Lee Johnson reveals his “only regret” during Sunderland tenure

The Black Cats had endured a reasonably successful spell in League One in the months leading up to his dismissal, enjoying a ten league game unbeaten run between November and January as they asserted themselves as genuine promotion contenders once again.

But they suffered a humiliating result at the University of Bolton Stadium as they fell to a 6-0 defeat to Ian Evatt’s side, a result that proved to be the final straw for the third-tier outfit as they parted company with the 40-year-old.

This result capped off a disappointing tenure for Johnson on Wearside, proving to be reasonably successful after taking over from Phil Parkinson but failing to win promotion at the end of the 2020/21 campaign as they lost out to Lincoln City in the play-off semi-final.

That was perhaps the turning point in his tenure despite gaining some positive results during this season, mainly due to the fact they would have fancied their chances against the Imps going into the semi-final.

However, Johnson has now revealed he only ever had one regret and that came right at the end of his time there.

He said: “Like I say, the only regret, I’ll be honest with you for my whole time there is the fact I was still trying to win the game at 3-0 down at Bolton away.

“And I think that final result, it doesn’t sit well with me because the lads didn’t deserve it.

“The lads had performed really well, it was our second loss in 15, it was a top points-per-game ratio of all the clubs in the 72 so the journey we were on was a really progressive, good one.

“Lot of new players coming in, a load of young players, we had just made three really good signings in the last week of the window and that bit is disappointing not being able to see the challenge through.”

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