WES BROWN has urged Sunderland to recapture the winning mentality that saw them complete their remarkable escape from relegation last season.

Sunderland are yet to win a Premier League game this term, with Saturday’s 0-0 draw at Burnley the Black Cats’ fourth stalemate of the season,and Brown knows that the spirit that saw them win games at Chelsea and Manchester United on their way to securing their Premier League status with a game to spare needs to return to the side.

“We said at the start of the season that whatever spirit we got at the end of the season, we’d have to get it back this year, however we got it, whatever made us do it, we needed to get that back somehow,” said Brown.

“We still sort of do, you could say we’ve got better players now, but we need to get that back. Maybe it’s the mental side of it, everyone coming together and showing what we did last year, because at the end of the season it was pretty good.

“ The whole squad felt good, we went into games against bigger sides than us thinking we could win the game, and if we weren’t going to win it we’d not lose, that’s the mentality we need.

“I’m not saying it’s there yet, but we didn’t lose on Saturday and it’s another point on the board.

“It’s going to be one of those seasons where you win two on the bounce and you’re going to be shooting up again, it’s that sort of season. We have to take advantage of it earlier rather than later.”

Sunderland had the chances to win the game at Turf Moor, with Patrick van Aanholt striking the post in stoppage time, but Brown could at least take solace in keeping a clean sheet in Lancashire.

“I’m disappointed we’ve not come away with the three points but we’ve not lost the game, we’ve kept a clean sheet so I suppose you can take something from that,” said the centre-half. “We did go into this game hopeful of getting a win.

“We knew it was going to be difficult, we’d watched a video of Burnley and they very much play a lot of old-school stuff, they have two up front and they make it very difficult for you, they keep battling on, got a few crosses in. They were always fighting and they never gave up. They put a lot of commitment into the game.”

Sunderland will put their Premier League aspirations to one side today as they prepare for a Capital One Cup third round fixture against Stoke City tomorrow night, and Brown hopes that the knockout game can prove to be a catalyst for their league form like it was last year.

Brown said: “It was brilliant firstly for the fans, for us to get to Wembley, at the time we had five games in hand, we still had to get points on the board as well as concentrating on the cup.

“We didn’t panic, but it was there all the time.

If anything it gave us that enthusiasm to push on in the league, once the cup final was over, the month after was a bit sloppy, the highs had gone, we didn’t perform well, but we got back into it in the end.”