Oatway: ‘You can see improvement’

Sunderland coach Charlie Oatway says that compared to this time last season, the club is in a better situation.

At the moment Sunderland sit one point above the relegation zone after 22 games so far this season, Oatway points out that after the same number of games last term, the Black Cats were two points worse off than they are now.

And on top of that they were in the bottom three.

There is also the fact that manager Gus Poyet was then working with a squad that was basically Paolo Di Canio’s, now he has his own squad which of course is spearheaded by striker Jermain Defoe who was picked up last week to strengthen the side.

Oatway told Sky Sports: ‘When we came here last season, we had a point from seven games and then were constantly firefighting.

‘I am not saying it is a lot better right now, but you can definitely see a certain amount of improvement. The players are showing that.

‘It is about getting stable as a club now and making sure, every year we improve. Last year was a bit of lastminute.com, but this year we want to do it a lot earlier than that. We have a run of games coming up now that we think we can pick up points.’