Everything is just wonderful

Early into the campaign I told some of my fellow Roker Reporters with a straight face that we’d end up at Wembley this season, because this club only does total disaster or total elation, with no in-between.

We’re either spectacularly good or spectacularly bad. I don’t mean this team right now, but this club in general - we don’t do boring and mundane. We don’t do midtable.

So why would this season be any different?

As I type this we’re fifth in the Championship. Nine short months ago we finished 5th in League One - and that day at Wembley, the greatest day in my Sunderland supporting life, I don’t think I could have possibly dreamed that we’d carry on the craziness into the Championship. Not this early, anyway.

Yet here I am, gone midnight, buzzing out of my tree unable to sleep, trying my best not to scream at the top of my lungs about how much I love this bloody team.

We fear absolutely nobody. It doesn’t matter who starts the game and who ends it, we go toe to toe with every side in this division with the belief that we can win.

There’s definitely a feeling building that this side is going places sooner than we might have expected, and even when questioned by the media about our playoff chances Tony Mowbray is reluctant to get too carried away - but I reckon away from the cameras he’s probably feeling the same way that we do about this young side and their ability to achieve greatness once more.

Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images

I don’t particularly care what anyone says about QPR’s recent form, they have good players for this level and it was never going to be as easy as just turning up at Loftus Road and walking all over them.

We were made to work for our victory, initially at least. QPR threw everything they had at us, but it wasn’t good enough. Our forwards pressed them to death, and our midfielders were strong in the tackle and worked hard to close down the space.

And if they somehow managed to break through that, they were never going to permeate Danny Batth, Dan Ballard and Anthony Patterson.

This Sunderland team is made of tough stuff, and you have to be at your best to hurt them. And if you don’t, we have goals in us, regardless of whether or not Ross Stewart is fit. We will make you pay for your mistakes, and we will send you home unhappy.

The mixture of our hard work and silky play on the counter made us dangerous in the second half, particularly after QPR had a spell of their own, and they couldn’t live with us. I can only imagine how morale-sapping it must be to see players of the quality of Amad Diallo and Dan Neil entering the pitch when you’re already losing.

The Championship is a slog and the games come thick and fast. Changes were made to the team by Mowbray because he understands just how taxing it can be on a player both mentally and physically if they’re expected to reach peak performance every three days.

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

And it doesn’t end there. We go again at the weekend, and then the following Tuesday. And then again the following weekend, with another midweeker to follow.

It doesn’t phase me, though, because I have full faith in this team and this squad. We keep finding ways to win and I’m sure we’ll carry that on again, starting with the game at the Stadium of Light against Bristol City.

We fear nobody and we will give it our best efforts again on Saturday, I’m sure.

It feels like we’re becoming addicted to winning, and addicted to the positivity that comes with it. This fearless side led by a fearless manager who only wants to play high-intensity, free-flowing football is going places - perhaps faster than most of us might have thought even they were capable of - and I’m just loving watching it play out in front of me.

One step at a time, one game at a time... we can do this. Everything is just wonderful.