Lee Johnson hopes his Manager of the Month award is the first milestone on the road to promotion.
The Sunderland head coach was today given the League One award for August, after a month that saw his team take 12 points from a possible 15 and go into September at the top of the table - as well as progress through the first two rounds of the Carabao Cup.
Johnson was one of four nominees for the August award, with Burton Albion's Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Wycombe's Gareth Ainsworth, and Wigan Athletic's Leam Richardson also in contention.
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And Johnson says he has been told by fellow managers that five or six nominations for the monthly awards over the course of the season more often than not ends with a team being promoted.
"We need to be at least nominated for those type of awards regularly, because I think there's a statistic that if you are nominated five or six times [during a season] it often leads to promotion - I don't know how true that is, but a couple of managers have told me that in the past," said Johnson, whose side faces second-placed Accrington Stanley at the Stadium of Light tomorrow.
"We have to keep on doing what we are doing and keep on going.
"The boys have been razor sharp in training this week, we have a really strong squad at the moment and everyone is full of beans and champing at the bit to play which will hopefully force the standard up and drive performances."
While the award was presented to Johnson as the man in charge, he is clear that he accepted it on behalf of the players, coaching staff, and backroom staff at the Academy of Light, all of whom played their part in the club's successful first month of the campaign.
He said: "I'm very pleased [with the award], very pleased for the collective.
"It comes across as an individual award, but it absolutely is not that.
"The effort that everybody has put in, on the pitch and off it, has been outstanding.
"It wasn't the easiest of turnarounds with the amount of good players that we lost and the number of players who have come in half-fit, and we have had to try get results in the meantime and that takes a big effort from physios, groundstaff, chefs and kitchen staff, everyone.
"It's nice to accept the award but it is on behalf of the work done by the collective at the club."
