Dan Ballard reveals ‘minimum’ requirement at Sunderland next season that fans will appreciate
Sunderland defender Dan Ballard has reflected on the 2023-24 season during a recent interview.
The former Arsenal defender was ever-present in the heart of defence all campaign for the Black Cats as Sunderland moved between three head coaches: Tony Mowbray, Michael Beale and Mike Dodds.
Asked about his season, Ballard said: “I think personally it was a good season for me and I played a lot more games than the season before. I felt quite comfortable in the team. We as a team didn’t achieve anywhere near as much as we were hoping for and, of course, that was disappointing.
“But I think, especially early on in the season, there were spells we can look back on and we enjoyed those moments. Unfortunately, it just faded out towards the end of the season.”
Ballard was also asked about his favourite moments from 2023-24: “Standout moments – probably the goal at QPR [September 16, 3-0], even though it was just a tap-in. It was first for the club and to do it in front of the away fans on that day was a great feeling.
“And we went on to win the game. I have wanted to build a relationship with the fans because they’ve been so supportive towards me and towards the team even when we’ve been struggling at times.”
He added: “All of the mistakes and everything we’ve gone through, it’s obviously not ideal but we are going to learn from them. We missed out on the play-offs by a long way but hopefully it’s something we can look to build on next year.
“To learn from the mistakes, put them right and hopefully we can be a lot higher up the table and be more competeive. There’s not much break between games and sometimes when you go on a run of negative results it’s hard to find the positives and change things around.”
“The play-offs has to be our goal. For the size of the club, the fans that come to every game, that should be a minimum,” Ballard added when asked about Sunderland’s goals for next season. For the players, the staff and everyone at the club, that should be the aim to put everything in place during the summer so when the season starts we can have a chance to challenge the top six.”
