Grant Leadbitter has spoken openly and honestly about what needs to change if Sunderland are to achieve their goal of promotion this season.
The club captain went under the media’s microscope on Monday afternoon ahead of the Black Cats’ round one Carabao Cup tie at Accrington Stanley this evening, kick-off 7:45pm.
With much of the talk surrounding the Lads’ drawing start to the Sky Bet League One season, Leadbitter admitted while improvements must be made everyone at the club must stand together if they are to start winning games.
“We want to win games and it doesn’t matter who we are playing or in what cup competition - we want to win games,” he said.
“The performance wasn’t great at the weekend, but we came away with a point.
“Of course, we expect to win at home to Oxford and we are disappointed to only have two points from two games but there’s a long, long way to go.
“We have got to have that winning mentality but not just in games – you have got to have that mentality from Monday to Friday to make sure come Saturday it is just second nature.
“We’re two games into the season so we can’t get carried away with the negativity that goes on,” he continued.
“Over the last few years there has been a lot of that at Sunderland Football Club and we want to get away from that.
“Everyone has got to be in it together from the players, staff, fans and even the media to a certain extent. We want to build this club back to where it should be and there’s only one way of doing that.
“We have got to be positive all the time and when you do get knocked down you have got to be positive and get back up.”
