More positive signs of a club heading in the right direction
| Published date | 13 September 2021 |
| Publication title | Journal, The |
It not only makes them the clear leaders at the top of League One with a two-point cushion over Wigan Athletic, albeit the table is still very much in its infancy, but it makes this Sunderland's best start to a season since 1925.
Equally importantly, it means Sunderland have picked up where they left of f before the international break, with no disruption to their momentum.
And once again a crowd of almost 30,000 left the Stadium of Light in good spirits, after watching their team win again to maintain its 100% home record.
That 'crowd factor' is crucial for Sunderland, as anyone who has spent a significant period of time following the club's fortunes will know.
Because when the team is performing well, results are good, and there is an air of positivity at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland are a force to be reckoned with in any division.
That was the story of the Peter Reid years in the late 1990s and into the 2000s, under Roy Keane in the mid- 2000s, under Sam Allardyce for halfa-season in the mid-2010s, and most recently in Jack Ross' ' irst season in charge in 2018-19.
At other times, when things have been going wrong - sometimes badly wrong - it has felt like managers and players have been trying to push water uphill.
But what we are seeing at the moment is a club that appears to be heading in the right direction.
Lee Johnson has assembled a squad that combines youth - including several graduates of Sunderland's academy - with experience, and that blend is producing results.
Dan Neil, who is one of those academy graduates, has taken League One by storm in his breakthrough season. He is playing as well as any midfielder I have seen in this division this season, and he is still a teenager who has yet to make 20 senior career appearances.
His stunning opening goal early in the game against Accrington was his first in senior football, but it will surely be the first of many.
Carl Winchester, who scored the second goal just before the hour, was Johnson's first signing back in January and his arrival from Forest Green Rovers barely caused a ripple, yet eight...
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