Johnson has Black Cats believing

Sunderland 1 Stoke City 0

They have been mired in the bottom three since the defeat at Crystal Palace, the pro-penultimate game of Paolo Di Canio’s six-month aberration, but this morning the league table makes for rather more palatable viewing for his successor, Gus Poyet.

So much for Di Canio’s assertion, delivered in his latest acerbic rant towards his former charges, that little progress has been made since his acrimonious departure in October.