Lee Cattermole will view this season as a failure if Sunderland do not win promotion – but he still believes they will be able to call it a success.
Sunderland finished fifth in their first year back in English football’s third tier – a disappointment to those who felt a club with their support and resources ought to win automatic promotion.
But midfielder Cattermole will judge the campaign on which division his club is in next season, and the play-ofs offer the chance for that still to be the Championship. Sunderland play Portsmouth in a two-legged semi-final, at the Stadium of Light on Saturday and Fratton Park the following Thursday.
“I think it would be harsh to say we’ve under-achieved,” he argued. “With the change in the club, from the end of last season to where we are now, I think we’ve come a long way.
“You can see the atmosphere, every game, every away ground we’ve been to, it’s been like a cup competition, but we’ve handled it.
“We’ve brought a lot of new players in, new staff, new ownership – almost everything you can change at a football club.
“We’re now entering the final period of the season. It’s a new competition, so we need to freshen things up again and go again.
“We’ve got two games, and then hopefully another trip to Wembley. In two or three weeks’ time, we’ll find out whether it’s been a failure this season or not.
“If we don’t go up, I’ll be viewing it as a failure, but I still think we’ve got a strong chance of doing that (winning the play-offs).”
Cattermole views the job Jack Ross has done in the context of what he inherited last May when taking over a club which had suffered consecutive relegations.
“I think the manager had his hands tied with what he could get,” said Cattermole, who was rested from Saturday’s trip to Southend United after a number of minor injuries, but is expected to return at the weekend. “At the start it was probably just a case of whatever he could get because we were so light on numbers it was unbelievable. When we went over to Portugal for pre-season you were looking around think, ‘How are we meant to compete?’
“Goochy (Lynden Gooch)’s goal (against Charlton Athletic on the opening day of the season) just set us all off and suddenly there was a bit of belief.
“Now we’re complaining because we didn’t win the league. We were miles off it at the start of the season.”
That said, there is no doubt Sunderland would like to be going into what has become the most important phase of their campaign in better form. They won just one of their final seven regular-season matches, and lost their last two, at Fleetwood Town and Southend.
“I think we’ve gone a little bit soft in the last few weeks,” said Cattermole. “I think the equaliser at Peterborough (in the 1-1 draw on Easter Monday) really affected us. If we’d have won that, I’d have really fancied us to go on and win the next couple as well.
“We’ve played okay in games, but the last couple of results against Fleetwood and Southend have been poor. That’s not acceptable.
“From where we’ve been this season, that’s a massive backward step. Let’s hope that was just people with half an eye on the play-offs.
“We’re in the play-offs now, but I believe we’re the team no one wants (to play). Over two legs, you’ve got to fancy us.
“Yes, we’ve been beaten by Portsmouth, but once was on penalties (in the Football League Trophy final) and the other time (at Fratton Park in the league in December), we went down to ten men. I felt in all three games, we were more than capable of going and beating them.”
Sunderland have no major injury concerns for the play-offs, except for Duncan Watmore, who Cattermole suggested might be able to return from a hamstring injury for the semi-final second leg.
Anger of Jack Ross shows the work ahead of Sunderland's manager - and there is no time to spare
