As football fans, I feel as though we can sometimes forget how emotionally illogical the sport can be.

Before a ball was kicked on Saturday, I don’t think I spoke to a single person who was confident of Sunderland winning at Millwall, and the overwhelming sentiment was that a draw would be an excellent result.

When the team news emerged at 2pm and rumours of Dennis Cirkin’s absence proved to be correct, confidence levels sunk even further.

Little over two hours later, the lads had emerged with a result that defied expectations but it felt like a punch in the gut.

The following day, Swansea City equalised in stoppage time and it looked as though our precarious position as league leaders would be preserved, but Leeds went straight down the other end of the pitch and leapfrogged us in the table.

This is another paradox that is part of the fandom territory…the better you play, the better your results, the more gut-wretching every setback feels.

During the second half of last season I was completely numb to all things SAFC, not because I’d achieved some kind of level of higher spiritual being, but because we were just horrific at football and recent results have reminded me that pathetically, aged 29, football still has the ability to make or break my weekend.

Some Sunderland fans have pointed out that we are still second in the league, we are achieving two points a game, are unbeaten in nine games, have kept 9 clean sheets out of 16 and have scored the second highest number of goals in the league.

Others have argued that we haven’t won in four and failed to beat an out of sorts Queens Park Rangers, Preston and Coventry, have dropped four points from winning positions in the past two games and have two vital games coming up with a stretched squad.

The difficulty right now is, I genuinely believe that both of these fact based points of view are valid and I don’t put either into the camp of being ‘positive’ or ‘negative.’

In terms of our forthcoming fixtures, there are also an equal number of reasons to be hopeful and pessimistic, the first tick in the positive column will be the return of Jobe Bellingham, Partick Roberts and Trai Hume.

However, Cirkin’s injury does complicate matters, Aji Alese deputised for him brilliantly at the weekend however given the length of his most recent injury, it will be tough ask to expect him to play three games in six days.

While it’s far from ideal, we could play Leo Hjelde there to give him a rest.

Over the coming games, all eyes will be on Rigg and Bellingham who are both sitting on four yellow cards, with three games still to be played before the first amnesty of the season comes into play.

This is a particularly big issue given Alan Browne’s recent injury that leaves us threadbare in terms of midfield options.

Saturday’s result left a sour taste in the mouth, especially when it followed up an equally frustrating result against Coventry, but our general performance highlighted the spirit and diligence that still exists within the group.

It’s true that against Plymouth, Coventry and Millwall we have surrendered points from winning positions but in our most recent encounter we defended resiliently in the second half and had Milan Aleksić either took the ball to the corner flag or slotted the ball home for the winner, I think the match would’ve been viewed in a similar light to our victory at Luton.

However, the opportunity wasn’t taken and our defensive shape for the first time that afternoon fell apart, was it frustrating? Absolutely. Do I think it’s fair to label accusations of Le Bris being too negative? Probably not.

It is probably fair to say that the Head Coach has been a little cautious when bringing substitutions on at times, and has made the chances late in games.

The example that sticks out like a sore thumb was his refusal to bring on Aleksic against Oxford earlier on this season when we were 2-0 up and cruising and there have been isolated incidents where changes could’ve been made sooner.

However, I do empathise with his dilemma in terms of squad depth, at no given time this season has he had a squad with a clean bill of health to work with, and while this could be said of most managers, this season it has been something we’ve struggled with to a large degree.

Everytime we have got excited at the prospect of players returning, another area of the pitch seems to develop a string of injuries, giving us more problems to solve on an ongoing basis.

For example, it would probably be wise to give Tommy Watson a rest after around 60 minutes against West Brom, but to do so you would have to shuffle the pack and potentially play Isidor out of position and go with Connelly (if fit) or Mayenda, neither of which would be ideal.

In terms of our set up, I totally understand the frustration of being so deep in our own half and surrendering control of the game,versus Coventry this was a huge cause of frustration given our first half domination but I understood it far more during the Millwall game.

In the first half we pressed them well, turned the ball over and capitalised on their loose balls very effectively and in truth could have gone 2-0 up early on in the game. But Millwall were very poor during the half and in the second period, they took Honeyman off and went far more direct.

This caused us problems, and clearly pinned us in our own half but we were dealing with the threat relatively comfortably. We were drawing fouls well, Ballard and Mepham were very good in the air and the only real save Patterson had to make was from a speculative effort from long range.

In my opinion, the depth of our defence was much less of an issue than our ball retention when we were able to get out of our defensive third.

Earlier on in the season we may have conceded possession, but against Burnley, Middlesbrough, Hull and even Cardiff City on the opening day, we controlled the games very well without the ball.

Against Derby and Oxford we controlled both games to the point of effortless domination, particularly against the men in yellow, therefore I don’t think two games is a sufficient body of work to conclude that Le Bris’ tactics are ineffective.

People will also point to the lack of high press over the course of 90 minutes, but when the squad is so blighted by injuries and you have three matches in six days to come, it is not sustainable to play on the front foot and press constantly, especially against direct opponents.

I understand the frustrations of some sections of the fanbase and it is imperative that we return to winning ways as soon as possible, but as things stand I am still pleased with how things are going.

Even if results don’t go our way against West Brom and Sheffield United, we have two very presentable home games to come after that, which we need to take full advantage of.

Whether you’re in the glass half full or glass half empty camp, I think the eight games we have to cram in between now and the end of 2024 will be very instructive in terms of where our ambitions for the season will lie.