Optimism has just vanished after defeats
When the League One fixtures came out at the start of the season, Sheffield Wednesday was the stand out fixture and the one away day to get involved with.
A Premier League fixture by all means being played out in League One.
However, after that said game, the mood amongst Sunderland fans is lower than ever.
Many have travelled around 500 miles in the space of four days to watch us lose by an aggregate score line of 8-1.
Regardless of the opponents, that isn’t remotely acceptable for any club yet alone one with aspirations of winning automatic promotion.
Topped off with the head coach opening his post match press conference by saying‘ we were better…’
That feel good factor from the start of the season has disappeared after the last three league games. A lot of optimism has just vanished.
So what now? Sack another manager? Aim for play offs?
Questions have to be asked of Johnson, but I don’t think sacking him is the answer… yet. The next five league games will be the make or break of our season. Historically, many more than 10 league defeats in a season will not get you promoted.
Despite being only 15 games into the season, we are worryingly close to that threshold. The longer this ‘streaky’ run continues, the further we move away from promotion.
Johnson has already visibly lost some of the fans, but failure to win at least three of the next five while remaining unbeaten in the other two could seriously sway the tide against him. Sunderland have three weeks to prepare for the next league game and get back to winning ways. I fear for the club’s atmosphere if not…