Sunderland: Mick McCarthy lived to regret Blackburn Rovers deal - View | OneFootball

Jon Stead endured a torrid time at Sunderland but poetically scored one Premier League goal on April Fool's Day.

As far as transfers go, there do not get many much worse than this one, and there have been some disastrous ones at Sunderland over the years.

Having clinched promotion to the Premier League in 2005, Mick McCarthy was in the hunt for new strikers to help bolster the Black Cats' attack ahead of their return to the top flight.

Despite his underwhelming record at Blackburn Rovers, Jon Stead was viewed as the man to lead the line for the Wearsiders, but the signing of the target man ended up being a joke in more ways than one.

Life in the Premier League is hard enough for newly promoted sides, and therefore, it is paramount that they get recruitment spot on.

Sunderland opted for the scatter gun approach that summer and hedged their bets on strength in numbers, rather than making any serious outlays on players.

The summer of 2005 saw a staggering 14 arrivals on Wearside, with Stead leading the way as the club's most expensive purchase at a reported £1.8m from Blackburn Rovers. Other notable arrivals in attack included Andy Gray from Sheffield United and Anthony Le Tallec on loan from Liverpool.

Like Sunderland, Stead failed to hit the ground running and lost confidence as a result. Having lost their opening five matches, the Black Cats found victory at the seventh attempt, with a 2-0 victory over rivals Middlesbrough. However, Stead was absent from the squad.

Although the victory over Boro gave the Black Cats a glimmer of hope, they came crashing back to reality with a string of fourteen games without a win.

At this point, one would assume that Stead had found the back of the net by now. By the time of Sunderland's next victory on January 21st, Stead was still without a goal.

Jon Stead's solitary goal for Sunderland was an April fool

Sunderland's 2005/06 season was becoming the stuff of nightmares. McCarthy's men had only managed two wins by the time Stead bagged his only goal of the season, on April 1st.

When fans heard of Stead's goal against Everton, they would not have believed it. In fact, to this day, they might still believe it was an April fool all along.

After 26 games of football, the striker finally had a goal in the red and white of Sunderland in the club's 2-2 draw at Goodison Park, but by this point it did not even matter as they were already relegated with just 11 points to their name.

Remarkably, the club managed to record one last win over Fulham before the season ended, with Stead finishing the campaign on one goal - an April fool.

In fairness to Stead, he was not far off the top scorer of the 2005/06 season, with Anthony Tallec leading the way with four league goals.

The Black Cats ended the season with a Premier League record that no club would desire. Sunderland finished with the lowest ever points tally in Premier League history at that time: 15.

With Sunderland in the Championship the following season, Stead was primed to make more of an impact for the Wearsiders, but after five league games and one goal, the forward was loaned to Derby County.

Unsurprisingly, Stead never played for the club again and moved to Sheffield United for a reported initial fee of £750,000, as per The Independent.

The Huddersfield born man went on to forge a career in the EFL, and although he never set the world alight, he did break the 10 goal barrier in three separate seasons.

Jon Stead and Sunderland were certainly not a match made in heaven. Having signed from Blackburn, the striker only managed one goal all season in the Premier League.

The forward's season was abysmal, yet poetic at the same time, as Stead scored his only goal of the season on April Fool's Day.

Now assistant manager at Barnsley, the ex-Sunderland man will be hoping for better days, but April Fool's Day will forever haunt him.