyone’s right to decide when they go, it really is worth staying right to the very end if you can, because you simply never know what’s coming!

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