Sunderland were relegated to England's third tier for the first time in 30 years on Saturday as the Championship's bottom club lost 2-1 to fellow strugglers Burton. Chris Coleman's side have crashed into League One only a year after being relegated from the Premier League. They have played only one season outside the top two tiers of English football in their entire history, winning promotion from the old Third Division in 1987-88.
Burton striker Darren Bent returned to haunt his former team with an 86th-minute equaliser to cancel out Paddy McNair's opener on 34 minutes at the Stadium of Light. Liam Boyce headed second-bottom Burton in front in second half stoppage-time before Sunderland had a late equaliser disallowed to provide a fitting finale to their wretched season.
Sunderland are six points from safety with only two matches left and the remaining fixtures of their relegation rivals make it mathematically impossible to avoid the drop. Promoted Wolves celebrated their ascent to the Premier League by clinching the Championship title with a 4-0 win at lowly Bolton.
Needing one point from their final three matches to be crowned champions, Wolves got the job done thanks to goals from Barry Douglas, Benik Afobe and Diogo Jota plus a Conor Coady penalty. Wolves are two points shy of 100 for the season with games against Sheffield Wednesday and Sunderland still to come.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.