Bailey Wright says Sunderland's failure to get promoted via the play-offs on their previous six attempts "doesn’t mean anything" as he looked ahead to the Wembley final today.
Sunderland are playing Wycombe Wanderers in the League One play-off final at Wembley this afternoon. Wycombe finished one place behind Sunderland in the table, and many fancy the Black Cats as favourites but the ghost of play-offs past looms over the afternoon.
Ahead of the match, Sunderland's centre-back Bailey Wright was interviewed on the BBC's Football Focus. The 29-year-old was asked about Sunderland's previous failures to crack the play-offs, but he dismissed the suggestion it might have an impact.
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Wright said: "History is history. I don’t really care what’s happened before. I’ve got an opportunity to win a game of football against Wycombe, who are going to be a tough side to play against. So we know it’s not going to be easy, but all that stuff that's happened before doesn’t mean anything."
Wright was then asked whether the trip to Wembley could be a pivotal moment. He said Sunderland should be much higher up the league than recent years, but emphasised that they would have to earn it.
Wright said: "The reward of getting promoted with this club is massive. I think if you speak to anyone who comes here, they want to get promoted and want to be successful because you see the size of the club and see the potential and obviously it should be higher up than what it is.
"But that doesn’t give you any divine right to go and win. You've got to go and earn it, and we know that, an we’ll give everything right to the end, and we hope that will be enough to get us where we want to be."
Wright, who is originally from Melbourne in Australia, was also asked to reflect on the significance of the final in his own career. He recalled travelling to the UK as a teenager.
He said: "I left Australia at 16 years old to come and live my dream over here in England. When I look back at that 16-year-old that flew over, had he thought he would have the opportunity to play at Wembley to get promoted with a club like Sunderland, he probably never would have believed it."
The match kicks off at 3pm. It will be shown live on Sky Sports.
