JONES GLAD AS A HATTER AT FIVE-STAR SHOW
Star pays tribute to boss for turning Sunderland around
Maja Onyedinma
AIDEN McGEADY would have quit Sunderland in the summer – until boss Jack Ross came in with a revival plan.
The turmoil of successive relegations, including last year’s shambolic Championship season, is being blown away.
A hard-fought draw against excellent Wycombe earned by a late Josh Maja goal kept the points ticking over after eight consecutive wins.
McGeady was one of the home side’s brightest performers and while he knows there is more work to be done, they are back on the up. He said: “I didn’t enjoy last season. No one did.
“But if a new manager came in with foundations and said, ‘Here we go. This is how we are going to have a go and go straight back up,’ then that would be completely different and I want to be part of that. Everyone else does as well.
“There’s definitely more optimism around the place. When you look at the first game of the season it felt different immediately.
“Training has been good, enjoyable and fun. You can talk to the staff and manager on a personal level instead of seeing a manager and saying, ‘There’s the manager’.
“In the summer people were asking me if I was going to stay. I never said I wanted to leave... unless it was going to be like last season.
“I don’t think we were helped LUTON PLYMOUTH 5 1 LUTON manager Nathan Jones reckons the “glory days” are returning to Kenilworth Road.
The Hatters brushed aside Plymouth thanks to last season by all the things that went on off the pitch.
“Fans came to games and vented their frustrations at the team and the owners. We weren’t playing well which added to it. But this season has been completely different. “Fans have come back in big numbers for League One. We go into fixtures thinking we will win. There is an awful lot of work to do to achieve our aim and bounce back up.” There was frustration from Ross (left) that the Black Cats missed the chance to go top and assert themselves over their promotion rivals.
They were stifled by Gareth Ainsworth’s tactics until a rousing last 20-minute revival when Maja got his 11th goal of the season and cancelled Fred Onyedinma’s volley. Wycombe James Collins’ hat-trick and goals from Elliot Lee and James Justin (left, celebrating).
And Jones said: “There were a lot of people from Premier League and Championship clubs here because of the international break.
“They see a full house at Kenilworth Road, a lot of REF:
boss Ainsworth said: “It was a superb performance. We were the better side in the first half then Sunderland piled pressure on us in the last 15 minutes.
“I am proud we didn’t crumble. We stood strong. We came here and competed with the league’s best team.
“There is no greater gulf between two clubs financially as us and Sunderland. We stayed next to the stadium and walked here with our heads held high. I told the lads to enjoy playing here and we were close to a win.”
SUNDERLAND: WYCOMBE: MOTM them would have remembered Kenilworth Road back in the glory days when they were in the top flight, but back then wouldn’t have been any better than this.
“What a wonderful performance that showed our club in a great light.”
Joel Grant scored a late consolation and Plymouth ATT: JASON McCARTHY (WYCOMBE) boss Derek Adams defended his decision to haul off top scorer and League One’s October Player of the Month Freddie Ladapo after just half an hour.
He said: “You don’t become player of the month without doing things well, but Freddie wasn’t doing things well.” BURTON COVENTRY
DOM HYAM could not believe his Coventry side lost at Burton. The Sky Blues were described by Brewers boss Nigel Clough as the best side they have faced this season. But Coventry went down to a Tom Bayliss own goal – and fellow defender Hyam said: “Their manager’s words hurt even more. We’re so disappointed. “Hearing that we’re the best team he’s come up against and to come away with nothing is not nice to hear.
“We’ve just got to look forward to Peterborough at home on Friday night. It has to be lessons learned. We caused them problems. “We’ll analyse it and see where we went wrong.” OXFORD GILLINGHAM 1 0
OXFORD boss Karl Robinson has hailed his walking wounded for climbing out of the bottom four.
James Henry’s second-half penalty saw the U’s get the better of Gillingham despite being without eight regulars.
Oxford had six injured, Jamie Mackie suspended and Gavin Whyte on international duty.
But Robinson said: “The most important thing is we can come away from here and the fans can see that one thing we certainly have is people who really care.
“We’ve had almost three weeks of horrendous injury news and so many things going against us.
“But the players have been men and are fit to wear the shirt.
“And that’s all you can ever ask for as a football fan and a manager.”
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