Sam Greenwood has spoken out following his ‘unbelievable’ goal against Sunderland.
Speaking to Sky Sports, the forward admitted it ‘felt weird’ to score against his former club but claimed he was still ‘buzzing’ to take all three points off the Black Cats.
After beginning his career with Hebburn Town Juniors, Greenwood spent much of his childhood with Sunderland’s academy until he was snapped up by Arsenal at 16 years old.
The youngster failed to feature for the Gunners’ senior team before joining Leeds United in 2020 for £1.5 million. Greenwood made his senior debut five months later and went onto make 18 appearances in the Premier League last season before the Whites were relegated.
Greenwood went onto join Boro on loan in the summer and made only his second start against Sunderland, while the visitors’ opener was his first goal since arriving on Tyneside.
While his celebrations were muted, the 21-year-old still received a lot of abuse from the crowd. Despite it being Greenwood’s boyhood club, he claimed to be ‘buzzing’ at scoring against the Black Cats.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: “It felt a bit weird to be fair, but I’m just happy we got the three points and we can keep pushing now. It was unbelievable. It’s always been a dream of mine since I was a little kid to walk out at the Stadium of Light but I’ve done that now and scored against them!
“It feels unbelievable to be fair. It was a professional performance from the lads and I’m buzzing with the result.”
When asked about his dad (a Sunderland fan) supporting him, he explained why he didn’t celebrate.
“”Yeah, he’s always supported me so I think he’ll have been a bit all over the place,” he said. “It felt a bit weird, which is why I didn’t celebrate, but I’m buzzing we got three points and can just move on now.”
The Sunderland curse
It comes as no surprise to absolutely anybody in Sunderland that Sam Greenwood scored against us at the weekend.
The club are in a completely different space to only a few years ago – making brilliant signings, spending wisely, winning games. However, one thing that will never change is conceding goals to our former players.
Greenwood joins the likes of Connor Wickham, Chris Maguire and Darren Bent to score against us in the past. It’s always a tough one to take, but we can only concentrate on ourselves. I will take Sam Greenwood scoring at the SoL if we get promoted.