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Wes Brown had no qualms about dumping boyhood club Manchester United out of the League Cup on their home turf, declaring 'I'm a Sunderland fan now'.
The 34-year-old, along with other former Reds John O'Shea and Phil Bardsley, was one of the heroes of the Black Cats' epic semi final success at Old Trafford and it represents an incredible turn-around in fortunes for a once beleaguered squad.
There is, of course, plenty of work still to be done in the league, but Brown is adamant they have come a very long way as a team since those dark early days of the season:
Back in September I could not imagine this club would be going to a Wembley final, and that's the honest truth.
If you'd asked in September if there was a chance of us being in a final, nobody here would have said 'yes'. We've come such a long way since then. We're a strong bunch of lads and hopefully we can just keep this going now in the league.
Gus has been brilliant. He's on everyone's side. He helps everyone. We know what he wants and that's what we try and do.
He changes things at times to see how we react to it and we reacted brilliantly against Manchester United. We have some great and talented players. When we play well you can see that on the pitch. The lads are buzzing and I hope all our supporters are too.
It's just great to see the lads being able to talk-up what they have achieved rather than constantly issuing rallying calls telling us how they are going to fix weekly failures.
It is often a bit of a one-way street with this kind of thing. When the players lose games, we call them every name under the sun. When they win games, we almost preemptively moan about not getting carried away.
But, personally, the more they crow the better really. It's a surefire sign of confidence, and confidence will likely be a massive defining factor at the bottom in the run-in.
