Grant Leadbitter, who scored the winning goal against Ipswich last night, has been chatting about the win and all things SAFC. “It’s a big three points for us against a good team, who are going to be around us come the end of the season. We want to be there fighting and getting points on the board. We started the game really well, but then we got a bit caught in-between after that. In the second half, we were a lot better. I’m confident in myself with penalties, I’ve taken them for years. Like Peterborough, this was a tight game. We have to win at home to be successful, and so far we’ve done that.”
Reacting to poor displays against Pompey and Rochdale, Grant added: “There’s been no blip. We dropped points against Portsmouth and Rochdale, but it happens, and we keep striving for more. Losing games at times – it happens in football, and it’s about how you react. We’ve got 21 points from 10 games now, and from my experience of promotion and winning leagues, you need to be averaging about two points a game. Don’t get me wrong, we always want to keep improving, but I think it’s been a decent start. I enjoyed my time at Ipswich of course – it’s a nice football club – but it’s all about Sunderland AFC, and our sole focus is to keep progressing. We’ve reacted well and want to continue that. We came away with a 2-0 win from Gillingham in what were horrible conditions down there, and then we’ve claimed another win back at home against Ipswich. We look ahead to the FA Cup now [against Mansfield], and we just see it as an opportunity to win more football games. That’s what we want to do – when you win football matches, people start to think.”
