Well, that’s a weight off the mind.
Ross Stewart kicked off Sunderland’s League One clash with Cambridge United on Saturday in the midst of his longest goal drought of the season.
A run of eight barren games which threatened to undermine the Black Cats’ promotion prospects.
So when Stewart won and then converted a penalty just 13 minutes in against Mark Bonner’s coupon-busting Cambridge, the reaction at the Stadium of Light was one of relief as well as much as jubilation.
“I was certainly aware of it (the goal drought) and was probably just as frustrated as anybody,” Stewart told The Chronicle at full-time.
ROSS STEWART THE GOLDEN BOOT WINNER?
The Scot’s season reads almost like a bus timetable on a chilly January morning. A long run without one, followed by a three or four at once.
Few on Wearside would have been surprised when Stewart doubled his tally inside 36 minutes this weekend, spinning on a sixpence and locating the bottom corner with laser-like precision, taking his tally in league action to a highly-impressive 25.
Come May, he may have to make room on his mantelpiece for a play-off winners’ medal and the League One Golden Boot.
“As strikers you want to be scoring goals,” Stewart adds. “But at the same time, the team have been winning games. When you are winning games, that takes over the mood of the camp and that is the most important thing – winning games.”
Such an approach should stand Stewart in good stead if, in the summer, he leaves Sunderland for a club who view success not as something to aim for but as something to be expected.
According to the Northern Echo, Rangers are keeping tabs on the former Ross County ace, with just over a year left on his Black Cats contract.
Sunderland paid £500,000 to sign Stewart from Dingwall in January 2021. With every shot flies into the opposition net, Alex Neil’s ‘Loch Ness Drogba’ continues to repay that investment with interest.
