Sunderland fan blog: If Cats continue this form they’ll lose even more supporters

It was Ross’ first chance to get to a Sunderland match since his departure from the club; his recent sacking from Hibernian opened up his weekends, and so this one was spent watching a Sunderland side whose hopes are dwindling away.

He recognised that there had been a mass amount of change since his own departure from the club back in October 2019, none more so than in the past three weeks.

There are few similar faces to Ross from his own time at the club, yet the club are finding themselves within the same predicament, and that was also something that the Scotsman recognised.

The Black Cats have arguably never felt so far away from promotion during their time in League One, and arguably there has never been a greater sense of disconnect between the fans and the club.

The last week has only further widened the gap between supporters and the people at the top of the club, and if this continues, even more fans will lose their love for a club that is ingrained into their identity.

And on that issue, if Sunderland continue to follow the similar form, they’ll lose even more supporters in the short-term.

At the moment, the Black Cats have simply and quite frankly no confidence. They lack quality in the attacking areas and at the back they have supporters’ heart rate rapidly hitting a sharp rise.

And yet, we return to the comparison to the end of 2021. Sunderland were flying, top of the league and 12 points clear of dropping out of the play-off places.

Now, the Black Cats are lacking composure, confidence and, as Alex Neil has been conveying over the past couple of days, fitness.

Lee Johnson constructed a youthful side that were always going to have mistakes in them, maybe just not to the extent that the team that we are currently witnessing.

These players need time to recover, recuperate, and prepare for the final 13-match run-in, but time is Neil and his players’ greatest enemy at the moment.

On Saturday, there were moments of quality in the attacking areas, but even then they were too brief and simply not built upon.

Jack Clarke, Patrick Roberts and Elliot Embleton all looked sharp upon their introduction, but even then they produced little moments of magic that altered the course of the match.

Alex Neil, somehow, needs to find a way to change his side’s form and quickly, otherwise the play-offs may even be off the cards.

And it’s that format that Jack Ross knows all-too-well.

It proved to be one of his killer blows during his tenure at the club, as, in truth, he was never fully able to recover from the Wembley heartache.

And, if it’s a process Alex Neil has to go through in the summer, it may be one of the first ‘killer blows’ of his reign as the club’s head coach.

Ross began the club’s tenure in League One in 2018, yet four years down the line Sunderland’s predicament seems bleaker than ever.

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