Tough away games at Bristol Rovers and Blackpool will prove make-or-break for Sunderland's automatic promotion hopes

An out-of-form Sunderland, with only two points from their last possible nine, have two away games this week at Bristol Rovers and then Blackpool, that could be make or break for their automatic promotion hopes.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Considering all the disappointments, under par performances and countless wasted points thrown away, I am amazed that Sunderland are still in contention for the top two but we are and the players must believe they can still do it.

Nobody except Coventry City in this league really seems to want to go up, all the rest are inconsistent so if Sunderland can find that consistency they had round about the turn of the year, who knows what might still happen?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

To make that happen though, they have to break out of this recent pattern of indecisive, under-achieving performances by grabbing games by the scruff of the neck, stamping their authorities on games and finding ways to win again.

Chris Maguire goes close for Sunderland in the 2-2 draw with Gillingham.Chris Maguire goes close for Sunderland in the 2-2 draw with Gillingham.
Chris Maguire goes close for Sunderland in the 2-2 draw with Gillingham.

Tonight’s game against Bristol Rovers has to be seen as winnable.

Rovers are in the bottom half of the table, lost on Saturday to struggling Southend United and have gradually been slipping down the league.

This game earlier in the season would have been viewed as a much more difficult one, they were riding high at one point but haven’t been able to maintain that good early season form and Sunderland must be ruthless tonight and make Rovers’ current position worse.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

After Bristol Rovers, hopefully with a win under our belts. it is Blackpool on Saturday where Sunderland took a staggering 9,000 fans to last season on New Year’s Day.

I don’t think there will be that many this Saturday but the Sunderland players will still have great support as usual, so they need to do everything in their power to reward those fans.

So two away games coming up, and Sunderland need a minimum of four points from them, especially with a long break coming up.