Sunderland head for Coventry City on Friday night in the play-off semi-final first leg on the back of five successive Championship defeats, a run Hume admits has “not been ideal”.
But Hume says Sunderland’s players haven’t been afraid it to say it like it is behind the scenes this season, with Dan Neil recently revealing frustrations were “laid on the line” after the Oxford defeat.
And that has again been the case in the build-up to Friday’s trip to the CBS Arena.
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“There have been honest conversations the whole season, whenever we haven’t got what we wanted” said Hume.
“We keep our standards high. We want to win every game. When we don’t, it’s always honest conversations. We haven’t won a lot of games in recent weeks.
“We have had them honest conversations. We’ve been harsh at times, and we have been generous at times. It’s stuff that happens in the changing room, and it stays in the changing room.”
Despite the disappointment of Saturday’s poor performance and defeat to QPR, Hume believes Sunderland will also benefit from last week’s training stint in Portugal.
“That was good for the lads,” he said.
“We spent a lot of time bonding on and off the pitch. We trained very hard out there. We just have to get focused for the play-offs coming up now, they’re the cup finals and that’s the only thing we need to be focused on now.”
Coventry set up the semi-final clash with Sunderland thanks to their final day win over Middlesbrough and thumped the Black Cats when the sides met in March.
Hume said: Coventry are a team in good form. They beat us 3-0 at their place last time, and we didn’t play very well.
“We were very frustrated after that. We know it will be a very tough place to go, and it will be tough for them coming here, but like I said, we have to be ready for it.
“Of course, you want to win, so it doesn’t matter who you’re playing. You have to go out there like it’s a cup final.
“We want to get promoted; that was the main drive from the start of the season.
“Obviously, we were in the top two around Christmas time, and we fell out of that and ended up in the play-offs.
“That’s been the main goal the whole season, to get promoted. We haven’t lost faith in that. Obviously, we haven’t been playing like we probably want to. We haven’t been as good as we have been. Like I said, it’s the cup finals coming up now, and we have to be ready for it.”
Hume understands the frustration of supporters after the recent displays and defeats, with some fans booing Sunderland after the QPR loss, but he has called for unity in the play-offs.
“The fans pay their hard money to come and watch us play,” he says.
“They want to be entertained. They want us to win games. We haven’t given them that in the last couple of games. You can understand the frustration, but the only thing that us as players can ask is there’s obviously no doubt they’re going to bring their support, but obviously back the boys coming into the play-offs.
“Obviously, we haven’t performed like we probably wanted, and got the results we wanted in recent weeks, but the only thing you can ask is 100% support. We have to be ready and hopefully the fans can back us.”
