It's rare to see a manager sacked whilst his side still remain firmly in the hunt for the top two of any division but in the case of Lee Johnson and Sunderland, the stakes were too high.
The Black Cats have been in the third tier of English football for too long now and there is a feeling that it has to be this season that they win promotion back up to the Championship. However, Johnson has only been able to deliver one win in the last five League One games, allowing Wigan and Rotherham to pull one and two points ahead respectively. The key factor is the fact that Wigan have four games in hand on Sunderland, whilst Rotherham have two, meaning the potential for the gap to grow larger is great.
The final straw came on Saturday as Johnson 's side fell to a crushing 6-0 defeat away at 14th place Bolton Wanderers and Kyril Louis-Dreyfus made the decision to act swiftly to make a change in the coaching department.
