On this day in 1989, Sunderland beat Watford convincingly to move into the automatic spots of the second tier. A Marco Gabbiadini hattrick secured the points after an early Gordon Armstrong strike gave us the lead.
The 1989-90 campaign was our second in Division Two following promotion from the third tier at the first time of asking in 1988. In the prior campaign we had managed a top half finish, coming 11th, a good finish for a newly promoted side. We’d already played four games before hosting the Hornets and two of those had ended in victory. Opening day saw us clinch a 2-0 victory over Swindon Town and the other win came on matchday three when we came back from behind to beat Middlesbrough 2-1. Ipswich had bested us 4-2 but in the fixture immediately before this one a last minute Gabbiadini goal meant we rescued a point at the Hawthorns - future Sunderland player Don Goodman was on the scoresheet for the Baggies in that match.
In this game we took the lead after only six minutes, Armstrong headed it towards goal after a ball from Colin Pascoe and it was saved by the Watford goalkeeper, Tony Coton. The ball smashed off the post and Gordon got it over the line. Coton would go on to play for Sunderland himself, featuring 12 times in 1996.
Goal number two came five minutes from the break as Gabbiadini found the back of the net from outside of the box and goal number three followed four minutes later. Gabbiadini beat a defender and then his strike once again sailed past Coton. 70 minutes in and we had a fourth and Gabbiadini earned a hattrick. He received the ball from Reuben Agboola, got past a Watford player and fired home.
This game perhaps gave us a little bit of confidence, as we embarked on a seven match unbeaten run in all competitions (albeit with four draws) and had maintained our automatic spot going into October. By the start of the New Year, we’d drifted slightly into third place and a poor January meant we slipped down into fifth with no wins in the entire month, we also got knocked out of the League Cup at the quarter final stage.
Come the end of the season we had rescued the last playoff spot, despite falling as low as 9th in March and we then beat the Mags in the playoff semi final and failed to get promoted as we lost to Swindon at Wembley. Except... we did end up getting promoted, as Swindon were instead relegated for breaking financial rules and we were promoted in their place. Marco ended the campaign with 25 goals in all competitions.
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