On This Day (18 April 1998): Red, White And Crewe As Sunderland Stay In The Hunt!

Crewe goalkeeper Jason Kearton couldn’t hold on and as it spilled, Ball was there to stroke it home. Only the reflexes of Perez just two minutes later stopped Alexandra equalising almost immediately, blocking a shot from Kevin Street.

A fast breakaway from Sunderland in the twenty second minute, gave us a more comfortable lead. Niall Quinn knocked the ball down for Kevin Phillips, who laid the ball in the path of Lee Clark, who burst through to score his thirteenth goal of the season.

The willingness of Dario Gradi’s team to flood forward wherever possible to support lead forward Steve Anthrobus was rewarded when Crewe got a goal back on the half hour, with defender Phil Charnock being afforded too much space in our box and turning to superbly place a shot inside the far post.

This gave them some hope, but this hope could and should’ve been extinguished after an extended period of Sunderland pressure. Clark and Summerbee came close before Johnston hit the bar with an audacious chip, but the best chance fell to Quinn, who had a shot cleared off the line in the thirty ninth minute.

The Lads were unable to exert the same degree of pressure after the break, with Gray and Quinn coming close before the late scare at the end from the visitors.

Sunderland now had three games left. We won two but crucially lost away at Ipswich, meaning we would enter the playoffs — which ended with a never-to-be-forgotten defeat at Wembley to Charlton Athletic.

Like I said, hindsight is a wonderful thing, because during the following season, we were more than ready, ending with a 105 point haul and then two seventh-places finished in the Premier League that we still talk about with so much fondness.

18 April 1998

Nationwide Division One

Stadium of Light

Attendance: 40,441

Sunderland 2 (Ball 4’, Clark 22’)

Crewe Alexandra: 1 (Charnock 30’)

Sunderland: Perez, Holloway, Craddock; Williams, Gray, Summerbee; Ball, Clark, Johnston; Phillips, Quinn