George Honeyman on Charlton win and Sunderland motivation after summer of speculation

The Black Cats sealed their first win of the season in front of 31,709 supporters and Honeyman hopes that with players returning from injury, his team can only improve.

He said: “It will snowball, if we keep getting results like that and producing performances it will get better and better.

“A lot of us hadn’t played together so it was always going to be a bit of us getting used to that. You could see that in the first 25 minutes, we weren’t anywhere near our best but after that we grew into the game and we were by far the better team in the second half.

“[Gooch] scored one similar at Grimsby, he loves playing for this club, it means the world to him and I’m delighted for him. Hopefully there’s plenty more to come.

“We had three or four lads pick up injuries this week so if they’re back next week, there’s a real good feeling at the moment and it’s only going to get better.

“I want to be there at the end of the season lifting something or taking the club up, it’s a great start but there’s a long way to go.”

Honeyman was wearing the captain’s armband for the first time since being appointed to the position permanently by Jack Ross, who backed the midfielder despite intense speculation about his future over the summer.

Writing in his programme notes, Honeyman said that he retained a fierce drive to help Sunderland climb back up the divisions.

“At lot has been spoken about over the summer, including speculation about my future,” he wrote.

Whenever I pull on a Sunderland shirt I do so with pride and responsibility because I know what it means to the people who follow us through thick and thin.

“I’ve always given my all regardless of the result, and I’ll run around until I can’t run anymore because that is the absolute minimum. I don’t use social media too much, as one day you can feel like the best player in the world and the next you’re left wondering if you should hang up your boots and do something else.

“But I said at the end of last season I wanted to take this club back where it belongs, and nothing has changed.”