Sunderland are hanging in there. This win at Cardiff City, coupled with Blackburn Rovers, Coventry City, Watford, Millwall, Norwich City and West Bromwich Albion all dropping points, means the Black Cats are still in the play-off race with five games remaining.
Sunderland have cut the gap between themselves and the play-off places to four points and it now looks like eight teams chasing two places, the Black Cats and the six teams mentioned above plus Preston North End, who won yesterday. And of those seven rivals, Sunderland's final three games pit them against three of them - West Brom, Watford, and Preston.
But to keep Sunderland's chances alive going into those last three games, the Black Cats will first have to rediscover some form at home. Sunderland have not won at the Stadium of Light since February 11, when they narrowly defeated Reading 1-0.
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Five home games have come and gone since, yielding just three points. That must change, because next up for Sunderland are back-to-back home games against Birmingham City on Saturday followed by Huddersfield Town on Tuesday.
Both are winnable fixtures, both are teams that Sunderland have already beaten on the road, but winning on home soil - when teams arrive on Wearside with a brief to slow the game down and frustrate - has proved more difficult. But if Sunderland can find a way to back up their victory at Cardiff with six more points from the next two games, it would suddenly make the final three games very interesting indeed.
Of course, Tony Mowbray has been at pains to point out that this play-off challenge is a bonus. It was not factored into the club's calculations in its first season back in the Championship and, even if in the final analysis Sunderland miss out on a top-six place, the fact they are even in the conversation at this stage means the season will have exceeded all expectations - by no means could it be construed as failure.
After suffering the last-gasp disappointment of conceding an injury-time penalty against Hull City at home that cost two points on Good Friday, it was essential that Sunderland came out fighting at Cardiff. Mowbray made four personnel changes, with Luke O'Nien left behind because his wife was due to give birth imminently while Edouard Michut, Patrick Roberts, and Joe Gelhardt dropped to the bench, and Dennis Cirkin, Pierre Ekwah, Abdoullah Ba, and Alex Pritchard came into the starting XI.
It was a public show of faith in Ekwah after the youngster had given away the penalty against the Tigers. It also allowed Mowbray to tweak his system, operating with a back four when defending but a back three when in possession to afford more control in midfield, while Pritchard played as a false nine supported by Ba and Amad.
And it worked a treat in the first half, albeit Sunderland were helped by a Cardiff performance that plumbed the depths. The Bluebirds are in a relegation fight but you would not have known it on the evidence of the first 45 minutes, as they showed no spirit, no commitment, and no passion, and it prompted their manager Sabri Lamouchi to make a double substitution ten minutes before half-time in an attempt to inject some life into his team.
The one problem for Sunderland was that they had not turned their first-half dominance into goals, and Cardiff could not possibly be as bad in the second half as they were in the first. Cardiff did improve in the second half, but Sunderland made the breakthrough on the hour when a Pritchard free-kick was kept out by a combination of goalkeeper Ryan Allsop and the post, but Cirkin was on hand to finish from close range.
Cardiff put Sunderland under heavy pressure in the final 20 minutes but the Black Cats stood firm to keep their second clean sheet in three games. Now Sunderland must prove they have not forgotten how to win at home.
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- Cardiff boss Sabri Lamouchi blasts his side's 'bad attitude' in first half against Sunderland
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