Wickham Praised By Poyet After Brilliant Return

Sunderland boss Gus Poyet has urged striker Connor Wickham to continue as he is doing at the moment and remain famous on Wearside forever.

Wickham has been in brilliant form since being recalled from Leeds United and thrust into the Sunderland side.

He has netted five goals in just three games, the two he hit on Sunday moved the Black Cats out of the bottom three and now they have a fighting chance of avoiding the drop.

And Poyet is so happy that he brought the player back to the Stadium of Light, when asked if he had ever seen a player return from a loan spell to such effect, Poyet admitted: “No, I haven’t, but I can tell you that I was hoping for that, that was the idea.

“Connor needed a run of games. I’m sure that in football there are plenty of players who would like to come and see the manager and say, ‘come on, give me five games’.

“It’s not that easy. But because of everything that has happened during the season, I was in a position where I was able to say, ‘go on, play from here and then it’s up to you. It’s not me, it’s you’.

“He is changing our season around and if he maintains the level, he could be up there as one of the most remembered players at Sunderland, which would be great for him for the future.”

Sunderland’s next game is away to Manchester United, but they still have two games to go after that, one at home to West Brom on the Wednesday and then the final Saturday of the season see’s the Cats take on Swansea, also at home.