Fast forward six months or so, and things could hardly be more different. With the wind in their sails, Sunderland boast a five-point lead at the top of the Championship table. Every time they take to the field, they look like claiming all three points.
Having displayed patience in the win at Hull and spirit in the midweek success at Luton, Saturday’s home game with Oxford United provided Regis Le Bris’ side with an opportunity to cut loose. They duly took it, producing their best football of the season as they claimed a two-goal win that could easily have been even more emphatic.
Understandably, Le Bris and his players continue to downplay the significance of their superb start to the campaign. ‘Too early to get excited. A lot of football still to be played. Take every game as it goes’. Fine. But with every game that passes, so Sunderland’s promotion credentials strengthen. As the last week has proved, this is a side that can win in lots of different ways. Why shouldn’t they keep this going all the way through to May?
“The changing room is buzzing, and the squad morale is through the roof,” said skipper Dan Neil, who has experienced plenty of the dark times on Wearside in the last few years. “We’re on a bit of a momentum wave at the minute, so everyone is absolutely delighted with the start.
“We feel like we’re going into games really confident that we can take all three points, and I think that’s a really place to be. But playing devil’s advocate, we know that momentum can just crash. You saw it last year – we beat Preston on New Year’s Day and were sixth, but finished 17th.
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“The momentum wave going up can be unbelievable, but when that momentum wave starts going down, it’s really hard to turn it around. We started to turn it around in pre-season though – we’ve worked on fundamentals to get a real playing identity so everyone is clear what needs to be done in different scenarios.”
While last season was extremely challenging, there were still moments when Sunderland’s potential shone through. As a result, while Le Bris knew he was taking over a side whose collective confidence was on the floor when he agreed to move to Wearside in the summer, he was also fully aware of the potential within the squad.
“I haven’t been surprised by how we have been playing because I watched many of the games from last season,” said Le Bris. “For me, it was clear that that team, and those players, were able to play like that. So it is not a surprise, but the main point was the consistency.
“You can play at that level, but then two games later, you can be playing at a completely different level. If you want to do well in the league, it is impossible if you are doing that. The qualities are here, that is not a problem. But we have to build the consistencies, that is the most important thing.”
Sunderland’s players could not have done much more at the weekend as they dominated Oxford from the outset.
Some of their attacking interplay was sublime, with Jobe Bellingham, Chris Rigg and Dan Neil dovetailing superbly in midfield while Patrick Roberts dazzled with a series of incisive dribbles down the right-hand side.
Bellingham opened the scoring in the 16th minute as he burst between two defenders to head home Trai Hume’s cross, and also clipped the crossbar with a curled effort after the break.
A second goal felt inevitable for most of the afternoon, and arrived just after the hour mark as Wilson Isidor directed Dan Neil’s floated through ball into the bottom corner via a superb first-time volley.