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What are Sunderland’s top six rivals saying about the Championship play-off race?
Sunderland enjoyed an overwhelmingly positive start to the Championship season and remained firmly in the race for automatic promotion into the Premier League for large parts of the campaign.
However, defeats against the likes of Leeds United, Coventry City and Hull City have left the Black Cats sat 11 points adrift of the top two with just eight games remaining. Following the final international break of the campaign, Regis Le Bris’ side will return to their Championship promotion push with a home clash against Millwall on Saturday afternoon and they still have to face fellow play-off contenders West Bromwich Albion, Bristol City and Blackburn Rovers before the regular season comes to a close in May.
Of course, the Black Cats have experienced somewhat mixed fortunes in the second tier play-offs throughout their history and narrowly missed out on a place at Wembley just two seasons ago when they fell to a semi-final defeat against Luton Town. Any regular watcher of the Championship play-offs will know they are an unpredictable environment where you are best served to expect the unexpected - but what are Sunderland’s play-off rivals saying about the race for the top six as an exciting season rapidly approaches boiling point?
What have Sunderland’s play-off rivals said about the top six battle?
Frank Lampard - Coventry City (5th place - 59 points)
He told BBC CWR: “I'd have settled to be in the top 12 when I came in. That's where we were looking so to get to where we are is a great thing and we have to reset a little with our mindset and thought process. Will we stay in the play-offs all the way to the end? Who knows, maybe not, but can we keep fighting to get in there? For sure."
Tony Mowbray - West Bromwich Albion (6th place - 57 points)
"The crux of it, as it always has been, is to still be in it on the last day when the wheel stops turning,” said the former Black Cats manager. “It looks like there might be four or five teams within three points of each other. We've something to play for going into the final stretch and you've got to look forward confidently to the challenge. What will be will be, but we at least want to get to Wembley and give ourselves a chance."
Liam Manning - Bristol City (7th place - 57 points)
"What I think we've done a good job of, and I remember it was the time last year we'd had a tough period if you remember, four losses in five going into this break and then we played Leicester and obviously finished the last eight quite well. We've used those experiences. They're not things that have just happened and we've moved on from, they're experiences we've used along the way. I think if you look at the course of this season, what we've worked really hard on is going game to game and you can see that. If you go back on the performances and results, we've tended to bounce from one game into the next quite well and that's the same message.”
Michael Carrick - Middlesbrough (8th place - 54 points)
"They're still there [in the play-off race]. We've got to obviously keep that opportunity alive. We're going to be saying that now until the end of the season. There are probably going to be twists and turns and we've just got to keep plugging away. We're still in it, we've got a chance – we've got a great chance, actually – and let's just see what happens."
Valerian Ismael - Blackburn Rovers (9th place - 52 points)
"The performance in the first half wasn't what we expected," Ismael told BBC Radio Lancashire. “We made a mistake, but how we finished the first half, how we played in the second half, is what we wanted to see from minute one. The players showed quality. Last season, Rovers were in a bad situation with much more pressure, and now we are competing for something positive, so we need to enjoy it and start the games as we started the second half. We need to work on our confidence. The second half was much better. We have to build on that."
Tom Cleverley - Watford (10th place - 52 points)
He told BBC Three Counties Radio: "We've been really good at it. I never was as a player, whenever I'd be in a title race or a relegation battle, I'd be obsessed with everything that was going on around that I couldn't affect. We've got the blinkers on and are just focused on our own performances. I was one for setting short-term goals and having one eye on the play-offs but we're all in a much healthier environment, taking each game as it comes, not getting carried away with what other teams are doing, how far we are off the play-offs, how far we are in the play-offs.”
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