'We are in a really, really, good position for promotion and based on that the decision was taken to make a change to try to ensure that we can try to populate the top two and put ourselves in the best position to go up.'
That was Sunderland sporting director Kristjaan Speakman's view just three weeks ago as he explained the rationale behind the decision to sack Lee Johnson on the eve of transfer deadline day.
Three defeats and two draws later, those words ring hollow as the Black Cats find themselves desperately scrabbling around in the hope of securing a play-off place.
Speakman was talking about the situation when Sunderland were third in the table, a point behind Wigan and two points behind Rotherham - albeit both those sides had games in hand.
Fast forward to today, and Rotherham are 16 points are ahead of Sunderland and still have a game in hand, while Wigan are ten points ahead with three games in hand.
The top two are disappearing into the distance and Sunderland's automatic promotion hopes are over with more than two months of the season remaining.
Sunderland's results since the turn of the year - one win in ten games and just two points picked up from the last six matches - have been an utter disgrace.
And performances have been little better than results, if at all.
The rot started under Johnson, and new head coach Alex Neil has so far been unable to reverse the downward spiral in his three games in charge.
Since the beginning of January, Sunderland have lost at home to Lincoln City, been thrashed 6-0 at Bolton, defeated by the then-basement side Doncaster Rovers, lost at Cheltenham and also at home to MK Dons.
They managed a narrow home win against Portsmouth last month, and have drawn at Wycombe, Accrington, and AFC Wimbledon, and last night scraped a point against Burton Albion at the Stadium of Light courtesy of a 93rd minute equaliser.
It is a catalogue of woe.
Sunderland dropped out of the play-off places at the weekend, and while their draw against Burton saw them move back up to sixth spot, it was hardly a cause for celebration.
They are just one of six clubs competing for the four play-off spots, and the field could widen to eight if Ipswich and Bolton put a run together.
Yet Sunderland are bang out of form and they are running out of games.
Neil identified the problem as soon as he took over, pointing out the jaded and fatigued youngsters such as Callum Doyle, Dan Neil, and Dennis Cirkin, who have been run into the ground in what is their first season in senior football, and contrasting them with the senior players who are nowhere near full match fitness.
He was able to give Dan Neil a rest against Burton because he has options in central midfield, but Cirkin is the only fit senior left-back at the club, and there is no available ready-made replacement for left-sided centre-back Doyle.
The decision to allow left-back Denver Hume and centre-back Tom Flanagan to leave in January now looks positively reckless.
Whatever their futures may have held beyond the end of the season, they would have offered some much-needed cover right now.
Numerous times, Johnson said that players would only be allowed to leave if it suited Sunderland.
He also said that it was no use bringing in players who were not match fit and would need weeks to get up to speed.
But guess what happened.
And it is this dysfunctional mess that Neil has inherited.
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Given how easily Sunderland were picked off in the transition against MK Dons at the weekend, he tried changing personnel and system to guard against a repeat when Burton came to Wearside.
It made no difference. Sunderland were just as bad.
He also handed Jermain Defoe his first start since he re-joined the club from Rangers on deadline day and switched to playing two strikers, but unsurprisingly the 39-year-old was way off the pace in what was actually his first league start in 14 months.
There was little between the sides in a first half in which football became an afterthought.
The game was only minutes old when play was suspended due to a medical emergency in the crowd, with treatment continuing for more than 45 minutes before the supporter could be moved and play eventually resumed.
Just after half-time, Sunderland's defensive frailties were exposed again as Cameron Borthwick-Jackson put Burton ahead.
Anthony Patterson made a string of saves to prevent Burton adding further goals, and the importance of those saves was underlined when Ross Stewart headed Sunderland level in injury-time.
But while Stewart's goal spared Sunderland another defeat, the damage was done with two more points dropped.
At this rate, they face a real battle just to finish in the top six.
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