Promotion not a two-horse race with Cats still in the mix
Bailey Wright believes Sunderland cannot yet be ruled-out of the automatic promotion race – despite their defeat at Wigan Athletic.
The Black Cats were beaten 2-1 by the relegationthreatened Latics on Tuesday evening as they made it back-to-back defeats in League One.
Charlie Wyke had opened the scoring, but strikes from Will Keane and Callum Lang as the hosts take victory as the Wearsiders were unable to bounce back from their defeat to Charlton Athletic.
As a consequence of those results, Sunderland’s promotion hopes are now out of their own hands with the side reliant on slip-ups from Hull City or Peterborough United if they are to break into the top two.
And while that duo may now be odds-on with the bookmakers to gain automatic promotion come the end of the season, Wright believes his side cannot be discounted from the conversation just yet – warning that ‘a lot can happen’ between now and the final game of the campaign.
“Externally, people will say what they say,” he said.
"If that's what you believe, that it's a two horse race with them, then that's your opinion. I don't agree with that - I think we've still got a good position, there's a few games of football left and we all know football, it's full of twists and turns.
"We've got to enjoy it, embrace it, and we will. We've got ourselves in a good position, but we've got to be the ones to make it happen, and we know that.
“There are some good sides in this division - some good sides above us, some good sides below us - but a lot can happen. So let's see what happens."
Wright made his longawaited return from injury at Wigan under slightly different circumstances.
The Australian defender was initially set to start on the bench, but was thrust into action when Conor
McLaughlin was forced to withdraw from the starting line-up.
It was from the return that Wright had hoped for as he made his first start since the Papa John’s Trophy semi-final clash with Lincoln City, and he pulled no punches in his postmatch assessment of the performance.
“I envisioned that I'd come back and be part of a winning team, regardless of if I played or not,” he explained.
"All you want to do is win - you want the lads to win and to be successful. Sometimes in football that's not the case and we fell short tonight, clearly, against a strong Wigan side that you have to give credit to.
"They put in a really tough performance and we just weren't good enough.
"Now it's up to us to show character, rebuild and get ready to go again. We've still got ourselves in a great position, we know what we're capable of and regardless of when we win or lose we stick together and build and that's what we've got to keep doing.
“In a game of football anything can happen and sometimes you have to give them credit,” he continued.
"The result tonight was fully deserved for Wigan and that's where we have to look at ourselves, which we will do because we're an honest group, and show character to bounce back.
"Of course, anyone we play we look at that game and think we can beat them regardless of who it is. That's because we back ourselves, our preparation, the quality we've got and our desire.
"We fell short, we know that, and sometimes you do. We have to recognise it, rebuild and go again.
"Every game throughout the game is important, that's the responsibility that comes with wearing this badge and we're fully aware of that.
"But we have a great opportunity to regroup, rebuild and show our character and strengths - which we have done all season.
"There's no doubt that we've got that, and we fell short. We hold our hands up, we're an honest group who want to be successful and we get ready to go again.”
The reverse at Wigan saw Sunderland suffer back-toback league defeats for the first time this season – although the side did lose three games on the trot under Phil Parkinson in late November and December, albeit in three different competitions.
But despite that, Wright says the atmosphere behind the scenes at Academy of Light is unchanged with squad spirit remaining high.
And he now says the onus is on the Black Cats to ‘make things happen’ in the final weeks of the campaign as the side look to force their way into the top two for the first time since April 2019.
"Our internal atmosphere hasn't changed at all,” said the defender.
"Maybe externally, but I don't look too much into that.
"I know that you control the controllables that's inside our environment. Of course you want to win football matches and the last two games we haven't, that's the facts.
"But we've showed character coming from behind and winning games, we've showed character in our defending keeping clean sheets and scoring goals. That's in us, we know that, and it's down to us to bring that out.
"It's our responsibility to make things happen.
“The atmosphere when you lose is always not nice, but this is football and you're going to lose some game.
"It kills you when you do lose, it hurts, which it should do. But our atmosphere doesn't change, our mentality day to day has been great.”