Sunderland Echo

Two home wins out of two...more of the same please and make it three!

-

Sunderland welcome Doncaster Rovers to Wearside on Friday night and every Sunderland fan is hoping for similar performanc­es and outcomes as the two previous home games against Lincoln City and Wycombe Wanderers.

Every time Sunderland play at home, they will be favourites against any team in this league, so they have to make the Stadium of Light a fortress, a place where teams hate to play and opposition players are thinking of damage limitation before anything else.

Sunderland are still a big scalp in this league but in the previous two home games they have blown the opposition away early on, playing exciting, high-tempo football and that is what I expect Phil Parkinson and his coaching staff will be expecting and demanding from his players against Doncaster.

That must be the standard Sunderland now set. None of this ‘Well, a point is better than losing’.

No, a point at home in League One means two points dropped every single time it happens.

High standards, both individual­ly and as a team, have to be expected - never switching off, always being relentless in grinding down the opposition is the only way Sunderland can get back to where they should be, and that is what they did in the last two home games so they have proved they can do it.

Now it is a case of being at your best as often as you can. Doing it consistent­ly is the hard bit because we found out last season that too many draws, especially at home, cost Sunderland promotion.

Getting an early goal, like Sunderland have done in their previous two home games, has taken all of the pressure off.

But that won’t happen every game, being 3-0 up and game over before the half-hour mark won’t happen every time either, so if it doesn’t then Sunderland will just have to dig deep and do it the hard way, and I am expecting Doncaster to be far more resilient than Lincoln or Wycombe were.

They have got a better goalsagain­st record than Lincoln and Wycombe, so it may be a different type of game, but there is more than one way to win a football match and as long as Sunderland find one of those ways, we will all be happy.

Doncaster are no mugs and cannot be underestim­ated, but Sunderland are flying now and destroyed the team who were top of the table in their last home game.

That should give them all the belief they need.

*The Sunderland Echo has launched a new SAFC weekly podcast call The Roar! Every Thursday our team of SAFC writers discuss the big talking points of the week, whether it be takeover, transfer or tactics-related - we discuss it all! With Sunderland again battling for automatic promotion from League One, we also answer fan questions and read out the best and funniest reader anecdotes as fans share their memories of following the Lads home and away over the years. Our new 45-minute podcast is recorded at the University of Sunderland and it is published online and in all the usual podcast places every Thursday evening for readers to listen to. We'll also have special guests joining us throughout the season.

To get involved, simply tweet a question to @sunechosaf­c and we'll fire the best at Phil and the team every week!

 ??  ?? Phil Parkinson.
Phil Parkinson.
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom