Alex Neil challenges Sunderland to settle the debate about the club's League One status

Alex Neil is fed up of the debate over where Sunderland fit into the football hierarchy - insisting that only by succeeding in the play-offs will they shake off their League One status. The Black Cats secured a 1-0 win against Sheffield Wednesday at the Stadium of Light last night, giving them a slender lead to take into the second leg of their play-off semi-final at Hillsborough on Monday.

Since dropping into League One in 2018, Sunderland fans have fiercely resisted the notion that their club - six-time league championship-winners and two-time FA Cup winners - can be considered a third tier outfit. And while the fans' view is understandable given that Sunderland has only spent five years at that level in its 143-year history, head coach Neil says he is a realist and has to deal with the fact that the Black Cats are a League One team until such time as they achieve promotion.

"The potential is exactly why I came here," he said. "Potential means something that possibly could happen.

"At the moment, we are a League One team. We want to aspire to not be a League One team, we want to get out of the league but I'm so fed up of hearing people say 'this is not a League One club'.

"I'm a realist in terms of you are where you are in the league - until you do otherwise, and we're trying to do otherwise just now."

Sunderland's win against Wednesday was a step towards potentially ending the Black Cats' stay in the third tier, but they still have work to do in the second leg if they are to book themselves a date in the Wembley final against either MK Dons or Wycombe. Neil said: "All we've done [against Sheffield Wednesday] is give ourselves an advantage but we need to make that count.

"It's certainly not going to be easy. We