'Chaos and the ecstasy' - The inside story behind Sunderland's incredible and dramatic win at Preston North End

3:50 PM: Maybe this will be one game too far. Sunderland haven’t played badly, but they haven’t been at their best. Mowbray urges his players to try and find some control, to move the ball quicker and keep the game going. Middlesbrough have scored on the stroke of half time but Coventry have played well. Millwall are seemingly out of sight, Duncan Watmore has scored twice and Blackburn must be done. The noise at the start had been deafening, ‘Sunderland takeover’ ringing out as it had done so often on the last run to play-off glory. There is still belief and there is still hope and there is most definitely still pride, but something pretty silly needs to happen and everyone knows it.

4:55 PM: Some in light blue are pumping their fists, some are doing a little dance and some are simply stood still, taking it all in. The full time whistle has long been blown and the rain is still swirling, but no one wants to move. Arms outstretched, Que Sera, Sera…

3 minutes: So much of the pre-match talk had been of the Riverside and the Den, all the various permutations and all the theories about who would do what. Maybe Preston, seven games unbeaten on their own turf, have a bigger part to play. Luke O’Nien hooks one away from his six-yard box, Trai Hume blocks an effort but the deflection so very nearly finds the far corner. Sunderland have to win but first they have to survive this.

52 minutes: Pierre Ekwah surges into the box but there again is Freddie Woodman with a strong save. The game is wide open and this is peak Moggaball. Lynden Gooch is playing at centre half, Patrick Roberts and Jack Clarke are at wing back. Sometimes Amad is up front, sometimes it’s Alex Pritchard. Joe Gelhardt is popping up in midfield. Dan Neil has gone close and the tide is starting to turn towards the 6,000 in the Bill Shankly Kop. Blackburn have pulled one goal back. Maybe something is building here. Maybe.

66 minutes: Lynden Gooch soaks up the applause as he hobbles off. Just the tenth senior player into the treatment room.

70 minutes: Pierre Ekwah is fouled, not for the first time. Sunderland had faced yet more disruption in the build up to this game, Edouard Michut ill and not able to travel with the team. He had arrived at the hotel at 10pm on Sunday night, which meant that Ekwah’s place in the XI was unchanged. There were times earlier in the year, when Sunderland’s campaign looked like it might be ebbing away and fans cried out for his physicality in midfield. Mowbray urged caution, insisting that a player who had never played professional football before arriving at the club was still learning to use those attributes. Training session after training session he drove the message home: This league affords time to no one. Steps forward (a composed full debut at Burnley), steps backward (the late penalty giveaway against Hull City). Look at him now: Threading passes into spaces no one else sees, crashing into challenges. Thriving.

37 minutes: Millwall are cruising, Coventry are ahead. Sunderland are playing OK, but they’ve lost the ball in midfield, they’ve overcommitted and Preston have picked the pass. Liam Delap is in, and for three agonising seconds, the thought occurs that this could be all over before it’s even really got going. The shot drifts just, just wide. Delap punches the floor, Lynden Gooch kicks the post.

61 minutes: Now it is wave after wave. One counter after another, one roar after another. Pritchard has had one chance to shoot but took one touch too many. On the edge of the box again he shapes to pass, Roberts waiting. Instead he shoots, a dummy that catches Woodman out. It’s audacious, it’s quality. It’s Mowbray’s Sunderland, and it’s delirium in the away end. And before you can catch your breath comes another wave of noise, this one the loudest yet. It’s Millwall 3-3 Blackburn. It’s ridiculous, it’s on. It’s football, bloody hell.

35 minutes: Gelhardt has missed a good chance, well saved. Roberts has almost scored a screamer, an even better save. A break in play and some head for a pint and for the loo. It’s not quite flat, but it’s not quite happening either.

13:45 PM: Mowbray had insisted this would be business as usual for Sunderland, the pressure elsewhere. His players are strolling across the Deepdale turf with hands in pockets and heads in hoodies. Just another ground, just another day. Mowbray is standing in the centre circle, snacking on Jaffa Cakes.

5:15PM: Tony Mowbray takes a seat and draws breath. For a moment he looks a little dazed; everyone in the room does. Where to start? Before long though, he’s into his stride. He is talking about his disappointment for Blackburn Rovers, how much he loves those players. His pride in Ben Brereton Diaz, who overcame a tough start at Ewood Park to become a matchwinner for Mowbray, and the unlikely Sunderland hero today. He is again talking unprompted about Patrick Roberts, ‘a genius’. He is even talking about Bernie Slaven, for reasons that take a little while to become clear. Forty years in football and still utterly in love with it, still fizzing with ideas. It has been infectious.

65 minutes: Preston threaten but Sunderland turn it over. A pass into Gelhardt, and then out to Jack Clarke in space. Another rendition of Wise Men Say has broken out but get a move on, Clarke has his marker 1-v-1 and you might not have time to get to the end. For a while it felt as if Sunderland would not find a way past the excellent Woodman, now it feels inevitable.

58 minutes: Preston had picked up an injury during the warm up and into the side came Patrick Bauer. Yes, that Patrick Bauer. Sunderland have been ahead a matter of minutes when the corner is floated in. They barely have a defender on the pitch by this point and so it is no surprise that all 6ft 3 of Bauer towers over them. The connection is good, but Patterson saves and Clarke clears. Another ghost gently being laid to rest. Not so typical Sunderland, after all.

84 minutes: This game is done. Sunderland pass, pass and pass again. Their job is done, their fate will be settled elsewhere. The ball isn’t even in play when it begins, one part excitement and one part delirious disbelief. Check your phone and check it again, check you haven’t misheard. Blackburn haven’t come from behind to win all season, precious few do it at the Den. Mowbray paces his technical area and looks at the floor. He’d watched League One go right to the wire the day before, watched Notts County twice strike right at the very death. He isn’t ready to celebrate yet, but away to his right they are. ‘We’re on our way,’ they sing. Whatever happens from here, there is no disputing that.

5:34 PM: Maybe we’ll go to the Premier, Amad tells Sky Sports. Maybe I’ll come back here, he adds. It shouldn’t be possible. Somehow, it is.