Danny Batth believes the financial impact of Covid has helped Sunderland make the step up to the Championship. The Black Cats won promotion via the play-offs last season after finishing fifth in League One and have taken the second tier in their stride, remaining in the play-off race - albeit as outsiders - with five games of the campaign remaining.
Sunderland have beaten a host of established Championship sides this season, along with several that have promotion ambitions such as Norwich City, Middlesbrough and Blackburn Rovers. And Batth says the effects of the drop in income caused by teams having to play the 2020-21 season behind closed doors during the Covid pandemic has had a levelling effect.
"I think Covid has probably done that in terms of the reaction in terms of the wages and investment clubs can afford to make," said the captain, following Sunderland Easter Monday win at relegation-threatened Cardiff City. "We finished fifth in League One last year and are coming to places like Cardiff and winning.
READ MORE: Sunderland's win at Cardiff keeps them in the play-off hunt - but now they must find home form
"It's alright saying it's not a great league but we weren't great in League One to be honest. We rode away and got promoted and now have that belief and momentum in the group to compete with these teams.
"We don't take anything for granted and go into every game with an appetite to win and have to believe we can compete at this level. We have a handful of players who have played most of their careers at this level but for a lot of the lads it's their debut season and they have really done well so far."
Dennis Cirkin scored the only goal of the game in South Wales, with that victory lifting Sunderland to tenth in the table and cutting the gap between themselves and the play-off places to four points. Sunderland should have won by a wider margin after completely outplaying Cardiff in the first half, but in the end they had to wait until the hour mark to break the deadlock.
Batth said: "I think [we could have won more comfortably] but there is never much between teams in the Championship. We saw that the other night [when Sunderland conceded an injury-time penalty which cost them two points against Hull City] with the game management at the end where a more experienced side perhaps sees that game out comfortably.
"I thought Monday was important, especially when we went ahead, because everyone to a man to dug in and stuck to their task."
Of the first half, he added: "We were really fluid first half and we spoke about that before the game if they want to sit off to draw them out and play through them. I felt like we looked really good first half and that's part of the Championship, you are going to get different tests and teams are going to try different strategies to make it uncomfortable for you.
"I thought first half we were brilliant and then obviously they reacted at half-time and just simplified their game and were more direct to ask questions of our back three/back four."
Cardiff did improve in the second half and put Sunderland under pressure in the final 20 minutes, but the Black Cats held out. "It only takes a moment to switch off and they've got big boys in from the back at the end there," said the centre-back.
"I'm telling the likes of Edouard [Michut], 'can you drop in and make it difficult for them?' We've had to be really smart in that sense this season because teams will look at us on paper and think if they perhaps block me or block a [Dan] Ballard they'll have a free run at it [getting on the end of balls in the box].
"I think so far we've done ok from it."
Sunderland's campaign continues on Saturday, when Birmingham City visit the Stadium of Light.
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- Tony Mowbray relieved as Dennis Cirkin provides Sunderland with much-needed cutting edge at Cardiff
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