View From The Away End: Festive Cheer For Sunderland At Brighton

Santa hats and loud Christmas jumpers were the order of the day, and the cloudless blue winter sky matched the jubilant mood on the early Thameslink service from Finsbury Park as we shared stories of how we celebrated Nick Woltemade’s hilarious act of charity.

The proximity of this game to Christmas and the long journey from the North-East meant that more London Branch members than usual had been able to secure tickets, so plenty of familiar faces could be found in and around the various hostelries of Brighton. After a refuelling stop at Wetherspoons and checking in our bags to our Airbnb, we headed to The Walrus, an unusual establishment that somehow managed to maintain a homely traditional pub atmosphere while being a labyrinthine Aladdin’s Cave.

With the Amex being an out-of-town stadium, we needed to jump on the service to Falmer in good time. The home fans were among the friendliest I’ve encountered this year, with some of them even joining in our rendition of We All Live in a Gary Rowell World, a terrace favourite that has taken on huge poignancy since the loss of the great man. One lady even commented how much friendlier and likeable our supporters had been than the Mags were when they visited recently. Read into that what you will…

Turning to the matter at hand, fixtures against the Seagulls have been few and far between this side of the millennium, with their rise in the late 2010s coinciding with our spectacular fall from grace, but we faced them now as equals and had no reason to think that this year’s team would be unable to compete despite the well-documented departures for AFCON. Nonetheless, we were relieved to see that Danny Welbeck would be missing out for the home side, and while our line-up obviously took on a different look to usual, having top-quality options such as Rigg, Geertruida, and Adingra to step in is hardly a cause for panic stations.

This optimism was justified by an excellent first-half performance as we carved out several dangerous moments despite never having any chances that would fall into the “sitter” category. I avoid paying too much heed to stats such as xG, as at best they only ever paint a partial picture of a team’s performance, but it certainly felt that we would be faring well on the “expected” scoreline that seems to be the be-all-and-end-all for so many commentators these days.

Brighton as a club do a lot of things right, and others would do well to take note of their excellent half-time service which allowed us to grab a pint and a snack in time to avoid missing any of the action. Sunderland carried on the second half in much the same vein as the first, as Alderete forced an impressive save from Verbruggen to deny us what would have been a deserved lead. The momentum shifted just after the hour mark, however, with the dangerous Mitoma adding an extra element of unpredictability to the Seagulls’ attack, and while we were never hanging on for dear life, the last twenty minutes or so were a difficult watch at times.

Thankfully the full-time whistle blew with our clean sheet intact, and we were able to salute a resilient performance from our current players while also showing our gratitude to Brighton sub Tommy Watson for helping to make it all happen.

Back in the city centre at the Evening Star, we reflected on what has been a remarkable year following Sunderland on the road. 2025 was bookended by two 0-0 draws that couldn’t have been further apart emotionally – from the gut punch of Isidor’s double penalty miss at Turf Moor that seemed like such a hammer blow to our automatic-promotion hopes, to the pride at seeing us match a top Premier League side to maintain our status in the top six at Christmas. There have been a few lows and some unimaginable highs in between, but overall 2025 has to go down as one of the best calendar years supporting this great club.

With some enticing London away days around the corner in January and the prospect of further additions to this brilliant squad, there is plenty to look forward to as we welcome in 2026. Ha’way the Lads, and a very Merry Christmas.