Donald Love is enjoying life on Wearside and has admitted that he has been impressed by Sunderland’s fans since his summer arrival.
The former Manchester United youngster joined the Black Cats in August and netted his first goal for the club as Sunderland defeated Hartlepool United 1-0 in the Checkatrade Trophy last night.
While Josh Maja saw two efforts chalked off for offside, the forward dusted himself down and slotted Love in to deal the decisive blow as he confidently stroked the ball past a helpless Adam Bartlett.
Speaking post-match Love revealed he was delighted to get some minutes under his belt, and lavished praise on Sunderland’s red and white army as they left Victoria Park chanting his name.
“I haven’t played for over a month fully so to get 90 minutes under my belt feels great and hopefully I can kick on now,” he said.
“It was a very young team but the lads have done well because they tried playing but we had a plan to counter that, it worked, and we produced some good stuff and got the win at the end of the day.
“I want to stay in and around it because you never know when your chance is going to come so I need to stay fit and keep focused because you never know when you are going to get thrown in.”
He continued: “The fans are great and every weekend they were fantastic, they drive the lads on and that’s what helped us come back to get a point against West Brom and then get the win tonight.
“I have really enjoyed my time at the club so far, obviously it helped moving here with Paddy (McNair), but it feels great and I’m settling in well so it has been good."
