Why Alex Neil feels his time at Norwich City and Hamilton will help Sunderland in the League One promotion battle

In his first managerial job, Neil guided Hamilton back to the Scottish Premiership after winning the play-offs in 2014.

A year later the Scot was victorious in the play-offs again when he won promotion from the Championship with Norwich, a feat which helped him land the Sunderland job.

Speaking about his previous promotions on the SAFC Unfiltered Podcast, Neil said: “If you are trying to get out of the league, the players you want to try and approach are guys who know how to get promoted.

“I don’t think it is any different when you are approaching a manager or a coach in the fact there is a feeling about getting a promotion.

“It’s hard to put your finger on the fact that it’s that little bit of momentum you build up, it’s that belief, it’s that understanding of how you get the job done.

"The fact that I’ve done it twice before I think stands me in good stead because I’ve been in these positions, I know what it looks like and obviously I’m trying to get our squad into that position as quickly as I can.”

It took Sunderland 11 days to appoint Neil after the club sacked Lee Johnson at the end of January.

In that time the Black Cats were beaten by Doncaster and Cheltenham as their automatic promotion hopes evaporated.

“I think the difficulty you had was that the transfer window was still open for a couple of days,” replied Neil when asked about the club’s recruitment process.

“What I sort of got was a point of contact in terms of there is interest there but we need to wait until the window shuts and then we’ll be back in touch in terms of what we are going to do next.

“I believe there was an interview process in which various people took part in, me being one, and then ultimately it boiled down and I got chosen to take the responsibility and the job.”

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