SUNDERLAND 10 YEARS AGO: Ward happy with upwardly mobile Cats

Here's what the Echo was reporting on SAFC 10 years ago today.

SOFTLY, SOFTLY TASK FORCE

Ward relishes Lads’ impressive progress

DARREN WARD says Sunderland’s “softly softly” climb up the Championship table perfectly suits the Black Cats squad.

But he is hoping that in the next few weeks the team will have more than just Birmingham City boss Steve Bruce noticing their upwardly mobile surge.

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Speaking last week, the Blues boss talked of City’s rivals for promotion this season and for the first time put Roy Keane’s men in the frame: “We’ve got Preston and Southampton who will push all the way,” he said. “And Sunderland are coming up on the rails.”

And Ward reckons that it has stood Sunderland in good stead that after all the glamour and glitz which accompanied Roy Keane’s appointment as manager, they’ve been quietly allowed to get on with the job of hoisting the club further up the table.

He said: “I think we are going about our business in a quiet fashion throughout the country.

“We might not be making big waves but certainly we are going about our business in an efficient manner.

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“And hopefully that will soon be reflected in league positions because at the end of the season, that’s what counts.

“I think everybody would like things to be going the way we’ve been going about things, no matter what club they’re at.

“It’s nice to go unnoticed, just to get in with your business and quietly sneak in there.

“Sometimes it is harder when you are under the glare of the cameras week in week out. And, of course, having a high-profile manager that we have, that goes with the territory.

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“But as players we are just happy to be playing regularly and getting the results we need to get up the league.”

Three league wins out of three marks a perfect start to 2007, though, and Ward admits it will be hard to keep the Black Cats’ rise a secret for much longer if the current run continues.

“We’re climbing now, which is great.

“Even going back to when we were on our unbeaten seven-game run recently, we kept coming back in after game thinking, well we must have moved by now. But it wasn’t happening because teams above us were always winning.

“The table really clogged up because a lot of teams were very similar in terms of their form. But if we continue in the same vein that we have since November time then the positives will be reflected in the table more and more.

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“Certainly, it would be nice if we can get in the play-off positions now.

“Three points for a win is a great incentive. We all know that throughout teams are going to have spells where things aren’t going their way and it’s up to us to capitalise on that. All we can do is concentrate on how we approach games and go about our business. Hopefully the rest will take care of itself.

“You look at the first four games where we got nothing out of it. If we could have got a draw or win in those games then we would be in a play-off position now.

“It’s amazing to think how it has come almost full circle in a way, in terms of a really dire start and now pushing for the play-offs in January.

“Things have turned around in terms of the mood too – everyone in the camp is feeling so positive and that’s reflected in training.”