Bailey Wright reflects on Sunderland's Championship return so far and what's next

The Black Cats suffered a major setback early in the game when Luke O'Nien was shown a red card, eventually succumbing to what was only their second defeat in nine games.Tony Mowbray's side remain within touching distance of the top six and Wright says that while no one is getting carried away in a difficult division, Sunderland have shown that they can more than compete at the level.

"I think the momentum from last season and wanting to finish as high up the table as possible has continued for us this season," he said.

"For sure it is a stronger division but we back ourselves.

"We are still inexperienced as a squad, I guess you could say, but with inexperience comes a lot of excitement.

"I think we've got a lot of potential in the squad and in the team to keep on developing and progressing, which is massively important.

"We're past the halfway mark of the season and we are in a good position.

"By no means are we comfortable or happy with what we have achieved, but we know what we are capable of.Saturday wasn't ideal, but there are going to be bumps in the road and we have to remember where we were 12 months ago compared to where we are now.

"That said, we don't want to keep looking back on where we have been and what we have done, we want to keep on pushing forward and reach the next target and the next goal.

"There are a lot of things to look forward to. It's going to be a really tough second half of the season but I'm looking forward to it.

"I think the highest we have sat this season was fourth - albeit not for long!

"But the division is still very tight and with a couple of wins you can be up there, while a couple of losses can see you slip, so we're not going to get carried away," Wright added.

"In football you have to separate out internal noise and external noise, but both matter.

"The internal noise is what we do day-to-day, what we see the opposition is, and what we believe we can do. That has carried on from last season to this season.

"You can feel the togetherness in the group and that counts for a hell of a lot.

"Ability and quality helps, but togetherness and spirit also helped get us through last season and it will be the same this season.

"As long as we keep on improving in all aspects of our game, I think we can really have a right go this season.

"We've always said that when this place gets going, it's a very tough place to come and we've shown that this season.

"But there's no job done, we've still got nearly half the season to go and hopefully we can go and do something special."

Wright was speaking after appearing on a panel with team-mate Aji Alese and Sunderland legends Kevin Ball and Gary Bennett at a Show Racism the Red Card event.

The organisation, which was founded in the North East in 1996, will soon hit a major landmark by engaging with one million people in anti-racism educational programmes.

Children from primary schools across Sunderland took part in workshops at the Beacon of Light before putting questions to the panel, who spoke of the importance of education and speaking out about all forms of discrimination.

Wright spoke about the importance of the next generation continuing the work of the previous generation.

"I didn't realise that Show Racism the Red Card was started up here in the North East, and it's incredible what the campaign has done and I'm sure it will continue doing its great work," Wright said.

"From an Australian perspective, obviously I haven't lived there for 16 years, but you only have to look at our national team and the work being down with our PFAs and our governing bodies, to see how we want to improve our country.

"I think our national team at the World Cup was the most diverse national team we've ever had in Australia.

"I really felt that at this World Cup, with how diverse and multicultural the squad was, it really resembled the real Australia that we are living in.

"Football is a sport that brings people together.

"Australia is still a really young country with a lot of people of different nationalities and people who have migrated out to Australia to live and enjoy the country, and when you look at where we have all come from it resonates with the nation.

"Just looking at it from a footballing perspective, if you think about how the game was, it has taken steps in the right direction," he added.

"We know that racism is still happening - there are too many stories of it still happening, unfortunately - but as professional footballers, fans of the game, anyone associated with the sport, we have a role to play in improving the game and people like Gary and Bally laid the foundations and are continuing to play a part post their playing careers.

"Now it's people like Aji and myself who are playing now, and we are in dressing rooms where people are more educated about racism and it doesn't occur in the way that maybe it did several years ago.

"From that perspective, it's definitely going in the right direction but we have to continue learning and developing.

"If you look at our dressing room and the different nationalities, different colours, different languages we all speak, that's the beauty of our game - it brings people from all over the world for a common goal, which is to represent Sunderland AFC."