Sunderland Fan View: Black Cats players must accept fury from the fans

For those that thought life in the Championship would see Sunderland notch up one victory after the other, the last few games have shown this campaign is not going to be the easy ride some may have assumed.

Four defeats on the spin is hard to swallow for fans of any team, but when that also comes on the back of several disappointing seasons it can become intolerable. The recent home defeat to Nottingham Forest saw one of the lowest turnouts for a league game at the Stadium of Light in years. Not since the last time the club was relegated over a decade ago had there been so many empty seats.

Frankly, it’s hard to blame any supporter who feels that they’ve now had enough. The club lurch from one PR disaster to the next, the football on display is consistently dire and there hasn’t been a home win in the league since December 2016. That is that harsh reality. That is the prospect waiting to greet any fan thinking of spending hard earned cash on buying a ticket for Hull away this weekend.

I understand the point that the Black Cats manager Simon Grayson makes around supporting the team and sticking together. However, there doesn’t appear to be much in the way of effort coming from the club. Nothing that is tangible in any event. The ‘sticking together’ feels all too often that it is coming from one direction – the Sunderland supporters.

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Yes, the team have been booed regularly of late. Does it help the players? Possibly not. Does it negatively effect the players in respect of their performance? Perhaps so. However, the alternative is that despite years of being subjected to the most horrendous displays of football and with no signs of respite; supporters should apparently forget all that has gone before and applaud the dross on offer every single week.

With my facetious hat on it seems that for there to be any upturn in results whatsoever, there are two simple ways to approach the problem. Either supporters cheer irrespective of what they are subjected to or players begin to accept that fans are entitled to an opinion and that frustrations are deep rooted. These disgruntled noises are not simply born from the few games this season. It is an accumulation of too many seasons of failure and the squad should be smart enough to accept that and get on with the job of performing on the pitch.

The first option just doesn’t seem fair. Instead, it is time that the professional footballers currently at the club accepted that they are in a high pressure, high stakes sport and are paid handsomely for it. That is the nature of the beast. If this effects how you play then perhaps playing football is not for you. I’d go as far as to simply say this – if you can’t accept supporters venting what can only be described as genuine concerns then perhaps you shouldn’t be in the game.