This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Rewind’ series, this content strand is where we rewind back to a particular moment at a club, assess the initial reaction from the fans, and then proceed to evaluate and reflect on whether fans were right to react in that way….

When Will Grigg joined Sunderland from Wigan Athletic for £4million on transfer deadline day in January, it was met with a huge sense of excitement and anticipation by fans at the Stadium of Light.  

Plenty of Black Cats supporters were delighted with the signing and felt that Grigg's goals could be the difference between the team finishing in the play-offs and winning automatic promotion.

Grigg arrived at the Stadium of Light with big expectations, having won promotion from League One three times in his career and having scored 26 goals for Wigan in all competitions in 2017/18.

Not only was he expected to replace 16-goal attacker Josh Maja, who had left just the Stadium of Light to join Bordeaux, he also was expected to score the goals to fire the Black Cats back to the Championship.

When Sunderland announced that they had secured Grigg's services, plenty of fans at the Stadium of Light were quick to express their joy and excitement, ahead of the final few months of the campaign.

However, things didn't work out quite as those Sunderland fans were expecting. Not only did Grigg struggle to make an impact after arriving at the Stadium of Light, but the team missed out on automatic promotion to the Championship, after failing to win six of their final seven league games.

After recovering to reach the play-off final, Sunderland suffered Wembley heartache against Charlton Athletic and were left facing another season in League One.

Grigg scored just four goals in 18 league appearances for Sunderland last season and struggled to fill the void created by Maja's departure.

The striker has struggled to make an impact this season too and has now been pushed further down the pecking order following Marc McNulty's arrival on a season-long loan from Reading.

Grigg has made eleven appearances for Sunderland in League One this season, but nine of those have come from the bench. His two goals this season have come in the EFL Cup against Burnley and in his most recent appearance against Grimsby Town in the EFL Trophy.

He's really struggled since joining Sunderland and has failed to justify the club spending £4million on bringing him to the Stadium of Light.

He's failed to replicate the prolific form he showed for Wigan a couple of seasons ago and will be determined to make an impact under the club's next manager.

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