Sunderland A.F.C. season 2006–07

The 2006-07 season is the 106th full season of league football for Sunderland A.F.C.. In this season they played in the Football League Championship, and were successfully promoted as champions.

Overview

After finishing the previous season on a particularly low ebb, changes at Sunderland were inevitable. Rumours of a takeover from former fan's favourite Niall Quinn had been circulating since the spring, and towards the end of the 05/06 season the rumours were confirmed. Quinn's Drumaville Consortium agreed a fee with the club, spending £10m and buying out majority shareholder and club chairman Bob Murray.

Quinn became club chairman, and, with coach Kevin Richardson taking charge of the club's pre-season fixtures, immediately began searching for a new manager to replace former boss Mick McCarthy. After being heavily linked with Martin O'Neill and Bolton boss Sam Allardyce, Quinn decided to take the reins himself, although was keen to stress that he would step aside as soon as a top class manager became available.

Sunderland began the new season with 5 straight defeats, including an embarrassing 2-0 loss to Football League Two side Bury in the Carling Cup. In his post match interview, Niall Quinn announced that the club were close to attracting a "world class manager" to replace him, with Sky Sports claiming the following evening that former Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane was lined up to take charge. Indeed, Keane agreed terms with the club on August 27, and signed a 3 year contract on August 28. Sunderland also recorded their first victory of the campaign that day, beating West Brom 2-0 at the Stadium of Light.

Keane wasted no time in bring in new additions to the squad, with a total of 6 players signing on the final day of the August transfer window. Incoming were Keane's former Manchester United team-mates Dwight Yorke and Liam Miller, former Celtic colleagues Ross Wallace and Stanislav Varga, with the latter playing for Sunderland between July 2000 and January 2002, as well as Wigan pair Graham Kavanagh and David Connolly.

The new signings paid off, with Keane winning his first two games as manager, including an impressive 3-0 victory over Leeds United at Elland Road. However, a disappointing 1-1 draw against Leicester was followed up by defeat to Ipswich Town, with Sunderland winning just one game in five following Keane's initial honeymoon period.

Sunderland soon got back to winning ways however, defeating Barnsley 2-0 at the Stadium of Light on October 21 and Hull City A.F.C 1-0 at the KC Stadium on October 28.

On December 7 2006, tabloid newspaper The Sun reported Sunderland stars Chris Brown, Ben Alnwick and Liam Lawrence had filmed themselves in an orgy. On December 8, The Sun reported that the girl in the video was just 16 years old, with the girl claiming she had no idea she was being filmed. An official investigation was launched by the club into the events. All three players were sold when the transfer window re-opened in January.

2007 proved extremely successful for the team with an unbeaten run that stretched from January 1 to April 21st. The side steadily worked its way to the top of the league into the automatic promotion places.

It was later confirmed after Derby County who were 4 points behind lost 2-0 to Crystal Palace that Sunderland were promoted and no matter what happened would return to the Premier league in either first or second place alongside Birmingham City.

Sunderland later finished in the league as Champions as they beat Luton Town 5-0 away as Birmingham City suffered a shock 1-0 loss to Preston North End on the last game of the season.

Match reults

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

Pre-season

Game	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers	Notes
1	15 July 2007	Forest Green Rovers	Away	3–0	1,450	Lawrence, Murphy, Whitehead
2	19 July 2007	Rotherham United	Away	2–0	–	Murphy, Stead
3	24 July 2007	Shelbourne	Away	2–0	–	Murphy, Delap
4	29 July 2007	Carlisle United	Away	3–0	7,036	Stead, Lawrence, Leadbitter

