Gav - @Gav1879
In 2017 we’ve won only seven competitive games - so, admittedly, the options are slim here.
That said, looking back over the small group of victories we’ve achieved in the last twelve months serves as a reminder of how good it felt in the aftermath of all of those games - none more so than when we smashed Crystal Palace 4-0 on their own turf.
In what was the most unexpected result of the season, David Moyes’ side were four goals up before half time and a shell-shocked Palace struggled to cope with us as we breezed past them with a flurry of strikes going into the break.
Taking an early lead in the game through Lamine Kone was shocking enough, but to then score thrice between the 43rd minute and the end of the half was just spectacular.
James Henchard - @mrhenchard
Not the ‘best’ maybe, but one of the few games I’ve actually enjoyed at the Stadium of Light this year was January’s 2-2 draw with Liverpool.
We’d been hammered 4-1 by Burnley on New Years Eve just a few day’s prior, but in spite of this the biggest crowd of the season (46,494) squashed into the Stadium of Light - with most probably expecting a little bank holiday thrashing at the hands of Klopp’s Scousers.
Liverpool were still chasing Chelsea at the top of the Premier League and the battling performance from Moyes’ men was encouraging, as hope still remained that we could stay in the big league.
It proved to be the last time we would see Vito Mannone and Jermain Defoe put in a decent performance in a Sunderland shirt. The latter all but gave up after this game and the former was immense but would lose his place to Jordan Pickford soon after.
The season would quickly turn even more horrendous immediately after this game, of course, with just nine more points gained but as we entered 2017 - at least we still had that little hope.
Mark Carrick - @Carrima
Our recent 1-0 win at home over Fulham is my choice for result of the year.
We’ve not had much to cheer about, especially not at home, but this being the only three points we’ve garnered at the Stadium of Light is not the reason for the choice, though.
In the summer we lost Pickford, a homegrown talent that the crowd took to their hearts. We love a trier and we love it when he’s come through the ranks as either a player or fan. Against Fulham we had a number of those on show. Gooch and Honeyman started and Asosro and Maja were introduced.
The future of our club was on display and there are definite reasons to be hopeful among those graduating from our Academy.
Alex McCain - @AlexRokerReport
Hah, it really is slim pickings, isn’t it? Ah well, I’m going with the 1-3 win over Norwich at Carrow Road earlier this season.
While Grayson’s successes on Wearside turned out to be short-lived once his incompetence caught up with him, this away win in Norfolk gave us reason to believe that a manager could achieve something commendable at Sunderland in spite of all the problems the club is currently facing.
Lewis Grabban was on target twice that day thanks to the service of Aiden McGeady, who got his own name on the scoresheet with a pearler of a finish. Sadly, we’d follow up this impressive display with a rather characteristic 15-game winless run before Simon eventually got the sack, but this result gave us enough reason to believe that there was the potential to succeed - and so far I’d say the Coleman era is living proof that our hopes weren’t dashed.
James Nickels - @JamesNickels
Call me crazy, but I’m going to choose lowest ebb in Chris Coleman’s reign as Sunderland manager as my best result of 2017, and that is the 3-1 loss at home to Reading. The result took some of the gloss off our massive relegation dogfight victory over Burton Albion - however, it will hopefully turn out to be our turning point.
The result allowed Chris Coleman to move away from the 4-3-3 he had utilised previously, and drill into his side his preferred three-at-the-back. This moment was inevitable, and the earlier the better to allow our players to grasp the formation and tactics more over time.
Having made this transition as early as we did helped ensure that we became the first side to gain a clean sheet away at Molineux, and also contributed to our follow-up win at home to Fulham. The way the players have adapted to this system already is auspicious, considering how many are currently unavailable, and with a transfer window just days away.
Granted, everything came crashing back down when we lost to Sheffield United on Boxing Day, but come the end of the season I genuinely think that we will look back at this game and the subsequent hard-fought 0-0 draw at Wolves as our turning point.
Poll
Which of these games is your ‘best result of 2017’?
This poll is closed
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59%
Crystal Palace 0-4 Sunderland (4th February)
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1%
Reading 3-1 Sunderland (2nd December)
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9%
Sunderland 2-2 Liverpool (2nd January)
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21%
Sunderland 1-0 Fulham (16th December)
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8%
Norwich 1-3 Sunderland (13th August)