Game is up for Black Cats as top-flight luck finally runs out

SUNDERLAND took on Bournemouth at the Stadium of Light knowing they would be relegated unless they could secure a better result at the Stadium of Light than Hull City managed at Southampton. They could not. The manner of their 1-0 defeat summed up what a miserable season it has been for the Black Cats and those who follow them around the country.

They will be watching Championship football next season.

The coming weeks will be all about learning from the mistakes of the past, so what lessons could be gleaned from the last day of a 10-year spell in which the Black Cats have been able to call themselves a Premier League club?

It was cruel the way the Black Cats’ fate was decided but perhaps for it not to have been decided at all would have been crueller still.

The game was 88 minutes old when Bournemouth hit Sunderland on the Sunderland’s Jermain Defoe counter-attack, Ryan Fraser crossing for the unmarked Josh King to tap in at the far post.

With the hosts needing to match Hull City’s result at St Mary’s to keep their wafer-thin mathematical hopes of escaping relegation alive, news quickly came through of a Southampton penalty. It was saved.

At the end of a 38-game season, all teams earn what they deserve and Sunderland cannot complain about their demotion.

Years of bad decisions and wasted money have caught up with them and they have been left with a squad which has simply not been good enough.

You could question if they should have put up a better fight but the reality is any club would have struggled with the resources the Wearsiders have been left to work with this season.

Now they have big decisions to make about the best way forward as they look to rebuild from the Championship.

In August, David Moyes made Didier Ndong the club’s record signing at £13m and although that probably overvalued him – that is what happens when you wait until deadline day to buy – he was their best player against the Cherries.

Tigerish tracking back and always . Players from both sides clash after a looking to be positive in possession, Ndong was the best of a bad bunch.

Ndong was typical of the type of player Moyes wanted to bring to the club last summer – young, talented and with plenty of scope to improve.

He could become a bit of an on-field leader of the club in the Championship next season if Sunderland can persuade him to stay. That, though, might be easier said than done.

After a volatile 1-0 defeat at Middlesbrough, one feared for a rebellious Sta-