The Stadium of Light was rocking as Sunderland marked their Premier League return with a 3-0 win against West Ham United.
The Wearside faithful have been waiting for such a moment since their beloved club were relegated from the top flight in 2017 and it seemed a somewhat distant target when another relegation was suffered 12 months later as the Black Cats dropped into the third tier of English football for only the second time in their history.
Slowly but surely, a rebuild has taken place and an exciting summer in the transfer market and the thought of going head-to-head with the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City meant there was a notable buzz around the city as matchday approached. The atmosphere was one of the greatest witnessed in Sunderland’s recent history and it only intensified as Eliezer Mayenda, Dan Ballard and Wilson Isidor got the goals to help Regis Le Bris mark his Premier League managerial debut with an impressive win.
Although the on-field performances and the tactical setup put in place by the Black Cat boss earned praise from Manchester United legend Gary Neville, there was also special praise for the Sunderland supporters that roared their side on to a fine win.
Speaking on Sky Sports Monday Night Football, the former England defender said: “To be fair, (Jamie) Carragher has done a really good piece on how Sunderland won the game - but what we have missed out is the fans. The electricity in that stadium, the atmosphere if you were watching those goals go in, it was unbelievable to see Sunderland back in the league. It will have a massive impact on them. Everyone is talking about the bottom three clubs (newly promoted) clubs going down all the time, so they need to get off to a good start. The impact that will have on those players, those fans, the whole club will be enormous.”
What did Regis Le Bris say about Sunderland fans after the West Ham win?
Sunderland's Regis Le Bris. Photo by Chris Fryatt.placeholder image
Sunderland's Regis Le Bris. Photo by Chris Fryatt. | Sunderland's Regis Le Bris. Photo by Chris Fryatt.
Speaking after the win, Le Bris said: “We needed both sides of the performance. We have spoken a lot about tactics, but it is obvious that we needed to show desire, intensity. They used the connection with the fans as well. I'm happy for the fans and the players and the club. We had different phases of pre-season and we spoke about the layers we needed to add. It was obvious that it starts from the foundations - we showed that the team is working well, they were hard to beat in a mid to low block. The first half was a bit more difficult but during the second half we felt we could get opportunities through regains in the middle and that we could score through counter-attacks.”
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