Alex Pritchard believes it's been a positive start to life back in the Championship after promotion last season. The Sunderland playmaker took pride in the support from fans last season for sticking with them and helping them over the line in an unbeaten run that culminated in promotion.
The Wearsiders have competed with the top sides in the division since their return to the second tier, including against Burnley last weekend. The Clarets came from behind to take all three points at the Stadium of Light, despite a blistering start from Sunderland to take a 2-0 lead.
Pritchard says the players know they need to improve with last weekend's performance not good enough. But believes it's been a good start to life in the Championship after a four year absence.
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Speaking to SAFC Unfiltered, Pritchard said: "Pretty good, considering we've come off the back year, we finished fifth in League One and we had to go 16 or 17 games unbeaten just to get out of the league. It's really good from the lads and the fans played a massive part. they stuck with us.
"I said before, previously in interviews, there's going to be ups and downs in the season which there definitely was last year. Is there going to be ups and downs this year? 100 per cent, we've already had it, we've had injuries.
"That was a tough one to take [losing to Burnley] I don't think the fans were too happy with it. We've been 2-0 up here before - QPR the prime example, the score a good free-kick through Ilias [Chair] and then the goalkeeper comes up and scores the equaliser, it was a freak one and the fans were obviously unhappy.
"They stuck with us and this weekend we were 2-0 up, cruising in the game and playing against probably one of the best footballing sides, one of the best teams in the league, you're 2-0 up and cruising and second-half things happened. It wasn't good enough from our part. The fans could be moaning about it but we know, we know as a team it wasn't good enough.
"We're still a young team, they're still learning, even myself and we're still getting to know each other. We've got a lot of injuries and it's really difficult but we're doing alright."
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