Tony Mowbray this week faces the toughest test of his six-month spell in charge at Sunderland. The Black Cats' 5-1 mauling at the hands of Stoke City was not only their heaviest defeat of the season, but - coming on the back of reverses on the road at Rotherham United and Coventry City - it also marked the first time this term they have lost three games in a row.
Add in the 1-1 draw at home to Bristol City, and Sunderland have now picked up just one point from their last four games which has seen them drop out of the play-off spots and down to tenth in the Championship table. And now Mowbray must gather his wounded troops and prepare them for their most difficult run of fixtures all season, starting at sixth-placed Norwich City on Sunday, followed by back-to-back home games against second-placed Sheffield United and fifth-placed Luton Town, before wrapping up March with a visit to runaway leaders Burnley.
Will Sunderland's young and inexperienced players be scarred by their humbling at the hands of the Potters? Mowbray could not say at the weekend, admitting: "I don't know - we'll find out, won't we?
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"I feel pretty secure that we've been good for most of the year, and the hard work has mostly been done and yet there's another 11 hard games left. We have a particularly tough month ahead, in my mind, if you look at the fixtures we have left.
"It looks difficult on paper, but we have to trust in ourselves and go and play the games, go and compete as we have done all season, because it has been good enough to get us results along the way."
Whatever happens in the final two months of the campaign, Sunderland have certainly picked up results up to this point. They have exceeded all expectations by mounting a play-off challenge in their first season back in the Championship, when consolidation was the unspoken target.
If Sunderland's season fizzles out into a midtable finish, it will seem a disappointment given their prolonged flirtation with the top six - a flirtation which may yet continue, if they can recover lost ground - but it should not be viewed as such. "As I've said lots of times, there's no expectation on this club this season - we shouldn't be thinking 'oh no, we're dropping away from the play-off positions'," says Mowbray.
"We created that ambition ourselves, I suppose, because any team coming up from League One should be thinking about solidifying themselves in the division, making sure they believe they can play in the Championship and compete and give a good account of themselves most weeks. Then, hopefully you get your recruitment right as you go along and strengthen the team and then this club, at some stage in the next few years, should be demanding that we get out of this league.
"To think we can do it in year one, after coming out of League One, with the recruitment we've had of a lot of young players that we are trying to polish up and make into important players, is a big ask."
A big ask indeed. Sunderland suffered the indignity of back-to-back relegations which saw the club drop from the Premier League to League One; securing back-to-back promotions is an order of magnitude more difficult.
However the next 11 games pan out, the evidence of the previous 35 matches have demonstrated that Sunderland are on the right track. If they miss out on the play-offs this season, they will be back all the stronger next term.
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