SUNDERLAND’S play-off dream is still very much alive ahead of tomorrow night’s home game with Huddersfield Town – but whatever the Black Cats go on to achieve in the remainder of the season will be a bonus according to their defender, Trai Hume.

Saturday’s 2-1 win over Birmingham City enabled the Black Cats to close within two points of the top six with four games still to play.

Tony Mowbray’s side are still outsiders to make the play-offs, with two teams between them and the top-six positions and sixth-placed Blackburn Rovers boasting a game in hand on all the teams around them, but just to be in with a chance of featuring in the end-of-season shootout is some achievement given where the Black Cats were 12 months ago.

This time last season, Sunderland were not even assured of a place in the League One play-offs, so whatever happens in the next three weeks, they will be able to look back on their efforts over the course of the last nine months with a large amount of pride.

“If we’re in the play-offs at the end of the season then we’re happy,” said Hume. “But if not, it’s still been a great season for us.

“No one expected us to be pushing for the play-offs, so being close to that has been a great season for everyone.

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“We’ve got a game on Tuesday so we focus on that and nothing else, and just keep going game by game trying to pick up as many points as we can.”

If this has been a good season for Sunderland in general, then it has been an especially successful one for Hume who has transformed himself from a fringe squad player under Alex Neil into an integral part of the first-team group under Mowbray.

The Northern Irishman established himself as the Black Cats’ first-choice right-back for much of the second half of the campaign, and has impressed as a makeshift in the centre-half in the last couple of games.

“The gaffer just wants me to play there,” he said. “I’ll play there and fill in where I need to play and do a job for the team. Obviously, we’re short in that position at the minute so I’m happy enough to play there for as long as I have to.”

Hume scored his first Sunderland goal as part of the comeback that earned Sunderland all three points at the weekend.

“It’s about time,” he said. “I’ve had chances over the weeks, so I’m delighted to get my first goal.”