Tony Gillan: Sunderland fans are turning away - but they should not be derided

If you overlook the fact that Sunderland sit in the middle of League One, managed one point from home games against Burton and Coventry, don’t look like obvious promotion candidates with some people talking about the opposite...

... Were eliminated from the FA Cup a minimum of two rounds before AFC Fylde, have a manager of seven whole weeks whose future is already in doubt ...

... Haven’t had a much discussed takeover after all, whose owners now have a further £10m of debt to deal with, whose players are alarmingly short of confidence...

But if, as I said, you overlook all that, plus a few other things that aren’t great news either – then things still look pretty bleak.

It’s at times like this, if indeed there has ever been a time quite like this, that people stop attending matches? Who could blame them?

There is every reason to stay away. No criticism from me. It’s none of my business how other people spend their money.

I have no argument with anyone who says simply: “I don’t want to watch that, let alone pay for the privilege.”

The irritants are those who imagine that not going to football matches somehow makes them cleverer. It doesn’t. It certainly doesn’t make them funnier either.

Not that they seem aware of this when posting clunkingly unfunny and blindingly obvious messages on social media.

For example, online competitions might be run with the caption: “Fancy two tickets to Sunderland’s next home game?”

Admittedly the question does invite an unkind response these days. But you have to wonder in which primitive society the reply of “No!” is considered to be some sort of comedy gold standard.

The best you can hope for Facebook “wit” is something that was at least considered humorous when it was first heard in a music hall in about 1927.

Despite everything, I still enjoy going to the match. Unsurprisingly, this isn’t solely because of the football. There are other social aspects I like, including the communal moaning.

Why are football fans singled out for intendedly humorous barbs for doing what they like, simply because their team is not exactly all conquering?

I fail to see any appeal in most other sports, gardening, DIY or cookery and plenty of other pastimes.

I especially can’t understand why anyone goes fishing, particularly when the fish are lobbed back into the water. An act of Sisyphean pointlessness if ever there was one.

But nor do I go online to join a needlessly spiteful Twitter mob to heap churlish ridicule on those who enjoy such activities. Good luck to them and each to their own.

These hobbies can be expensive. But that doesn’t make their enthusiasts stupid or gullible.

Well it’s the same with people who like attending football matches; even matches being contested by a perennially underachieving club.

Neither attending nor eschewing Sunderland games entitles anyone to a round of applause. We all do as we wish and should reasonably expect just a modicum of respect, because it isn’t asking much.

There is much to deride at the Stadium of Light this season, but that most certainly does not include the fans.