Sunderland are currently sitting outside of the automatic places in League One.
Kevin Phillips has stated that Sunderland are in a ‘really good place’ but hopes a potential defeat in the Checkatrade final doesn’t ‘derail’ their hopes of earning automatic promotion to the Championship.
Jack Ross’ side will meet Portsmouth in the EFL trophy final at Wembley, with both teams also vying for those top two spots in League One.
At this moment in time, the Black Cats are sitting third in the table, four points behind second-placed Barnsley and four points ahead of fourth-placed Pompey.
Speaking to Weekend Sports Breakfast on talkSPORT (09/03/2019 at 11:10 am), Phillips offered his thoughts on his former club potentially earning automatic promotion as he expressed one worry.
“I really hope so [in regards to automatic promotion],” Phillips told Weekend Sports Breakfast. “I was up there on Wednesday and speaking to Jack Ross and they are in a really good place at the moment.
“They are in a Checkatrade final. I hope that going into the final that if they don’t get a result there, I hope that doesn’t derail their season. But they are in fine form.”
Compared to the problems Sunderland have faced in recent seasons, both on and off the field, it is fair to say that they are heading in the right direction now.
They have a game in hand on their promotion rivals and if they were to pick up maximum points in that match then they will close the gap on the top two to one point.
Over the weekend, they dropped valuable points at Wycombe, with Duncan Watmore netting a stoppage-time equaliser in what was a feisty affair which saw three men sent off from both sides.
Nonetheless, Sunderland play one of their biggest games of the season on Tuesday night when they travel to Yorkshire to take on second-placed Barnsley.
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