Wise Men Say: Alarm bells were ringing in the summer as Sunderland run the risk of sleepwalking into League One mediocrity

A new low in the history of the club, and that’s not an exaggeration.

At Adams Park on Saturday Sunderland could manage one, singular, shot on target. Dress it up how you like, new manager and all that jazz, that statistic is absolutely pathetic. The infamous pre-season target of 100 points which seemed ambitious at the time, now seems absolutely ludicrous.

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This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. When we dropped into League One, there were new owners, a new young manager and hope of a fresh start.

Even after the play-off final last season, supporters were ready to go again, albeit with promotion an absolute must.

Alarm bells were ringing in the summer, the recruitment underwhelming to say the least and the opening two games did not suggest that we had learned from last season’s mistakes.

Heavy defeats at Peterborough and Lincoln saw catastrophic performances, frustration boiling over off the pitch and add to this one of the most embarrassing results we’ve ever had at Bolton, things were coming to a head.

Last season, there was some breathing space given for poor performances, and even then, the team would find a way not to lose the game.

They wouldn’t give up and their approach and desire was admirable. We had a group of players that were proud to represent the club and for a while that alone was refreshing.

That isn’t enough anymore. And more worryingly those draws that were supposed to now be turned into wins, are now being converted into defeats.

Poor performances can’t be masked because the players love it here and spend time with the fans after the game. We are sleepwalking into League One mediocrity.

It’s all very well saying the fan base need to inject some positivity, but I’m sorry the fans have done their bit and more. Still the numbers are there, both at the Stadium of Light and in away ends up and down the country.

The responsibility is on the players and the management to turn this around because if we don’t, and we don’t go up this year we will be here for a very long time. Call it arrogance, call it unrealistic but I don’t expect my football club to turn up at Wycombe and have one shot on target.

If this is too negative, then I apologise but I can’t put another spin on it.

It’s turning into an absolute disaster and if there aren’t some positive results and performances soon, those crowds will drop, there will not be 30,000 fans there at home games on November weeknights.

He’s just arrived, I appreciate that, but Phil Parkinson has to find a way of getting some results, and he has to do it immediately.

This isn’t good enough. It’s not even close.