Super mum – on the NHS frontline – relives Checkatrade final memories

With almost a year having passed since Sunderland AFC and their supporters took over the capital ahead of the Checkatrade Trophy Final, we’ve been asking fans for their memories of the weekend.

While the final ultimately ended in defeat on penalties to Portsmouth, there are plenty of happy tales to tell from a weekend where London was painted red and white.

First to tell her tale is Sunderland super mum Sharon Howard - who had a special role to play on a memorable day for the Black Cats.

“My daughter entered a Mother’s Day competition last year run by the EFL,” she explained.

“It was a competition for mothers from Portsmouth and Sunderland to carry out the Checkatrade Trophy on the Wembley turf.

“I had no idea she had entered the competition. My daughter and her father are hardcore Sunderland fans and I had resigned myself to spending my day with just my son, who isn’t that fussed about football and being a football widow on Mothering Sunday.

“However, just a few days before that particular weekend, my daughter rang me whilst I was shopping in the middle of Tesco.

“She shocked me when she had said she had won the competition, after telling the competition panel that she wanted to thank me for transporting her to all of her football matches that she had played as a young girl.

“At that point I forgot what was on my shopping list!

“It was truly a wonderful Mother’s Day. We had a corporate lunch and drinks, VIP seats to watch the match, I carried out the trophy with a lovely Portsmouth mother.”

And it’s the memory of that day at Wembley that is helping Sharon through a difficult 2020 - with Sharon and her husband on the frontline in the battle against coronavirus.

“Unfortunately this

Mother’s Day was not so good, due to my daughter being stranded in Australia - which she still is,” she said.

“My husband and I are working on the NHS frontline, frightened in case we can’t get her back to see her again.

“Therefore the following photos [of last year] are of happier times, when gloom seems to be all around us now.”