If Sunderland’s recent past is littered with embarrassments, this was another candidate for the title of a historic low. They can seem to be slumming it in League One, but they slumped to their heaviest ever defeat in third-tier football.
Their afternoon was summed up when Danny Batth, with a finish that was both unwitting and unstoppable, donated Bolton’s fifth goal with a spectacular diving header.
In a meeting of the inspired and the insipid, Bolton’s third win in a week at least suggested League One has some restorative powers for them. For Sunderland, it seems the land of broken dreams. Much more of this and their ignominious exile from their natural terrain will continue.
For manager and club alike it represented a nadir. “It is the worst feeling I have had in football in a career of 20-odd years,” said Lee Johnson, as he submitted an apology to 5,000 travelling fans. “I can’t give answers. I didn’t see it coming. The players felt embarrassed. I was angry. I am hurting.”
His despair contrasted with Bolton’s delight. “Everything went right,” said manager Ian Evatt. Bolton’s biggest victory at their home of 25 years was orchestrated by a recent arrival who had appeared evidence of their decline. A ground that hosted Atlético Madrid in 2008 will stage Accrington in April. Bolton used to sign from Real Madrid. Now they have recruited Accrington’s striker Dion Charles and a January signing ran Sunderland ragged as he scored his second and third goals for his new employers.
Chalk it up, perhaps, to the curse of Evatt. In October, Bolton’s manager branded his team the best in League One and they promptly went on a losing run. This week, he declared Sunderland were the division’s best footballing side. Bolton made them appear the worst.
“We have fallen unbelievably short in every facet of football. There were so many poor individual performances,” added Johnson after Sunderland were blown away.
Photograph: Paul Currie/Shutterstock
If Bolton’s 19-year-old goalkeeper, James Trafford, could claim the assist for their opener, so could the Pennine winds. Trafford’s punt forward lured his Sunderland counterpart, Thorben Hoffmann, off his line, held up in the gale and allowed Charles to nip in and lob him, though a gust made a valiant effort to stop the ball from crossing the line.
“Our strikers were outstanding,” said Evatt and Charles dovetailed brilliantly with the electric Dapo Afolayan in a new-look partnership.
Cameron Brannagan scored four penalties as Oxford won 7-2 at Gillingham. Brannagan's spot-kicks came in the 12th, 48th, 55th and 83rd minutes, as Karl Robinson's team improved their promotion hopes on a day when three teams above them failed to win.
High-flying Rotherham moved to the top of the table with a 2-0 victory at Crewe. Michael Smith's seventh-minute header gave the visitors the lead and, after Crewe's Scott Robertson had been dismissed in the 73rd minute, Dave Richards' own goal settled any doubt about the outcome.
Previous leaders Wigan were held to a goalless draw at Cheltenham, who had Ben Williams sent-off late on.
Scott Twine's 13th-minute goal was enough to give MK Dons victory at Wycombe, while Marvin Johnson's sixth-minute goal sealed a 1-0 win for Sheffield Wednesday at home to Ipswich.
Luke Jephcott, Joe Edwards and Jordan Garrick got the goals as promotion hopefuls Plymouth came from behind to win 3-1 at struggling Doncaster, who led through Branden Horton's 10th-minute goal.
There was another comeback win at Sincil Bank, where Joe Powell and Sam Hughes turned things round for Burton after John Marquis had given Lincoln a 49th-minute lead.
Jonah Ayunga's double inside 26 minutes had Morecambe 2-0 up at Accrington but they were pegged back by efforts from Colby Bishop and Michael Nottingham.
Paddy Lane's 72nd-minute breakthrough cancelled out Anthony Pilkington's 65th minute own goal and earned Fleetwood a 1-1 home draw with Cambridge.
It was also 1-1 between AFC Wimbledon and Shrewsbury. Ayoub Assal gave the hosts the lead but Daniel Udoh replied for Shrewsbury.
The former West Ham forward’s stay at this level may be brief, whether or not Bolton’s is, and he tucked in the second when teed up by Kieran Lee after the marauding Charles broke clear on the right.
There was a role reversal when Afolayan headed Gethin Jones’ deep cross into the path of Charles, who hooked in a half-volley. Lee, elusive and excellent as a No 10, added the fourth after a slick passing move involving Afolayan and Aaron Morley.
“We looked disjointed and we looked disorganised,” said Johnson and even after Evatt took mercy on Sunderland and substituted his front duo, the luckless Batth and Declan John delivered further goals.
In all the carnage, Jack Clarke and Patrick Roberts made inauspicious Sunderland debuts in cameos. They are wingers who cost Tottenham and Manchester City a combined £22 million. If Sunderland has become a home for lost talents, this instead felt a staging post in careers that have taken the wrong path.
But then recent years have contained more than their fair share of indignities for clubs with a combined total of 6,142 games among the elite. If neither has never fully recovered from Sam Allardyce’s departure, they clashed in the top flight in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries and first met in the third tier in 2019. Bolton headed down to the fourth thereafter.
At least they are glad to be back in a division containing two of the last seven FA Cup winners and with seven members, including Charlton, Ipswich, Portsmouth, Sheffield Wednesday and Wigan, who have played in the Premier League in the 21st century.
There are tales of administration, relegation and recrimination, of mistakes and mismanagement. For Bolton, at least, a thrashing was a story of renewal, for Sunderland, one of purgatory in a footballing netherworld.
