Today’s piece comes from Craig Clark.

TWO games, two wins and an FA Cup tie away at Bradford City to look forward to. It might not sound like much, but after a rotten run of results and performances since winning the derby at St James’ Park just before Christmas, things are starting to look a little brighter for Gus Poyet and his Sunderland squad.

The clouds of negativity gathering over the Stadium of Light began to dissipate on Saturday as Sunderland professionally, if not thrillingly defeated Burnley to claim a vital three points. It might not equate to the end of a relegation battle before it’s begun, but it certainly but some clear air between us and the bottom three.

 
Following hot on the heels of that, Poyet took his men to Craven Cottage for another “winnable” fixture, this time against Championship Fulham in the FA Cup. Despite dominating the game with a strong, attack minded line-up, there was a scare as Fulham took a first half lead after a poorly defended corner. A bit of luck, some rubbish goalkeeping and more importantly some quality eventually saw us run out as comfortable 3-1 winners.

You can read the rest here.