Championship

Game	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers	Notes
1	6 August 2006	Coventry City	Away	1–2	22,366	Murphy
2	9 August 2006	Birmingham City	Home	0–1	26,668
3	12 August 2006	Plymouth Argyle	Home	2–3	24,377	Murphy, Elliott
4	19 August 2006	Southend United	Away	1–3	9,848	Stead
5	28 August 2006	West Bromwich Albion	Home	2–0	24,242	Whitehead, Neill Collins
6	9 September 2006	Derby County	Away	2–1	26,502	Brown, Wallace
7	13 September 2006	Leeds United	Away	3–0	23,037	Miller, Kavanagh, Elliott
8	16 September 2006	Leicester City	Home	1–1	35,104	Hysen
9	23 September 2006	Ipswich Town	Away	1–3	23,311	De Vos (O.G.)
10	30 September 2006	Sheffield Wednesday	Home	1–0	36,764	Leadbitter
11	14 October 2006	Preston North End	Away	1–4	19,603	Varga
12	17 October 2006	Stoke City	Away	1–2	14,482	Yorke
13	21 October 2006	Barnsley	Home	2–0	27,918	Whitehead, Brown
14	28 October 2006	Hull City	Away	1–0	25,512	Wallace
15	31 October 2006	Cardiff City	Home	1–2	26,528	Brown
16	4 November 2006	Norwich City	Away	0–1	24,852
17	11 November 2006	Southampton	Home	1–1	25,667	Wallace
18	18 November 2006	Colchester United	Home	3–1	25,197	Elliott (2), Connolly
19	24 November 2006	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Away	1–1	27,203	Elliott
20	28 November 2006	Queens Park Rangers	Away	2–1	13,108	Murphy, Leadbitter
21	2 December 2006	Norwich City	Home	1–0	27,934	Murphy
22	9 December 2006	Luton Town	Home	2–1	30,445	Murphy, Connolly
23	16 December 2006	Burnley	Away	2–2	14,798	Leadbitter, Connolly
24	22 December 2006	Crystal Palace	Away	0–1	17,439
25	26 December 2006	Leeds United	Home	2–0	40,116	Connolly, Leadbitter
26	30 December 2006	Preston North End	Home	0–1	30,460
27	1 January 2007	Leicester City	Away	2–0	21,975	Hysén, Connolly
28	13 January 2007	Ipswich Town	Home	1–0	27,604	Connolly
29	20 January 2007	Sheffield Wednesday	Away	4–2	29,103	Yorke, Hysén, Connolly, Edwards
30	30 January 2007	Crystal Palace	Home	0–0	26,958
31	3 February 2007	Coventry City	Home	2–0	33,591	Yorke, Edwards
32	10 February 2007	Plymouth Argyle	Away	2–0	15,247	Connolly, Stokes
33	17 February 2007	Southend United	Home	4–0	33,376	Connolly, Hysen, John (2)
34	20 February 2007	Birmingham City	Away	1–1	20,941	Edwards
35	24 February 2007	Derby County	Home	2–1	36,049	Connolly, Miller
36	3 March 2007	West Bromwich Albion	Away	2–1	23,252	Yorke, John
37	10 March 2007	Barnsley	Away	2–0	18,207	Leadbitter, Connolly
38	13 March 2007	Stoke City	Home	2–2	31,358	Whitehead, Murphy
39	17 March 2007	Hull City	Home	2–0	38,488	Evans, John
40	31 March 2007	Cardiff City	Away	1–0	19,353	Wallace
41	7 April 2007	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Home	2–1	40,748	Murphy, Wallace
42	9 April 2007	Southampton	Away	2–1	25,766	Edwards, Leadbitter
43	14 April 2007	Queens Park Rangers	Home	2–1	39,206	Whitehead, Leadbitter
44	21 April 2007	Colchester United	Away	1–3	6,042	Yorke
45	27 April 2007	Burnley	Home	3–2	44,448	Murphy, Connolly, Edwards
46	6 May 2007	Luton Town	Away	5–0	10,260	Murphy (2), Stokes, Wallace, Connolly

FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers	Notes
3	6 January 2007	Preston North End	Away	0–1	10,318

League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers	Notes
1	22 August 2006	Bury	Away	0–2	2,930

League table

Events

• July 3 - The Drumaville Consortium have their £10m offer accepted by the club and Niall Quinn becomes chairman.
• July 25 - Following failure to attract a big-name to a Championship club, Niall Quinn appoints himself as manager.
• July 27 - Drumaville Ltd complete their takeover of the club.
• August 6 - Sunderland kick off the new season with a 2-1 defeat to Coventry at the Ricoh Arena.
• August 28 - Roy Keane is appointed as permanent manager of the club, replacing Niall Quinn, who reverts back to his role as chairman. The announcement is made following the clubs first victory of the season - a 2-0 win over West Bromwich Albion at the Stadium of Light.
• September 9 - Keane wins his first game in management with a 2-1 win at Derby in front of over 5,000 travelling Sunderland fans.
• December 7 - The Sun reports that three Sunderland players had filmed themselves during an orgy with a 16 year old girl.
• April 10 - Keane takes his Sunderland side from bottom to top of the league in just 37 matches as he saw his side defeat Southampton 2-1, a win which took their tally of unbeaten games to 17 in 2007.
• April 29 - Sunderland are promoted to the Premiership following Derby County's loss to Crystal Palace
• May 6 - Sunderland crowned champions on the last day of the season.

Player details

Sources

No.	Pos.	Name	League		FA Cup		League Cup		Total		Discipline
			Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
2	DF	Stephen Wright	2 (1)	0	0	0	1	0	3 (1)	0	1	0
3	DF	Danny Simpson	13 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	13 (1)	0	2	0
4	DF	Jonny Evans	18	1	0	1	0	0	19	1	3	0
5	DF	Kenny Cunningham	11	0	0	0	1	0	12	0	1	0
7	MF	Carlos Edwards	15	5	0 (1)	0	0	0	15 (1)	5	1	0
8	MF	Dean Whitehead (c)	43 (2)	4	1	0	1	0	45 (2)	4	7	0
9	FW	Anthony Stokes	7 (7)	2	0	0	0	0	7 (7)	2	1	0
10	FW	Stephen Elliott	15 (9)	5	1	0	1	0	17 (9)	5	0	0
11	FW	Daryl Murphy	27 (11)	10	1	0	1	0	29 (11)	10	1	0
12	DF	Nyron Nosworthy	27 (2)	0	0	0	0	0	27 (2)	0	4	0
13	GK	Darren Ward	30	0	1	0	0	0	31	0	0	0
14	FW	Stern John	10 (5)	4	0	0	0	0	10 (5)	4	0	0
15	DF	Danny Collins	36 (2)	0	0 (1)	0	0 (1)	0	36 (4)	0	4	0
16	MF	Tobias Hysén	15 (11)	4	1	0	0	0	16 (11)	0	0	0
18	MF	William Mocquet	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
–	MF	T. Miller	3 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	3 (1)	0	0	0

Players

Squad information

Transfer deals

In

Out

Estimated transfer totals

Does not take into account undisclosed fees.

Total transfer fees paid:
£8.9m

Total transfer fees received:
£6.825m

Total loss or profit:
-£2.075m

References