Jonny Williams wanted to help Sunderland avoid League One, now he’ll try keep them there

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Sunderland will face Charlton Athletic in the League One play-off final next weekend.

But the Addicks will be no pushovers. Charlton have a strong team led by the impressive management of Lee Bowyer. Sunderland will need to be at their best.

One player who may have extra incentive to beat Sunderland is former player Jonny Williams.

Williams joined Sunderland under his former Welsh international boss Chris Coleman in January 2018. He was hoping to help save them from Championship relegation. His struggles were well-documented in the Netflix documentary ‘Sunderland ‘Till I Die’ when injury scuppered his hopes of playing a major role.

His sincere and honest ways helped him come over well. Sunderland fans generally have good feelings toward the player.

He clearly wishes he could have helped more as well. He explained to The Guardian.

“It was such a great opportunity to hopefully go and get Sunderland back in the Premier League, so to get injured when I did was a massive blow. It was so disappointing because you could tell how much it meant to everyone and I just wanted to do my best for them. But I wasn’t able to do that.”

But Williams joined Charlton on a six-month deal in January this year. Despite not setting the world alight, he will be in Bowyer’s plans for the final at Wembley.

Sunderland will hope he does not come back to haunt them, even if he can expect a good reception from the travelling support. But it is just good to see him playing football, fully fit, again.