Sunderland 'Til I Die Series 2 Review - 7 Ups & 5 Downs

2. 46,039 Fans. 1 Total B*stard.

An Up because of it being left in the edit, this, not because of the actions of the central character.

Marketeer Charlie Methven called filling the Stadium Of Light on Boxing Day 2018 a "marketing challenge".

Football is f*cked.

He wasn't totally wrong - somehow getting over 40,000 people to come and watch a third tier game of English football on December 26th would require exceptional promotion - but it was just another reminder how Methven and his types will always try and game the system rather than simply work hard to win.

That's not to say immensely hard work wasn't being done. One fears for Marketing and Communications manager Sophie Ashcroft in the aftermath of fans catching up with this should some choose to see her as the culprit rather than the relentlessly kicked cat. Cameras showed her being dragged around by Methven to cater to his every need, but her frustrated expression as he held yet another meeting lecturing them for something they couldn't control was one of the most relatable moments in the entire series.

It should have put chills up anybody that has ever worked in a corporate environment - you are one of three people when you watch that evocative scene; somebody that has been spoken to like that before, somebody that speaks to people like that, or the former vapidly aspiring to be the latter.

That he b*llocked her (and, by proxy, her team) for not counting thousands of tickets fast enough for him to get the final attendance - he succeeded in his "marketing challenge" - was made worse by the exhausted hugs between Ashcroft and her colleagues as seen silently from an office on high when they left for the day.

This was all a game to Methven, who will have thought nothing for the tears the staff likely shared upon arriving home.