On This Day (19th Oct 2002): Narrow loss for Sunderland against West Ham in Wilko's first game!
10/19/2024 01:00 AM
Sergeant Wilko and Steve Cotterill arrived on Wearside hoping to turn around Sunderland's sinking ship — but, they failed their first challenge with a defeat at the hands of West Ham United.
Things were only going to get tougher from this point onwards for Sunderland in this 2002/03 season.
After the pressure eventually reached boiling point on Peter Reid's tenure as Sunderland, the Scouse man was replaced rather surprisingly by Howard Wilkinson who left his position as technical director of the FA.
It is said that Wilkinson's appointment only transpired after Sunderland chairman Bob Murray sought advice from Wilkinson on who to appoint for the job on Wearside after Reid's dismissal.
Wilkinson rather modestly (not) recommended himself and Murray duly obliged by offering the former Leeds United manager the job on a full-time basis.
Wilkinson brought highly regarded coach Steve Cotterill with him, but it only transpired afterwards that the pair didn't even know each other, which Bob Murray only discovered afterwards.
In recent times, Murray has admitted that he made a horrendous error of judgement in appointing Wilkinson as manager.
I made a really bad decision. It was a horrendous decision with Howard Wilkinson but I did it because I needed to change it.
Howard was technical director at the FA, he had been caretaker of the England team and he had won the title with Leeds United.
I asked him who he wanted to bring with him to Sunderland and he said (Steve) Cotterill and I didn't know that they didn't know each other. The whole thing was a terrible idea. When I say I would do it all again, I wouldn't appoint him as manager.
This ill-fated regime began with defeat at home to struggling West Ham United who were managed by Glenn Roeder.
In front of a bumper Stadium of Light crowd, Wilkinson's new team failed to spark a Hammers team chasing a key victory. The new Sunderland made six changes for this game which included the return of key man Kevin Phillips who was struggling with injury for over a month previous.
This was likely to be a massive reason for the struggles of the side in front of goal where we had only scored a paltry four goals in nine games.
Unfortunately for the home crowd, it didn't get any better in this game where Trevor Sinclair scored the only goal of the game after only twenty-five minutes.
With the home side still claiming a free-kick from Joe Cole's tangle with Matthew Piper, West Ham broke. Di Canio's long ball released Sinclair, who did well to control the ball before firing a right-foot shot which scraped under the crossbar past Jurgen Macho.
With Wilkinson desperate to make a good impression on his new supporters, he brought on David Bellion as an extra striker at half-time in the hope of finding an equaliser with the closest they came being from a Niall Quinn header and a Bellion chance.
Quinn was brought on and he came within inches of an equaliser, but he saw his effort beat James and come off the post.
Ultimately, Sunderland only really dialled up the pressure to lukewarm and West Ham held on for a big victory that lifted them off the bottom of the table.
For Sunderland and Wilkinson, things were looking fairly grim and the new Sunderland manager admitted that it would take him a while to get his new ideas across to his new squad of players.
It's probably going to take me four or five weeks to get things the way I want them here.
One must ask what happened in those four or five weeks given the team got significantly worse under his stewardship.
Sunderland: Macho, Gray, Babb, Craddock, Wright, Kilbane, Reyna (Thirlwell 79), McCann, Piper (Bellion 45), Phillips, Stewart (Quinn 61).
Subs Not Used: Bjorklund, Ingham.
Booked: Kilbane.
West Ham: James, Minto, Repka, Dailly, Pearce (Breen 68), Cole, Lomas, Carrick, Sinclair (Cisse 77), Di Canio, Defoe.
Subs Not Used: Van Der Gouw, Winterburn, Camara.
Booked: Carrick.
Attendance: 44,352
Referee: G Barber (Hertfordshire).
