THREE games into the season, and Sunderland are still to suffer a defeat. Yet when they take to the field against Portsmouth on Saturday, Jack Ross and his players will be heading into a game they can ill afford to lose if the current mutterings of discontent are not to build into a crescendo. Indeed, listen to some supporters, and another draw would probably elicit the same result.

Harsh? Undoubtedly. Unfair on Ross’ new-look squad? Almost certainly. But also an inevitable consequence of last season’s failure to win promotion from League One. Last season, the chaos of relegation and the turmoil of Ellis Short’s departure bought some time. This time around, there is no such mitigation.

So while it might seem ridiculous to be talking of a season-defining game in the middle of August – especially when Sunderland head into their weekend meeting with Pompey on the back of a deserved Carabao Cup win at Accrington Stanley – that is the stark reality of the febrile atmosphere that has enveloped the banks of the Wear.

“The mood has been fine,” said striker Marc McNulty, when asked to sum up the feelings within the camp after the opening two weeks of the campaign. “It would be easy for the boys to be negative and be doom and gloom, but we’re two (league) games into the season and we haven’t lost yet.

“Some people might look at that and think it’s a good start, other people might think it’s the end of the world and maybe I shouldn't be playing again! Fans look at it in different ways, and players look at it in different ways.

“As a group in there, the boys are confident because we haven’t been beaten yet. Yes, we’re frustrated because we haven’t taken three points and the performances haven’t been great. But it’s early in the season, we’re unbeaten, we won (at Accrington) and we’ve got another game on Saturday.”

Perspective. It is often easier to find within the dressing room than in the stands, and while Sunderland’s players understand the pressures of playing for the biggest club outside England’s top two divisions, you sense they are also a little perplexed at the scale of the dissent that has been voiced in the last ten days.

For a player like McNulty, who only moved to Wearside this summer on a loan deal from Reading, the failures of the past hang like a noose around his neck. It isn’t his fault that back-to-back relegations preceded a slog of a campaign that ended with the heartbreak of defeat at Wembley in May, but it is a backdrop that is impossible to ignore.

“I’ve been at clubs like this before,” said McNulty, who can include spells at Sheffield United, Portsmouth, Coventry City and Hibernian on his lengthy CV. “The expectation is very high, and rightly so, and I knew I’d be coming in to that.

“The fans give us unbelievable support, they travel in their numbers, they turn up every week so they’re going to vent their frustrations. Us, as players, have got to be big enough to take that on the chin. Look, it’s a big badge to wear, but you sign for a club like this to carry expectations. There’s a long way to go and we stay positive.”

McNulty’s performances have been one of the biggest positives of the campaign so far. At the start of the season, it was questioned whether Will Grigg or Charlie Wyke would be Sunderland’s number one striker. Three games in, and the answer already looks like being, ‘Neither’.

McNulty was Sunderland’s most potent forward on Tuesday night, opening the scoring with his first goal for the club, setting up Wyke’s stoppage-time goal with a slide-rule cross and also hitting the crossbar with a stinging drive midway through the second half.

The 26-year-old looks equally comfortable as a central striker or playing in a wider attacking role, and is keen to make up for lost time after a difficult spell at Reading.

“When I came here, I had a chat with the gaffer and he could see me playing a number of positions - as a one, as a two, sometimes in behind,” he said. “For me personally, I just like playing with people in behind me.

“I think to get the best out of me, I need players close to me. So, it's obviously up to the manager then how he wants to set-up, and it's not just getting the best out of me - it's for the team. So sometimes you need to fit into the team to get the best out of others. Obviously, that's why the manager's job is so hard, but we just need to go out and perform.”

He did that at Accrington, and admits he is delighted to have opened his Sunderland account. “Does it make a difference? I’d be lying if I said no,” he said. “You always want to get your goal early. It's great to get off the mark and now it's just a case of focusing on Saturday and trying to get a little run going.”