BEARING in mind that the entire population of Fleetwood was last recorded at just under 26,000, it is little wonder the small town on the west coast of Lancashire’s ambitious football team was keen to put on a show on Wearside.

In front of a Stadium of Light crowd that was higher than the total number of people who live in Fleetwood, and under the demanding managerial style of former Newcastle midfielder Joey Barton, the opposition provided a further reminder of how life in League One might not be that straight forward for Sunderland.

Barton promised beforehand that the Cod Army would be out to show they are actually better man-for-man than their opponents, and on another day they could easily have won – even if Jack Ross rightly argued either side could have afterwards.

But regardless of who you agree with, the evidence was there to suggest that visiting teams to Sunderland this season will be desperate to make things as difficult as they can. And the sooner Ross and his players come up with a way to solve that the better.

Just like Oxford did a week earlier and Charlton on the opening day of the season, Fleetwood took the lead and left Sunderland with an uphill battle to avoid defeat.

It is testament to Sunderland’s players and the character that has been instilled in the group that they were able to do so, again, to preserve an unbeaten run that has now extended to seven matches in the league.

But the secret to going up in the top two in May will be addressing the issue of conceding first, mainly through set pieces, and dealing with an approach of visiting teams that suggests they might as well go for it because they have nothing to lose.

“Every week we have to get used to it,” said Ross. “It is a different challenge. No game has been flat. That brings its own challenges. Every game that passes we will learn to cope with how teams have a go when they come here. It is done through learning and training.

“In that early period we have to deal with the messy side of the game better. Winning headers and tackles and set pieces in that period. Opening periods can be frenetic.

“Every time we don’t win we should be disappointed. I want that mentality. They are disappointed when they came in. A bit quiet then you look at the circumstances of the game.”

Fleetwood might not have the biggest following, or be from the biggest area, but they have formed a strong team that will do well in League One this season. Barton has them organised and capable of scoring goals, while they are strong in the tackle to reflect who leads them.

And even though Barton has not been shy to suggest his team is better than the one put together by Ross, he does accept that Sunderland are in a different world when it comes to being able to rise up through the divisions – but nothing should be taken for granted.

He said: “We are a little fishing town on the west coast, we had our biggest away following here. We know where we are going and what we are building. It’s difficult to compete with clubs of the financial power of Sunderland.

“Ten years ago, Fleetwood were in the North-West Counties League, Sunderland were about to be relegated from the Premier League. I was laughing when I came here it was to play against Sunderland three years ago, a Premier League team, in a cup game.

“In May you would expect Sunderland to be there or thereabouts, but football doesn’t reflect how many fans you have, it reflects what you do on the pitch. We have probably about 85 years of work to get into Sunderland’s position.”

No matter how small Fleetwood as a club is they made things very difficult for Sunderland and illustrated perfectly why they are in a play-off place at this early stage of the campaign.

But Ross can’t hide from the fact that some of the issues are his side’s own doing. As well as they played in stages, they were far from convincing and will need to improve dramatically if they want to stay in the mix for an automatic spot in a league which still has five unbeaten teams.

Sunderland started well enough and would have scored had Lynden Gooch not made a mess of a chance at the back post in the opening minutes. It proved costly too as Fleetwood went ahead in the ninth minute when Paddy Madden worked his way free of Adam Matthews to head in Ashley Hunter’s corner.

Conceding from set-pieces is more worrying for Ross than falling behind early. He said: “In some games it has been a physicality issue. There are also games where it is individual mistakes. As a manager you can’t always legislate for that.

“Something can be made better – that is individual concentration. It happens at all levels of football. There is nothing more in games or in training you can do to guarantee that won’t happen. You just try to cut down the vulnerability and that comes with repetition.”

But Sunderland are familiar with fighting back. That was the fifth time they have fallen behind this season and remain unbeaten, winning three of those.

That doesn’t alter the fact that Ross wants to see it come to an end, knowing Sunderland have the quality within their ranks to be at the top of the table now if they can develop a ruthless streak from the first whistle.

Josh Maja, out to keep his place following the return to fitness of Charlie Wyke and Jerome Sinclair, had was the man again who scored to pull things level.

He had already forced goalkeeper Alex Cairns into a low save before flicking the lively George Honeyman’s cross inside the far post eight minutes before half-time.

After the restart there were further chances for both teams. The most clear cut was the penalty Madden had saved by Jon McLaughlin – the first from a Sunderland goalkeeper in open play since 1989 at home – four minutes in.

Matthews was the most relieved man on Wearside when McLaughlin dived strongly to his left to turn it away, having committed a needless foul on former Middlesbrough defender James Husband.

Former Sheffield United striker Ched Evans shaved the side-netting with another effort, while in the closing stages Tom Flanagan and Sinclair were both denied by Cairns, while Jack Baldwin, who had already missed a sitter under the posts on the hour, headed against the post.