Sunderland are aiming to make their best start to a league season for almost a century when they take on Burton Albion tomorrow.
The Black Cats are notoriously slow starters and merely the fact that Lee Johnson's side have won their first two league games, at home to Wigan Athletic and then at MK Dons, means they have made their best start to a campaign for more than 40 years, since they beat Everton 3-1 at Roker Park and then Manchester City 4-0 at Maine Road in the top flight in 1980-81.
They were Sunderland's first games back in the First Division following promotion, with John Hawley scoring a penalty against Everton with the other goals coming from Stan Cummins and a spectacular own-goal from Toffees defender Billy Wright.
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Hawley then scored a hat-trick - including one penalty - in the win at Man City, with Cummins scoring the other goal.
But, if you exclude the regionalised league football that took place during the Second World War years, the last time Sunderland began a league season with three victories was all the way back in 1925.
At the start of the 1925-26 campaign, they began the season with four straight league wins - a club record - against Birmingham and then Blackburn Rovers at Roker Park, away at West Bromwich Albion, and then against Sheffield United back on Wearside.
Those were legendary striker Dave Halliday's first four league games for the club, and he scored ten goals in those fixtures - two in the 3-1 win against Birmingham, two more in the 6-2 win against Blackburn, a hat-trick in the 5-2 win at West Brom, and another hat-trick in a 6-1 win against the Blades.
Sunderland finished the season third in Division One, behind champions Huddersfield Town and second-placed Arsenal, and Halliday ended up with 38 league goals.
