New Sunderland boss Michael Beale insists the Black Cats can match last season’s achievements and reach the Championship play-offs again this term. Tony Mowbray led Sunderland to a sixth-place finish in the club’s first season back in the second tier, with the Wearsiders going on to lose in the play-off semi-final against Luton Town.

And now Beale, who was confirmed as Mowbray’s permanent successor this week, has set out his aims as he takes up the reins with Sunderland currently sitting seventh in the table, just three points behind sixth-placed Hull City. Former Glasgow Rangers and Queens Park Rangers boss Beale met the media at the Academy of Light for the first time this afternoon following his appointment, and ahead of his first game in charge which comes on Saturday when Coventry City visit the Stadium of Light.

Asked what the club can achieve this season, Beale said: “The club’s got a vision and processes I really believe in to get to where we all want to go, which is back to the Premier League. That’s what the fans want, and the fans drive the club in terms of expectations.

“That’s really important. Every single player in our dressing room wants to go to the Premier League

“It’s a young dressing room, and that’s where we think the potential of our players is. Now, the front two [Leicester City and Ipswich Town] have set a really fast pace, haven’t they, in terms of where they’re going, but we’re one of a group of teams who believe we can go and get into the play-offs.

“With how we’ve started the season and where we are now, albeit we’ve had a bump in the road at the weekend [losing at Bristol City], we should be optimistic and demand that [a play-off place]. Our fans should demand that, and we should demand that internally.

“We have to demand those standards. We want to set ourselves up so that, after the March international break, we’re in a position to push and go there.

“Last season, playing with a slightly different style and a slightly different make-up of the group – maybe a slightly older group – we managed to get there. So, why wouldn’t we dream and push and go for that again?”

So Beale arrives not with a brief to turn around the fortunes of a failing team, as is usually the case when a head coach has been sacked, but instead it is up to him to build on the foundations that Mowbray laid and continue to play the same brand of football. “Whoever is in charge of Sunderland is expected to win games of football,” he said.

“I would flip it and say that the good work Tony has done and the foundations he has left means that I come in with it in a good place. The fact that we’ve kept the staff in place [coach Mike Dodds has been promoted to become Beale’s assistant] is a positive as well.

“I don’t know Tony too well personally but I remember many years ago we [Liverpool’s academy] sent Ryan Kent on loan to Coventry City, where he had [James] Maddison, Adam Armstrong etc. He’s always had teams that I’ve enjoyed watching.

“His team play with width and lots of freedom, that’s what the fans here at Sunderland have obviously enjoyed. We’re going to continue that, and hopefully add one or two extra bits on top of that.

“There’s no doubt that Tony is a very good manager and Mark Venus alongside them, I’ve got a lot of respect for them both.”

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