Sunderland's performance on their return to the Championship was the best by a newly-promoted side for almost a decade. Tony Mowbray's Black Cats finished sixth in their first season back in the second tier - and secured a play-off place - in a dramatic final day of the Championship campaign.
The gulf between League One and the Championship is getting wider every year and no-one knew how Sunderland would cope with the step up given that they had finished fifth in the third tier 12 months ago and had won promotion via the play-offs. Consolidation was the immediate aim but at no stage were Sunderland in any danger of being sucked into a relegation battle, and as the season wore on it became clear that they had a genuine chance of reaching the play-offs.
And a 3-0 win at Preston on Monday, coupled with Blackburn Rovers' second-half comeback to win 4-3 at Millwall, meant Sunderland finished sixth, ahead of Rovers on goal difference. That is the highest finishing position for any newly-promoted Championship side since Brentford followed promotion from League One with a fifth-place finish back in 2014-15, before losing out to Middlesbrough in the play-off semi-finals.
