Steven Fletcher hopes spectre of relegation is in the past

The 25-year-old Scotland international completed a move, understood to be worth £12 million, to Sunderland from Wolves on Friday and, in the process, swapped an annual survival fight for what he and his new manager Martin O’Neill hope will be a push for the upper half of the Barclays Premier League.

Fletcher has spent three seasons to date in the English top flight and in two of them – first with Burnley and then Wolves – has suffered the misery of the drop. But with Black Cats owner Ellis Short having invested heavily in both he and former Manchester City winger Adam Johnson as he continues his attempts to take the club to the next level, the Scot will hope his struggles are over.

Asked how difficult that existence had been, Fletcher said: “It’s good and it’s bad. Going out and there’s pressure on you, some boys play better under pressure, so it was good. But the frustrating thing, coming in having been beaten, was not good, and sitting bottom of the table for the last three or four months wasn’t nice either. He added with a smile: “Hopefully I can stay in it [the Premier League] this time.”

Despite the difficulties experienced by his former clubs, Fletcher himself has prospered in the top flight and has scored 30 league goals in trying circumstances. That has seen his value rise appreciably, although the fee stipulated by Wolves, who paid Burnley £7 million for him during the summer of 2010, did raise a few eyebrows.

That, however, will not weigh heavily on his shoulders. He said: “No, not at all. I had it at Burnley and at Wolves. It was a lot of money for Burnley to spend on me and I did well there, and with Wolves, so if I can do the same here, I’ll be happy.”

Fletcher was O’Neill’s top target for the summer, and to land him on the same day as he managed to lure former Middlesbrough winger Johnson back to the north-east represented something of a coup. They will provide fresh attacking impetus for a side which has lacked goals in recent seasons, and particularly since Darren Bent’s departure for Aston Villa in January last year.

Both men made debuts in Tuesday’s 2-0 Capital One Cup second round victory over Morecambe, with the striker getting 67 valuable minutes under his belt after missing out on much of Wolves’ pre-season campaign.

But it was Johnson who lit up the game, setting up fellow wide-man James McClean for both goals, and with Stephane Sessegnon and Sebastian Larsson also pulling the strings behind him, the former Hibernian man is excited at what lies ahead.

He said: “The chances that hopefully they are going to create for me this year, I am really looking forward to it.”