With 49 points on the board from their opening 32 league outings, Sunderland looked set to be heavily involved in the playoff fight towards the end of the Championship season, after only winning promotion back to England’s second tier last term.
Tony Mowbray’s side have quickly seen their hopes of back-to-back promotions dwindle though, with the Black Cats having dropped down to 12th place in recent weeks as a result of a poor run of form.
The Stadium of Light outfit have lost four of their last five outings in the Championship, firstly suffering back-to-back 2-1 defeats away at Rotherham United and Coventry City, before suffering a 5-1 thrashing at home to a Stoke City side led by former boss Alex Neil, who departed for the Potters earlier this season.
They would briefly arrest the slump with an impressive 1-0 victory away at Norwich City last weekend, thanks to Abdoullah Ba’s early goal, before hosting second-placed Sheffield United last time out and going
ahead through Edouard Michut, but Mowbray’s men were unable to hold on for a result, eventually suffering another 2-1 loss as James McAtee and Tommy Doyle turned the game around with goals for the visitors.
Now sitting in mid-table with an eight-point gap to the top six and only nine games of the season left to play, the Black Cats will know that they must quickly put a run of victories together to stand a chance of staying in the fight until the final weeks of the season, but they certainly face another tough test this weekend.
Saturday’s visitors travel north as one of the league’s form sides, having given their own promotion hopes a major boost in recent weeks with a five-game unbeaten run.
In that spell from late February, the Hatters have put four wins on the board, firstly triumphing away at Birmingham City before coming from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Millwall at Kenilworth Road thanks to second-half goals from Elijah Adebayoand Luke Berry.
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Following that comeback, they now head into the weekend on the back of three straight 1-0 victories, including an impressive triumph away at second-placed Sheffield United last weekend thanks to Carlton Morris’s second-half goal, before he again made the difference in their beating of Bristol City on home turf on Wednesday with an early finish.
Thanks to their eye-catching run in recent weeks, Rob Edwards’s side now find themselves fourth in England’s second tier, seven points clear of the chasing pack in the playoff race, seven points off Sheffield United in the top two and a single point
behind Middlesbrough, and they will now look for a fourth straight league victory and an 18th of the season to further strengthen their position in the top six while also keeping them in contention for a top-two spot, albeit with an outside chance.
