I want to believe - View from the North Stand
4:16pm Friday 29th August 2008
SO far this season, Sunderland fans have been in uncharted territory in the new campaign.
I pointed out a couple of weeks or so ago that we are happiest in adversity, the plucky underdogs, and it's fair to say that hope springs eternal when it came to our away trips.
But we are now faced with a prospect of going into every game with belief that we will win, not hope. It's a brave new world.
The average fan, especially me - who has been starved of any tangible success in all my years as a supporter - is quite used to Sunderland having a good go but ultimately coming up short.
There were only a couple of fixtures I believed we could win away from home last term. I just knew, in my heart of hearts, that a victory on our travels always seemed unlikely.
Nick Hancock, famous Stoke fan, put it quite nicely this week, when he said that being tipped for instant relegation from the Premier League was like being told your sister was ugly. You hate to be told it, but deep down you know that there is some truth in it.
That was our campaign away from the Stadium of Light last year, and it was the main reason why we were in the bottom half all season.
See, we barely looked like picking up a result away from home, save for the late-season resurgence with victories at Aston Villa and Fulham.
Saturday's result at White Hart Lane was brilliant. More focus was on the Dimitar Berbatov soap opera, but Sunderland quietly got about the job, frustrated Spurs and pulled off a late winner with our new signing Djibril Cisse.
I was in the supermarket at the time of the score coming through. Some jolly round fellow in Sunderland colours yelled across the frozen food aisle: "Cisse, 2-1, get in!"
I was so delirious I almost threw my tiramisu across the shop.
Back to back victories were few and far between last season, but we've got a good chance of one on Sunday.
Man City went abroad with it all to play for last night, and they will be less fresh than us, despite it taking 120 minutes to beat Nottingham Forest on Wednesday.
Much has been said about the match down at the City Ground, that there were poor individual performances and that we were lucky to even get through.
But the point is we got through. I didn't care how we played, as long as we got the result. It had been years since a victory in the League Cup, and we last won an FA Cup game under Mick McCarthy, so it is fair to say that our record in the cups in recent years has been pretty poor.
It stands to reason that a cup run, a cup victory and a subsequent run in Europe is, financially, worth only as much as the prize money for one league placing higher.
So it is quite easy for us to ignore the cup competitions and concentrate our efforts on the league. But there has been a focus shift from the days of Bob Murray, that Sunderland AFC isn't about balancing the books or making money, it's about enjoying the ride no matter how much it costs.
Of course, money does play a part, but we have shown with our exploits in the transfer market, that the owners of the club are quite willing to front the cash to see good football, even if the chances of making that money back are quite slim.
So a good cup run will suit me right down to the ground.
The ninth signing of the summer bounded through the doors this week in the shape of Anton Ferdinand, at a cost of a reported £8m.
That's a lot of money. Especially for someone who, despite showing early promise, has seen his career stagnate in recent years.
But, a change is as good as a rest, and if anyone can bring the best out of Ferdinand, it will be Keane.
The signing leaves us with one more purchase to make in the market. And that will be a left-back. A few names have been bandied about: Leighton Baines, Taiwo from Marseille, and Michael Ball (the Man City left-back, not the star of musicals) have all been through the rumour mill, but it's safe to say there is no leading candidate out of those three.
I'm sure Keane will have a player in mind, and that negotiations ahead of the transfer window closing will be under way.
So we'll just leave it to him. Judging by his record so far this season, I've got every confidence that the final piece of the jigsaw will be worth waiting for.