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

1. Football - The Game Nobody Wins

A scene in Episode 5 captures the heart of darkness that powers Charlie Methven, and it comes right as the club stares the crisis of promotion failure square in the face.

Tasked with trying to flog tickets for a Stadium Of Light playoff semi final against Portsmouth, Methven is given advice by one of his team that perhaps fans need a price drop incentive based on the money spent in recent weeks on a fixture pile-up and the heartbreaking (and expensive) Wembley defeat.

Like venom deep from the neck of a cobra, Methven's defensive response burns and brutalises. "I wanna get back to my idea because I wanna make more money" he says, before reminding them under threat of losing their jobs why that has to be done in the quickest and most ruthless way possible.

The supposed smartest man in the room in September has been made stupid by the same beast that consumed Stewart Donald in January and Martin Bain just a few short months before. The sport is said to separate a fool from his money, but that sentiment rarely gets shared with such schadenfreude.

Sunderland fans have suffered - and will continue to suffer - under stewardship that looks to bleed and blame them as and when it needs. This momentary sense of satisfaction at his expense was overdue.