Pierre Ekwah insists he has not been 'shocked' by Sunderland's qualification for the play-offs - with the quality of the Black Cats' squad there for all to see. After winning promotion from League One last season, Sunderland were not expected to launch an immediate play-off challenge in the Championship.
But the Wearsiders have enjoyed an excellent first season back in the second tier, finishing sixth and securing a play-off spot with a semi-final first leg against Luton Town at the Stadium of Light to look forward to this evening. French midfielder Ekwah joined mid-season, signing from West Ham in January, but he immediately saw the potential in the squad and began to believe that a play off bid was possible.
"Do you know, to be honest, I wouldn't have been that shocked," he said, when asked what he would have said if he had been told when he signed that the club would make the play-offs. "When I saw the players that we had, I realised what this team could be capable of, and then I saw a couple of games and it persuaded me even more.
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"My first game was against Fulham [in the FA Cup], so going to Fulham and seeing what we did down there, I came away thinking, 'Do you know what, we actually might have a chance of going to the play-offs'. We didn't put pressure on ourselves, but we played how we play and it paid off.
"Now, we are in the play-offs and we are a team that can compete and go to the Premier League. I wasn't really shocked about getting to the play-offs – at one point, I kind of expected it.
"Coming from League One last season, you wouldn't have said that Sunderland would be in the play-offs, but when you see the team, the players and the quality they have, and what they have achieved throughout the season, then it doesn't really shock me."
Sunderland finished fifth in League One 12 months ago and rose to the Championship via the play-offs, and are now aiming to follow that with a second successive promotion. Boss Tony Mowbray has said that success - perhaps winning a trophy or promotion - creates a lifelong bond between a group of players, pointing to the Middlesbrough players he played with in the 1980s who have remain friends to this day.
Ekwah said: "I definitely know what he means. You have heard and seen it from ex-players that when you win and achieve something big, then you become friends for life.
"You might get a wall in your club with all of your guys' names on it, or there might be that one picture that you are going to have in your house for the rest of your life with you and all your teammates on it. You'd look at it and think, 'Yeah, I played with him and we did this or that together'.
"You really feel that you achieved something, and you definitely make friends for life when you do that. I do get that, but I want to know the feeling of it.
"I understand it, but I want to get the feeling. I want to win the play-offs, I want to get to the Premier League, and then you can think, 'Yeah, we're friends for life and we achieved something'.
"It would be great to do something that’s bigger than us, putting the club back into the Premier League where it belongs. If we did that, it would just be unbelievable."
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