Sunderland defender sends strong dressing room message on stunning start and explains Regis Le Bris impact

Trai Hume insists that the Sunderland dressing room isn’t getting carried away with their brilliant start to the Championship campaign and says there are still many areas where they can improve.

The Black Cats continued their perfect start to the campaign with a 3-1 win over Portsmouth at Fratton Park, meaning they will head into the international break top of the table and with a remarkable +9 goal difference. The 22-year-old says the team are in a good place and enjoying their football under new head coach Régis Le Bris but that there is no complacency so early in the campaign.

“We’re enjoying our football,” Hume said.

“We’re on the front foot and being aggressive, trying to win games. You can see that even at 2-0 up, we’re looking for more goals. It’s nice to start well but we know that it’s a long season and it’s about staying consistent in our performances. We want to try and go for promotion but we’re just trying to focus on keeping it from game to game and that’s what the manager keeps telling us. It’s always ‘next game, game’ – not looking too far ahead. We want to keep improving because we still think there’s parts of the games where we could play better. We can keep improving. It’s an ideal start, obviously, but we want to stay consistent.”

Sunderland have so far been formidable in defence, a trend that continued at Portsmouth even as Luke O’Nien’s late own goal meant the team’s proud clean sheet record came to an end. Hume credits Le Bris for his work on the team’s organisation, and also believes the running of those in front of the back four so far this season has reduced the pressure on him and his fellow defenders.