Sunderland 'in a good place' as they prepare to take on Fleetwood, insists Alex Neil

Alex Neil insists Sunderland are 'in a good place' going into tonight's home game against Fleetwood Town after promising performances on the road against Wigan and Charlton. The Black Cats ended their six-game winless streak with a comfortable 3-0 win at promotion-chasing Wigan ten days ago, and should have completed back-to-back wins for the first time in 2022 at the weekend after comprehensively outplaying Charlton at The Valley only to be held to a goalless draw.

Sunderland have now lost only one of their five games under Neil, picking up six points along the way, but he knows they need more wins if they are to secure a place in the play-offs having dropped to seventh after that draw against the Addicks. Tonight's game pits them against Stephen Crainey's struggling Fleetwood side, with the Cod Army arriving at the Stadium of Light without a win in nine games and hovering just two places and two points above the relegation zone.

"I think we're in a good place," said Neil. "I certainly don't think we lack confidence.

"We won at Wigan comfortably and we should have won at Charlton comfortably as well, so performance-wise we are in a really good spot at the moment. What we wanted on Saturday was to make it count, but unfortunately we didn't do that.

"But I've got real confidence in the group. The last two performances have been good." While Neil was disappointed that Sunderland did not take any of the multiple chances they created at Charlton, he was pleased to see his side keep a second successive clean sheet.

Sunderland had kept only one in their previous ten outings, leaking 21 goals in the process, and while most of those games were played before Neil arrived, it meant one of his first tasks was to find a way to plug