DURING four years at Celtic, Ross Wallace may have only made sporadic starts in the famous green and white hoops, but he experienced what life was like playing in front of a passionate home crowd.

So, after making the move from Celtic Park to the Stadium of Light, Wallace was more than ready for the challenge of becoming a regular in front of the fanatical Wearside supporters.

In each of his three appearances so far for the Black Cats, the young Scot has already seen the Sunderland fans warm to him - not least by the way his skilful presence has been aided by the fact he has done his best to raise the noise levels from the stands.

Many players of his age may have opted for a more low key approach to life at a new club, not Wallace. And that, he says, has come from being schooled at the Glasgow giants under such temperamental characters like Martin O'Neill and Gordon Strachan.

But, as well as the huge fan base the two clubs he has now played for boast, he does not feel the comparisons stop there.

And he believes, just as he has been used to north of the border, Sunderland are going to have to get used to the fact the rest of the Championship will reach new performance levels because of the Roy Keane factor.

"There are little things that are the same between Sunderland and Celtic - taking 5,000 supporters to an away game is incredible - but it's hard to compare the two," said Wallace, who started the season playing in front of a 55,000-plus crowd against St Mirren.

"Hopefully, if we're on a run and winning games, we can fill the stadium a bit more. The potential and support here is massive.

"Everybody raised their game against Celtic and they'll be trying harder against Sunderland just because they're playing against us.

"When teams played against Celtic and Rangers they gave that little bit more."

Criticism has been hurled the Scottish Premier League's way for many years now while the Old Firm clubs - prior to Hearts' rise to prominence in the last two seasons - have continually battled it out for supremacy.

Even Wallace, born in Dundee, finds it difficult to argue against the theory.

"I think the Championship is a better standard than the Scottish Premier League," said Wallace. "Away from Celtic and Rangers, the standard of football in Scotland is not the same as I've seen since I've joined Sunderland.

"There are some good teams and it's going to be a tough league to get out of. Leicester came to our place in the bottom half of the league, but they played well against us."

If Sunderland are going to achieve promotion Wallace feels Keane is exactly the man to do it, although a favourable result at Ipswich is essential to help ensure things keep ticking along.

"Roy's a man that demands 100 per cent from everybody," said the 21-year-old.

"He gives encouragement to all the players and I think we have some good players here to listen to him. If you give Roy 100 per cent, he'll give you his full backing.

"I don't think I've seen the angry side of Roy Keane yet, because we've been playing well. The Leicester game was a disappointment, but hopefully that'll give us a kick up the backside to kick on again."