Top tier football is awash with motivational slogans and some are so trite that many players quite possibly ignore them. Yet Sunderland’s adopted motto – ‘TIL The End’ – has become so much more than just another piece of cod psychology. After sustaining them through last season’s successful playoff campaign it has morphed into a true mantra, encapsulating everything that is so refreshing about this impressively resilient team.
Thanks partly to Granit Xhaka’s superb on-field leadership from central midfield, Sunderland have developed a habit of recovering from losing positions. Here though they surpassed themselves, conjuring a memorable victory after swiftly falling 2-0 behind to a similarly determined, and talented, Bournemouth.
It is almost six years since Antoine Semenyo arrived at Sunderland, then managed by Phil Parkinson and in League One, on loan from Bristol City. That was in the January 2020 transfer window and the young winger barely had time to get going before the Covid pandemic struck and he returned to Bristol.
Semenyo, now very much Bournemouth’s star player, hit the ground running in the incessant, and torrential rain, cascading down on Wearside. Seven minutes were on the clock when his sublime low cross prefaced Evanilson’s shot hitting a post, leaving Amine Adli to lash the rebound beyond Robin Roefs.
