SUNDERLAND'S winning mentality remains the same and 'nothing has changed' from their Wembley play-off final win according to full-back Dennis Cirkin. 

The 20-year-old played a key role in their promotion from League One last season making 41 appearances in total. As part of their surging run to Wembley in the play-off final, the Black Cats didn't taste defeat in 16 games as Alex Neil led the side to a 2-0 win over Wycombe Wanderers.

From the historic day against the Chairboys, the mindset has not changed within the Sunderland camp according to Cirkin, with just four days until the beginning of the Championship season. "I’d say the focus is the exact same" said the former Tottenham Man. 

"When we left Wembley, the focus hasn’t changed, we want to win every game. It’s not like the lads or the gaffer has dropped a little, if anything we have stepped up."

"I’d say an increase even" continued Cirkin when asked by The Northern Echo what the standards have been like in pre-season.

Sunderland's season begins this Sunday with a lunchtime kick-off against Coventry City at the Stadium of Light. 

It's been a strong first year in professional football for Cirkin and from a personal standpoint, he is pleased with the progress he has made compared to last summer when he first came into the club as a fresh faced youngster without a senior appearance. 

The left-back added: "Obviously this is my first proper pre-season at Sunderland because I missed a little bit last season. I’ve been happy with how it’s gone so far. We’ve set out every game to win, obviously it doesn’t happen all the time but we have definitely got that winning mentality now."

The club are feeling the crest of a wave from promotion last season but it's not always been the case for the left-back who admits he learnt some valuable lessons in his first year of first-team football.

The left-back did suffer with numerous injuries across the season and was part of a side that almost let their chances of promotion slip during a run of form that cost Lee Johnson his job as manager. 

When asked what the biggest thing he learnt was from last season, he responded: "Just keep going. You can’t dwell on anything, especially as you saw we had massive highs and then massive lows, a change of manager.

"There were a lot of things that went wrong and well but at the end of it we won at Wembley and that was probably one of the best days of my life. We just have to keep going."