THEY dubbed it the Stadium of Plight. A succinct shorthand from the tabloids and even one time a headline in The Guardian to preface pieces on ‘what’s gone wrong at Sunderland?’ They were tales of woe lapped up on social media by fans of other clubs with the kind of mirth that accompanies all financial mismanagement at corporate entities, sporting or otherwise. In football, Schadenfreude is indeed two successive relegations and big-money signings that go horribly awry.

In a region that has suffered from social and economic plight, Sunderland AFC had always seemed to embody the very soul of the area – a proud bastion of strength.

And yet, Sunderland had become “a club on its deathbed, slowly and painfully passing away before our eyes”, stated a piece on fan site Roker Report as recently as March.

Nowadays listen to those who flock to the Stadium of Light to follow Sunderland, not to mention the many who travel the length and breadth of England to away games to watch League One football, and there is a different vibe.

It’s not just that Sunderland, four points off top spot, are unbeaten in the third tier of English football this season, it’s the manner in which they have remained so.

Three of their four league victories have been come-from-behind triumphs – the other a 3-0 home win achieved before half-time. And while their last two home league matches have been 1-1 draws, the trend of coming back to avoid defeat has been prevalent in both; on Saturday against Joey Barton’s Fleetwood Town and a week previously versus Oxford United while playing for 71 minutes with 10 men.

Where there was rupture previously, there is resilience. While it is, of course, to use that much-loved football phrase ‘early days’ under the management of Jack Ross, nominated for manager of the month in August, there are real signs of belief on the pitch and in the stands. There is evidence of life.

“We want to go and win games in an exciting manner, we’ve done that so far in games this season, but equally we’ve shown character on numerous occasions,” says Ross, appointed by Sunderland in the summer after guiding St Mirren from bottom of the Ladbrokes Championship to league winners and top-flight promotion in the space of 18 months. “I think once you get that in, it kind of stays there. It’s okay telling the players they’ve got character and they’re resilient but when they do it themselves on the pitch, as they have done on numerous occasions, then they believe it.”

Ross is the ninth manager to step into the home dugout at the Stadium of Light since Martin O’Neill departed in March 2013, with Paolo Di Canio, Dick Advocaat, Sam Allardyce, David Moyes and Chris Coleman all among those who have come and gone.

Where others perhaps see the Sunderland job as a poisoned chalice – Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes turned down the chance to succeed Moyes last summer – Ross sees huge potential.

That’s not to stay the three months since his appointment have been plain sailing; far from it indeed.

“You can very quickly forget where things were when you first came in but I don’t think I’ll ever face the set of circumstances in my managerial career with the ones we had in the summer and the amount of changes that have taken place – and even up 'til now we still have issues with a couple of players,” says Ross.

Namely, Didier Ndong, the Black Cats’ £13.6m record signing from Premier League days who has been AWOL since Sunderland returned for pre-season in June and failed to find what can only be described as an escape to another club during the transfer window. While Sunderland have refused to pay the Gabon international’s wages, citing a breach of his contract, you can only imagine how the fans reacted when Ndong posted a picture of himself sunbathing beside a swimming pool on social media last week.

Papy Djilobodji, a Moyes signing for a reported £8m from Chelsea, returned to the club only last Wednesday but the Senegalese has failed to report for training since, Sunderland owner Stewart Donald revealed.

“It doesn’t really impact me because they’ve not been at the club,” insists Ross of the pair.

“My interests were trying to build a squad of players that are desperate to be here, and we’ve done that. We’ve a good group in the dressing room, but very different to what’s been here in recent times.”

Perhaps it’s no surprise that part of that difference in the dressing room includes plenty of Scottish steel.

Dylan McGeouch was brought in from Hibernian, Jon McLaughlin – who saved a penalty at 1-1 on Saturday – from Hearts, while Alim Ozturk was previously at Tynecastle, Glenn Loovens at Celtic and Chris Maguire, formerly of Aberdeen and Kilmarnock, were also among 12 summer signings. Ross’ backroom staff includes his assistant at St Mirren, James Fowler, while John Potter came from Dunfermline to become first-team coach at Sunderland.

When you ask Ross if he envisaged how big a rebuild it would take at Sunderland, it’s not just in terms of the playing staff but the very nature of the club in which he replies.

“It was a huge, huge rebuild and it’s still ongoing,” he says. “It’s still repairing a lot of old wounds and a lot things we had to try and put right – and with a lot of the support of people who had been here and were good and positive and the right assets for the club, I think that can sometimes be forgotten as well.

“But the one thing that overrides it all is that it’s an unbelievably good football club. It’s a brilliant football club to work at. Hopefully I can get the opportunity to do that for a long time because it’s a fantastic place to work.”

Attendances at the Stadium of Light this season average above 30,000, confirmation of the incredible passion Sunderland fans have for their club.

Ross would love to deliver them promotion from League One at the first attempt but knows hard work is required for that to bear fruit.

“It’s an incredibly competitive league and we also face unique challenges in that every away game we go to is a massive game because of the crowd we take and the attention around it,” he says. “And equally every team that comes here use it as a massive occasion as well, so we’re kind of facing games every week that have a real intensity around them. It’s not easy. And equally as a club we’ve gone through a massive transitional period. This club is not what it was in the Premier League, in so many different ways. It’s challenging, really challenging but enjoyable none the less.”

The name Stadium of Light has nothing to do with grand illusions of being England’s answer to Benfica, as some imagine.

The Stadium of Light is called thus as it is built on the site of the old Wearmouth Colliery, and is a reference to a miner’s lamp. A giant Davy lamp stands outside the ground as testament to the many generations of Sunderland supporters who have worked in the region’s collieries. For today’s fans that congregate at the Stadium of Light, there is a chink of light at the end of the tunnel.