On this day in 1998, Peter Reid took a Sunderland side full of confidence to Carrow Road for a midweek game — the tenth of an unbeaten start to the season that would staggeringly last until late November — and an entertaining 2-2 draw unfolded with Niall Quinn and an Andy Marshall own goal preserving the unbeaten run.
Norwich, then managed by Bruce Rioch, were undefeated at home to this point so a draw was a decent return despite our good start.
Reid started the game without his talismanic striker Kevin Phillips who had broken a toe two weeks earlier in a league cup game against Chester. Danny Dichio started the game alongside Quinn in a 4-4-2 formation with Thomas Sorenson in goal, Chris Makin, Paul Butler, Andy Melville and Michael Gray at the back, and a midfield of Allan Johnston, Kevin Ball, Alex Rae and Nicky Summerbee.
Quinn started the match on fire and could’ve scored in the opening minute with a good strike that was stopped Marshall before opening the scoring in the third minute with his trademark cushioned chest control and volley into the top corner.
Malky Mackay had lost sight of both Quinn and the flight of the ball but was soon to make amends. By the time twenty five minutes had been played, Darren Eadie had levelled and Mackay himself slotted home to make it 2-1 — in truth, we were caught ball watching and any one of three Norwich players could’ve scored.
The start to the second half was equally as exciting and on forty seven minutes, the equaliser came when a Makin cross was punched into his own net by Marshall when under pressure from Quinn.
Sunderland went into the 1998/1999 season having been kicked in the teeth at the end of the previous campaign.
The playoff final loss to Charlton could’ve knocked the stuffing out of us yet here we were, hovering between first second in the league and unbeknownst to us at the time, at the beginning of a season that would be record breaking. We would eventually finish as champions, with a league-best ever 105 points on the board and having lost only three games.
Of the 91 goals scored and despite being sidelined for four months with a broken toe, Phillips still managed 23 on his own and would finish as the Premier League’s top scorer in 1999/2000.
