There was a distinctive Celtic feeling to the Sunderland side that beat Bristol Rovers 2-0 last night to reach the final of the Checkatrade Trophy against Portsmouth at Wembley.
Loan bhoy Lewis Morgan scored the crucial second goal that helped his side, including Aiden McGeady, Dylan McGeouch and Adam Matthews, into the final at the end of this month.
It was Morgan’s second consecutive start for the Wearsiders with his first goal for the club laying down a marker to retain his place in the team.
Reaching the final of the Checkatrade Trophy is a nice achievement but won’t mean much if Sunderland miss out on promotion and find themselves involved in the competition again next season.
Around 40,000 fans are expected to make the trip to Wembley but Jack Ross has his eye set on providing them with regular top flight football.
Speaking to the Sunderland Echo he said: “The ultimate reward for supporters will be taking the club back to the Premier League and the first part is to get out of this league this season.
“That will always be the focus and reward the fans properly. It is fair to say though that this gives them a little bit of payback for their loyalty, they came out and bought 20,000 season tickets before a ball had been kicked.”
McGeady has been nominated for the League One Player of the Month award for February.
Do us a favour please Brendan https://t.co/YOy6OBsDLu
— Joe McHugh (@videocelts) March 6, 2019