George Honeyman has been praising his Sunderland teammates and staff as they prepare for another date with destiny at Wembley.
The Black Cats came through a two-legged tie with Portsmouth to set up a play-off final against Charlton at the weekend, winning 1-0 on aggregate.
After a season in which they threatened to crash the automatic promotion place, a fifth place finish might be seen by some as disappointing.
24-year-old midfielder Honeyman doesn't believe that's the case, instead claiming everyone at the club should be proud of their achievements after the successive relegations they had to deal with going into the season.
“To think we have a one-off game to get promotion, we would have snapped your hand off for it in pre-season," he told the Sunderland Echo.
“From back-to-back relegations and finishing bottom of the table... I know that was the Premier League and Championship, but it was a negative, losing culture as a football club we have to be realistic and for it to have turned like this in ten months and to have one-off shot to win promotion is fantastic.
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“Two trips to Wembley? Everyone at the club has to be so proud."
Sunderland have won just two of their last nine fixtures, losing three. Prior to that, they'd lost just two league matches all season.
The Verdict
Honeyman is right to a degree, everyone should be proud of picking themselves up and turning their fortunes around.
That said, they have spent big and should have had a good enough squad to push into the top two.
Their last few matches have been really poor and they're going to have to up their game against a strong Charlton side in good form.