To celebrate 25 years of the Premier League each week in Football Fancast we’re going to be looking back at a memorable game that took place on the corresponding date. This time out we revisit a bizarre afternoon that saw Sunderland shoot themselves in the foot on three swift occasions.

On average, an own-goal is scored once every 18 games or, broken down further, once every 1620 minutes. On February 1st 2003 Sunderland managed to concede three inside just seven minutes.

This was already a tumultuous season for the Mackems and it was only set to get a lot worse. Rooted to the bottom of the Premier League with just four wins the north east giants had jettisoned Peter Reid and lured Howard Wilkinson back to club management to little effect. In March he too would fall on his sword and in trudged Mick McCarthy to oversee a sorry end to a campaign that saw Sunderland finish last with just 19 points, a record low at the time. Throughout the entire course of 2002/03 a team that contained two decent strikers in Kevin Phillips and Tore Andre Flo otherwise surrounded by obscure quiz answers managed to accrue just 21 goals.

These three then, gifted to the opposition halfway through a thoroughly miserable year, presented a moment of comedic bathos at a time of real crisis. This was walking to a job you hated, in clothes ragged and threadbare, and tripping in spectacular fashion on the pavement to the amusement of bystanders. This was a true low.

The usually loyal-to-the-end Sunderland support had long been hard-wired to endure calamity but this was an embarrassment too far even for them and with only half an hour gone of this must-win home fixture to mid-table Charlton they walked en masse. Their team were three down having pressed the self-destruct button. This was becoming a habit.

In truth they didn’t miss much, the following hour only revealing more finely-tuned football from an Addicks side at the peak of their Curbishley era and a late consolation penalty, almost apologetically put away by Phillips. By then not only was the contest concluded but the narrative too.

“Charlton enjoy own-goal feast”. “Sunderland self-destruct as fans vote with feet”. “Hapless Proctor shoots Sunderland in both feet”. These were the scoffing headlines, the latter referring to defender Michael Proctor whose brace of errors added to a cruel deflection off Stephen Wright that first got the comedy show rolling.

If the ex-Liverpool full-back could be said to be unfortunate with his unwelcome entry onto the score-sheet then Proctor – a home-grown product from the club’s academy – had every reason to believe fate was conspiring against him for his first, a ricochet back off his own keeper that connected to his knee as he raced into the six-yard area to fend off danger. His second however is deserving of criticism as the 22-year-old turned his back on a perfectly fizzed corner that bounced first then careered off his shoulder.

His split-second decision to turn created history for all the wrong reasons and as the players sloped off from their ninth home defeat worse news awaited them in the form of an unlikely West Brom victory over Manchester City. Sunderland were no longer just bottom: they were rock bottom and stranded.

There is a caveat to this tale; a timely one given the very sad recent passing of the hugely respected and much loved broadcaster Jimmy Armfield. A couple of weeks after this humiliating nadir Sunderland faced their arch neighbours Middlesbrough and once again were downed. In a fiery post-match press conference Howard Wilkinson could take no further negative queries and asked the assembled media core what real life qualifications they possessed to dare question a man such as he with so much footballing experience.

A voice piped up from the back of the room: “Forty-three England caps, fifteen as captain”. Wilkinson immediately recognised Armfield and it was presumably at that point when he realised that the game was up.

What happened next?

The arrival of Mick McCarthy failed to stem the tide and Sunderland continued to haemorrhage goals at least now in a more conventional manner. As previously stated they finished the season with a then record low of 19 points.

As for Charlton this was their third of six consecutive mid-table finishes in the Premier League, an over-achieving stability that can be attributed largely to the sterling work done by Alan Curbishley and his back-room staff.

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