Luke O'Nien says Sunderland have proved over the first quarter of the season they can cope at Championship level. The Black Cats won promotion from League One via the play-offs in May, and with a young squad that contains limited second-tier experience, no-one knew how they would deal with the step up.
But Sunderland have made a good start to life back in the Championship, with their weekend draw at home to Preston moving them on to 16 points from their first 11 games - a tally which leaves them eighth in the table following Watford's win at Stoke yesterday. "I feel like even in League One there were difficult games and different challenges and I think it's the same in this league," said O'Nien.
"There are going to be better players but the challenges are still something that we have to overcome together and we have the players that have been dealing with the level very,very well. Credit to the rest of the players and staff for setting us all up well.
