There's no polite way to put this: Sunderland's recent FA Cup history stinks. For a football club that, quite rightly, lionises the players who famously beat the then-mighty Leeds United at Wembley in 1973 to bring the trophy back to the North-East, the Black Cats' recent record in football's oldest cup competition is lamentable.
One solitary cup game won in seven seasons is a disgrace. In that run, Sunderland have competed as a Premier League club, a Championship side, and a League One team.
They both entered and exited at the third round stage in 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18, and - in the wake of relegation to third tier - crashed out in the first round in 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22, with the last two seasons seeing them fall at the first hurdle on home soil against League Two Mansfield Town. A first round win, against League Two Port Vale in 2018-19, provides what can laughably be described as the 'highlight' of this miserable sequence, but it was rapidly followed by a second round defeat against Walsall.
