Cats overcome fear of home fixtures

Apr 16 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

SUNDERLAND have conquered their fear of playing at home – now they must make the Stadium of Light an intimidating place for teams to visit again, according to defender Danny Collins.

The Black Cats have been far too hospitable to visitors this season, winning just five games in the course of a careless home campaign that has seen them drop needless points against the likes of Wigan, Spurs, Blackburn and Bolton.

That points haul compares unfavourably with the nine victories that helped Roy Keane’s side secure Premier League survival last season.

And it has caused tension between players and supporters, a frustration vocalised by skipper Dean Whitehead when he criticised some fans for jeering the team in the early stages of their dispiriting defeat by Wigan at the start of March.

Those problems appeared to dissipate when the team returned to the Stadium of Light on Saturday – the wholehearted backing that Sunderland received causing chairman Niall Quinn to “sleep easily for the first time in weeks”.

The unity between fans and players that enthused Quinn, however, will be sorely tested if the Black Cats don’t defeat fellow strugglers Hull City on Saturday.