Two league games into the season and it’s been mixed fortunes so far for Sunderland, but as Régis Le Bris said after Saturday’s defeat at Burnley, the players and staff won’t allow results to affect their approach to training and preparation for the next match.
I like this mentality and I certainly don’t feel that anyone should be dwelling too much on our first league defeat of the season.
As we look forward to the Brentford game on Saturday, I feel it’s important to remember some of the key ingredients
which led to our 3-0 win over West Ham on the opening day.
The build-up to the day was huge as we made our much-anticipated return to the Premier League after eight long years.
The feelgood factor was strong; fans shared photos of which shirt they were wearing, the club shop was bustling as thousands streamed in to buy the latest merchandise, whilst the bars were packed.
The atmosphere both inside and outside of the stadium was electric, there was no doubt that it was a massive occasion — and this spilled out onto the pitch.
Instead of buckling under the weight of expectation, the players (including seven debutants in the starting eleven) rose to the occasion. They set about the game like warriors and the crowd gleefully cheered every tackle, roared the Lads on and celebrated each goal like we’d just won the cup.
If there was any suggestion that our new team was in any way inferior to our top flight opponents, we more than made up for that with a collective show of togetherness and a united front which drove us on from the first whistle to the last.
This is what I love to see at the Stadium of Light. — when the red and white faithful and the Lads on the pitch are not only on the same wavelength, but supercharged by some sort of relentless current, and I feel this is when Sunderland AFC is at its strongest on a match day.
We had it in the playoffs against Coventry. We had it at Wembley and because August 16 was such a big day, we had it against West Ham.
Our home form is going to be absolutely crucial to our chances of survival (or hopefully even better) this season and I genuinely believe that if we can turn the stadium into a cauldron of noise again on Saturday, we can play our part once again against Brentford.
There was no need for despondency on the opening day, as we were all still riding on the crest of a wave following promotion and an exciting influx of new players, and one defeat against Burnley shouldn’t change any of that.
Le Bris has said that the players and his staff will be fully focused on the task ahead this week in training, so let’s focus on contributing in the best way we possibly can and make the stadium as electrifying as possible before kick off and for the ninety-plus minutes that follow.
