This week’s column comes from Craig Clark.

IF SUNDERLAND fans hadn’t already accepted that we were in for another season battling relegation before Saturday’s defeat to Liverpool at the Stadium of Light then that result will have confirmed it for many. In many respects, it should come as no surprise as we’re quite lucky to be watching Premier League football at all this season.

After last season’s disastrous start and the preceding summer’s horrible mismanagement both by Paolo Di Canio and Roberto De Fanti in the transfer market, we looked a sure bet to go down. Many of us had as good as accepted our fate. As far as I was concerned, we’d be far more likely receiving visits from Blackpool than Liverpool in 2014/15.

Read the rest of the column here.