Jason Denayer has hailed the red and white army as Sunderland’s 12th man ahead of the lads' homecoming this Saturday.
David Moyes’ side welcome Southampton to the Stadium of Light on Saturday, keen to build on last weekend’s seismic 4-0 victory over Crystal Palace.
With a crucial four points and two valuable clean sheets gathered in as many matches – against Palace and Tottenham Hotspur respectively - Denayer has reiterated the importance of the Black Cats’ support and the impact they have.
And in the same breath, the 21-year-old admitted back-to-back clean sheets provides the lads with a perfect catalyst for a successful homecoming.
“It was an important win and like I have said before we need to keep working hard and doing our best - last weekend that paid off so we need to go into Saturday’s match with the same mentality and try to do the same,” he said.
“A clean sheet is always important because when you get a clean sheet you never lose so I think this is the first thing we are looking for and as a defender I will be trying my best to do it.
“For everybody when you score four goals it picks you up, you play more, you feel better and this is what happened.
“We scored four goals and we were confident, we kept the clean sheet and it was perfect.
“At the start it was difficult but the supporters were there and they did very well and they are part of the team too,” he continued.
“Mentally they gave us a strong support and it was very important for us.
“It’s going to be a difficult game again, they are a good team but it’s at home and we know we can do something.
“We will do our best to win this match because we want to make it difficult for every team to come here. We want to try to do it and maintain our home record.”
