LEAGUES ONE & TWO: EVERY GAME, EVERY KICK, EVERY GOAL
JON McLAUGHLIN has warned Sunderland can “dominate” League One.
Unbeaten after seven games, boss Jack Ross says they have built a solid platform to kick on and return to the Championship.
But slow starts in games, conceding first and a few sloppy defensive moments have held them back.
At least the rot of the last two relegations has been stopped. The question now is whether they can rack up a string of wins and take charge of the promotion places. The shock of being three divisions down has been absorbed by a freshly assembled squad and McLaughlin says they will click into top form soon.
He saved a penalty from Paddy Madden (above) – the first by a Sunderland keeper at home since 1989 – to earn a point.
He said: “We are still unbeaten.
“There are positives. We need to work on the factors that are keeping us back.
“We are at the sharp end of the division. Not many teams will be in this position knowing they have so much left in the tank.
“Peterborough, Fleetwood, others, are all performing at their top level from the start.
“If we get ourselves going week in, week out, and stamping our authority on teams then we should really dominate this division. “When we get the pieces together I am sure we will start to dominate.
“We started poorly, a setpiece that put us on the back foot. That has been our Achilles’ heel.
“We are not too disappointed, but we want to win every game here.”
Madden scored first for Fleetwood, who were excellent in spells, looking accomplished on the ball. Josh Maja netted his fifth of the season to level and Sunderland had late chances to win.
McLaughlin said of the spotkick: “It was great to save the first penalty at the Stadium of Light.
“Great to have that feather in the cap. It is more important to contribute to the team. We are not hung up on personal records, it is a contribution to the whole.”
His boss Ross said: “Every time we don’t win we should be disappointed. I want that mentality. They were disappointed when they came in. A bit quiet.
“We remain undefeated. As a realist at the start of the season we’d have said that’s OK.
“It is a solid start, one that can be better, but one that has given us a platform.”
Joey Barton has got Fleetwood contending for promotion too.
He said: “We probably have 85 years of work to do to get to Sunderland’s stature, but we’ve had six promotions in 10 years. Fleetwood keep going up and we want to continue that.
“We must stay in the promotion hunt and hang in there.”