Sunderland’s ‘adopted Mackem’ Lynden Gooch talks through his 17-year Sunderland Career 

Lynden Gooch first visited Wearside at the age of 10 years-old, 17 years later he departed widely known as an ‘adopted Mackem’, representing Sunderland 247 times, scoring the winning goal in Sunderland’s first Wembley win since 1973 and restored the club back into the second tier.  

Spark Sunderland has had the opportunity to speak to Gooch and talk through his illustrious Sunderland career. 

When asked about how hard the move was at a young age Gooch said “To be fair, not really challenging by the time I actually moved because I’d been around everyone at the club for a couple times a year for about six years, so I knew all the staff, knew all the players and the dressing room that I was going into, so, I was actually, really comfortable going into it” 

After spells in youth teams and loan spells at Gateshead and Doncaster, Gooch broke into the Sunderland team and made his Premier League debut against Manchester City, but unfortunately for him broke into a Sunderland side who were “just used to losing football matches” and eventually after relegation into the Championship, Sunderland were also relegated again into League One.  

When asked if he felt he had a responsibility to try and restore the club back in a more familiar division Gooch answered “Yeah, definitely. There was obviously a few of us, mainly me and George Honeyman, who had stayed, who had been through together, and I think it was, kind of down to us to try and help the club get back to where, where we wanted to be and, obviously, a lot of players left the football club, and we were kind of left to it at a young age to try and rebuild.” 

2JPWMR1 Lynden Gooch #11 of Sunderland

Lynden Gooch #11 of Sunderland. Photo by News images 

Then, after a couple of turgid years where Sunderland suffered their lowest ever League position, the club was taken over by a Swiss businessman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus which made him the youngest chairman in English football. Gooch spoke about how much he felt that change in the dressing room, “ you could feel the momentum kind of shift when Kyril took over the club and straight away wanted to change things around the changing rooms and everything at the Academy and yeah, and he probably would have wanted success earlier than what we got. And I said in numerous interviews that once the club gets it right, then it will take off”  

Gooch also wrote his name into Sunderland folklore by scoring the winning goal in Sunderland’s first Wembley victory since 1973. In true Sunderland fashion though, there was an asterisk; it was during covid and fans were not allowed to attend. Gooch spoke about how different this was. 

“Yeah, it was a strange one. The previous two times I’d been as a player, obviously, we got beat. So, it was strange going there with no fans, but to go on and get the winner was obviously huge for me. Personally. I would have loved it to have been a full stadium, but yeah, to be able to say that I scored a winner for Sunderland at Wembley is something that means a lot to me, and it looks like  it’s broken the curse for a little while, and we’ve, we’ve been successful ever since.”  

The 2021/2022 season was a huge one for Sunderland, which eventually ended up in promotion back to the Championship. However, it wasn’t without lots of jeopardy for him personally and the team. 

“I was out of contract. So, to be fair to Alex Neil, when he came in, we had a chat early on; he knew my situation. He just said, look, if, if you do well for me, we get promoted, you’ll get a new deal here, or you’ll get a new deal somewhere else” 

 A playoff saga which resulted in Sunderland being promoted by beating Sheffield Wednesday over two legs and Wycombe Wanderers at Wembley. 

2J98MW8 Sunderland’s Lynden Gooch celebrates with the trophy after the Sky Bet League One play-off final at Wembley Stadium, London. Picture date: Saturday May 21, 2022.

Sunderland’s Lynden Gooch celebrates with the trophy after the Sky Bet League One play-off final at Wembley Stadium, London. Photo by John Walton. 

“One of my favourite nights in a Sunderland shirt. We knew it was going to be difficult. I’ve always enjoyed playing at Hillsborough. The atmosphere is amazing. So, for that type of game, two massive clubs going at it was a brilliant night. Obviously, it feels better for us because we came off on the winning side 

I just remember I couldn’t be bothered to run and celebrate me, and Corey Evans just had a cuddle in the middle of the pitch. It was class. I think it was funny after the game, Bailey Wright and I were getting stitched up together. Had claret everywhere, and it was just one of those classic games that I think all of us will look back on with fond memories.” 

“I think once we got through Sheffield Wednesday, we were confident going to Wembley, playing Wycombe there, we knew for the most part, we’d dominate the ball.” 

“I think for me everyone knew how much it meant to me and the staff that had been there the whole time with me throughout, … so to get over the line there was massive”  

Sunderland winning at Wembley. Photo by Max Steel

Gooch’s fellow teammate Elliot Embelton, who scored one of Sunderland’s goals at Wembley against Wycombe, has also spoken about the Americans’ impact in the dressing room and how getting promoted was so important. 

 “Goochy was good on and off the pitch for driving standards in training but also making sure the group did things right…  

It was the best feeling to give something back to the club that put a lot of work into us over the years of coaching and help from various staff and support from the fans” 

Gooch and I spoke about more in the full interview, including Sunderland’s first season back in the Championship, his leaving Sunderland after so long and joining Stoke with Alex Neil and how his season at Huddersfield battling for a playoff spot is going. 

Watch the full interview here: