Ahead of tomorrow's clash against league leaders Burnley, we spoke to a very cheerful Tony from Up the Clarets, who is understandably pretty happy with how their season is going.
Let's be honest, it's pretty nailed on that you'll win the league, and it has been for some time! How has Vincent Kompany revolutionised the club?
We are close to winning promotion and not too much further away from winning the league title. When I saw my first promotion in 1972/73, we clinched it with a 2-0 home win against Sunderland but, alas, history can’t repeat itself this year.
I always think that it is very difficult if not impossible to replace a long serving manager who has over achieved and I did wonder how we would recover from the loss of Sean Dyche which was then quickly followed with the relegation. I would guess that it was similar to your situation with Peter Reid.
What’s happened since has been astonishing. Players were released at the end of last season, key players such as James Tarkowski and Ben Mee, although Tarkowski was always going to leave. Others, such as Nick Pope, Nathan Collins, Maxwell Cornet and Dwight McNeil, were sold to bring in some much-needed money.
And then we got an inexperienced manager. A great player, yes, I don’t think anyone would question that, but we’d had Martin Buchan and Chris Waddle here as managers, great players who didn’t seem to have a clue at management so there were concerns.
Within no time, new players were coming in. They had to, given the lack of numbers, and Vincent Kompany talked about a possession based way of playing, this for a club who often claimed less than 40% possession in a game.
We kicked off the season at Huddersfield and won 1-0. It could have been five or six, probably should have been. We didn’t know how poor Huddersfield were going to be but we were blown away with the way we played. We dominated the game, Huddersfield hardly offered any sort of threat. The whole away end was buzzing.
We had an above average start to the season but once all the new players settled in, it just took off. You could say that second half at the Stadium of Light kicked it off. It started a run of 14 wins in 15 games and from that day to now we’ve won 18 out of 22 with just one defeat.
You will never hear one bad word about Sean Dyche from me; he was brilliant for us, but Vinny (as he likes to be called) has transformed the place. We’ve scored more goals than anyone else and also have the best defensive record. Wigan manager Shaun Maloney said of us recently that our major strength was our aggression and desire to win the ball back when out of possession.
Who's been your best player this season?
That’s a really good question and one that’s difficult to answer. Right now, it would probably be a choice between midfielder Josh Cullen and Nathan Tella, who has been scoring for fun, but several other players have also had massive spells during the season.
We are very much a team and we’ve just hit a club record with 19 different players now having scored league goals for us this season - so it’s never really about individuals
After a 6-0 hammering at Manchester City in the FA Cup, will Sunderland be the victims of a strong response from Burnley? Or will the Clarets still be feeling sorry for themselves?
If we thought Pep was going to be kind to his former captain and play a weakened team then we were disappointed. He lined up with nine top quality players in his team, and then threw in Kevin de Bruyne and Erling Haaland!
We were the better side for half an hour and then they scored two in two minutes. Both showed the quality of Haaland and the second involved a sublime pass from KDB. There was no comeback from that and it was just the scoreline that made it look worse.
Whatever happens next, this team of ours will very definitely not be feeling sorry for itself. We’ve reacted really well from disappointing results previously this season and I don’t expect the performance to be affected in any way by that cup defeat.
Does the side have any weaknesses that we could exploit on Friday night?
Every team has weaknesses; it’s just that the better teams in a league have less of them. So yes, there are some to exploit and I guess Tony Mowbray will have his own ideas how to go about it...
Which Sunderland player worries you the most, if any?
Amad Diallo on form looks good and then there’s Luke O’Nien. With the way he plays, I worry someone is going to get a serious injury playing against him.
Looking ahead, how do you think the current Burnley side would fare in the Premier League? Are they ready for the step up...
We have so many players who are largely inexperienced at PL level or have none at all and I think that would be the biggest concern. I would expect new players to come in but I do believe a number of our players are ready for the step up when it comes.
What's your score prediction for Friday? Who will get the goals?
It was 2-0 back in 1973 and we’ve only won by that scoreline once all season so I’ll go for that. It’s impossible to predict goalscorers in this team of ours but if pushed I’d go for Nathan Tella and Anass Zaroury.
Where will both sides finish as the season begins to wind down?
I doubt you would expect me to say anything but first for us. It would be something of a disastrous run in if we didn’t win the league. There’s a bit of a gap now between yourselves and the play-off places which might make a top six place finish difficult. But who knows in this league, a good run in could well give you a shot at Wembley.
Finally, where's the best place for an away fan to grab a pre-match pint?
Burnley Cricket Club is the recommended place for away fans. It’s right behind the away stand too which, for obvious reasons, is named the Cricket Field Stand. It usually gets busy in there where there’s parking too.
