Bailey Wright has returned from the World Cup determined to stake his claim as a regular starter in the second half of Sunderland's Championship campaign. Wright helped Australia reach the last 16 in Qatar, where the Socceroos bowed out at the beginnning of December after losing 2-1 to eventual tournament winners Argentina.
The 30-year-old defender has had a stop-start season on Wearside, having to bide his time until the end of October before making his first league start which marked the beginning of a four-game run which secured his place in the squad for the World Cup. After returning from the tournament, he again had to be patient but when injuries forced boss Tony Mowbray to reshuffle his defence, Wright has gone on to start the last three games - in the league at Wigan and Blackpool, followed by Saturday's FA Cup victory at Shrewsbury Town.
"The World Cup experience was incredible and I guess it was a different World Cup coming in the middle of the season, and you are coming back to being here in the middle of a season," said Wright, who has captained the side in the last two games while Corry Evans has been missing. "I have had to be patient again to get my chance in the team and with every game there is an opportunity to keep that shirt.
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"We have a strong squad of a lot of players who have done well throughout the season, some who are in the team now and some who are missing though injuries of getting back fit. Competition for places is healthy and there is healthy competition throughout the team and we all want each other to do well but also want that shirt.
"Regardless of who gets it it’s important that we are all aiming for the common cause and that's to win games of football and keep pushing this club on."
Since winning promotion last season, Sunderland have made a good start to life back in the Championship and they currently sit eighth in the table and just a point outside the play-offs. They also progressed to the fourth round of the FA Cup at the weekend, with Ross Stewart and Luke O'Nien both scoring injury-time goals as the Black Cats came from behind to beat the League One Shrews at the New Meadow to earn an away tie against Premier League Fulham.
Wright said: "I thought it was a good performance from us against a resilient Shrewsbury side. They defended well and put bodies on the line.
"I think on the basis of that game we fully deserved to win it and didn't deserve to go 1-0 down. When they scored it kind of gave us a kick up the backside to go and make sure we won it and when Rossco [Stewart] scored we kind of had a feeling we didn't want to have a replay and wanted to make sure we were winning this and in the hat for the next round.
"Credit to everyone in difficult conditions, the pitch was maybe not as good as what we've played on in recent weeks and with swirling wind, I thought we played some really good football against a team that were hard to break down."
Shrewsbury hit the crossbar in the first half through Luke Leahy, but Sunderland felt they were denied a clear penalty in the 20th minute when Patrick Roberts was tripped by Leahy. Referee Scott Oldham was unimpressed, and to add insult to injury he booked the Sunderland man for diving - a decision that was not borne out by the TV replays.
Wright said: "Pat is not the type of person to dive and I think that's probably the more frustrating side of anything. It should have been a penalty.
"To get booked as well for a dive is ridiculous, but that's the game, sometimes you get the decisions you shouldn't and sometimes you don't. We had a lot of possession and played some good stuff but just found it difficult to get that last ball or shot away.
"They sat bodies behind the ball but we played some good football."
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