Supporting Sunderland has never been simple, and there are certainly no guarantees in football. No Sunderland fan expects anything extravagant. Well, at times it might seem like we do, but in truth all we want to see is a team that represents us as people on the pitch.
It's almost become a cliché, but all we expect is to see players giving maximum effort, with people in charge putting the best interests of the football club - from the very top to the very bottom - at heart.
No amount of 'media days' intended to manufacture faux positivity or club interviews with the Chief Executive where he's asked carefully worded questions are going to improve the results on the pitch. The players appear unmotivated, devoid of confidence and without a game plan that is getting the best out of them.
We've had it spelled out to us - rightly or wrongly - that David Moyes is going nowhere anytime soon.
I still haven't made my mind up fully on him as our long term manager but the question really is at what point does his position become untenable? If we don't win any of our next five or six games, are Bain and Short still going to back David Moyes publicly like they have done so, or will their supposed long term plan go out of the window in a bid to ensure that we aren't relegated?
I guess that time will tell.
There are many questions that are not being answered relating to issues on and off the pitch and we could do with some clarity from our Chairman. His radio silence might well be his preference but it's simply not good enough - we aren't morons and we know when something is up. I direct you back towards Tom's article last week which studied our finances and our stance going forward - when we aren't being told the full story by club figures, it only leads us fans to conspire and guess as to why we are in the state that we are in.
We can see our Premier League future slipping away in front of our own eyes. Someone needs to stand up and assure us that our identity as a top flight club isn't being risked at the behest of cost-cutting and streamlining.
When you're talking about such an important issues, our latest defeat just blends in to all of the others.
The team we fielded yesterday evening in comparison to the side that Southampton fielded was not all that different in terms of quality - and whilst it was a fabulous goal that decided the game, the overall performance from the Sunderland players was soulless.
The players look as fed up as we do. As we've seen on so many occasions in recent years, the only way you seemingly breathe life back in to a squad going through the motions is to change manager. Whilst constantly doing so has led to us being in the position we are in today, we cannot keep using that as a crutch to lean on. Our manager and these players should be performing far better than they currently are. There really are no excuses for what we are seeing.
There were over 1500 Sunderland supporters at Southampton for a mid-week cup tie. It was an eleven hour round trip for most people. Each and every person at that game were there to support their team, and as shown by the number of people that were there - and, infact, at every away game - it is proof that regardless of how the team on the pitch are performing there is a fanbase at this club that will stick by them through thick and thin.
It's unbelievably commendable and whilst I would hazard that those fans didn't attend the game to seek plaudits, they certainly deserve credit for being fantastic supporters. They deserve much better.