Tony call all too familiar

TONY MOWBRAY pressed every emotional Mackem button with Sunderland fans this week.

He mentioned it was an industrial town where working-class fans “got dirt in the finger-nails” doing graft and hard work.

Mowbray wheeled out all the usual Northern imagery – apart from flat caps and whippets.

Sir Bobby Robson used to do it as well, conjuring images of finding centre-forwards down every pit, and his team being in a rich seam of form. Chris Wilder has talked of Boro being working class too this season.

Now that the mines, glass-making and ship-making have long gone, replaced by service industries and shopping centres, I’m never sure how realistic that portrayal is.

Or how unique graft, and being working class is, just because we are in the North East as opposed to the suburbs of Birmingham, or the east end of London.

Or how useful it is to our image up here, making it sound a bit grim when it most certainly isn’t, with amazing towns, coastlines and countryside.

But I suppose Sunderland does still have Nissan and its supply chain on the doorstep.

But Mowbray (above) is right that there is a strong mood of community and togetherness to capture on Wearside.

Out of potential chaos with the sudden departure of Alex Neil, Sunderland have snatched refreshed direction and a stable, experienced new leader in Mowbray.

Connecting with the Wearside fans is important, because this season they have been relentlessly positive on the return to the Championship.

They are enthused by a team playing their best football for years and Mowbray’s task now is to keep Sunderland in the top half, integrate a host of new kids who were signed last week – and maintain that famous level of graft and application.