As Christmas approaches, Sunderland are progressing nicely!

12/24/2024 01:00 AM

The Lads notched up a twelfth win of the season on Saturday, showing once again that the class of 2024/2025 is a special group, writes Paddy Hollis

Christmas is just around the corner and Sunderland will head into the bumper Boxing Day trip to Blackburn sitting just two points off the automatic promotion spots.

Saturday's 2-1 win against Norwich was our twelfth of the season and seventh at home. Another fun fact is that it was the fourth game in a row where we've come from behind to get points.

Our final home game of 2024 was played in strong winds, making good football a tough ask.

At half time, it felt as though that long unbeaten home record could be in real trouble as we struggled to create anything of note and the visitors led through a scrappy goal. Yet by full time, we were dancing in a Stadium of Light light show after goals from Dan Ballard and Jobe Bellingham.

It's easy to get bogged down in the context of a season, and it's not too long ago that we went seven games without a win. However, that run has been well and truly put behind us and three wins in four has us keeping tabs on those top two spots again.

We played some excellent football during the second half against Norwich, restricting the visitors to just one genuine shot on target. Getting another three points on the board at the start of a run of four games in eleven days was important, but we did so with a little bit of flair, which helped get us over the finishing line.

Sunderland's progress on the pitch has been evident in almost every match this season.

Our identity is shining through and Christmas is a good time to take stock of the campaign so far. It's looking good, and with half the season to go, we've maintained our strong start with only a few bad days at the office.

One defeat since September and a new attitude of not knowing when we're beaten is a work in progress. It can be frustrating watching us play sometimes, but it's fair to say we've had more good days than bad during the campaign so far.

We're doing alright: in fact, we're doing a lot better than alright, and the festive games will come thick and fast.

Grinding out results and picking up points is important in December, and so far, we're doing exactly that.

Back-to-back away games against two sides in contrasting form will provide different challenges as we bring 2024 to a close, but with the current crop of players, it feels like no side in this division should be feared.

Backed by over 10,000 in the away ends at Blackburn and then Stoke, it's going to be an exciting end to 2024, and one final point would be to say, 'look how far we've come in a year'.

Around this time last year, we got thumped 0-3 at home to Coventry to kick off the disastrous Michael Beale era. Twelve months on, we've developed into a team that's hard to beat, and one who gets goals from across the pitch.

We won a total of sixteen matches last season, and we've won twelve of our first twenty two this time round.