Reid and Flo are stemming the flow of criticism

Stadium of New Light as signings spark late rush for season tickets while Upton Park is dealt a low blow

It has been a good week for Peter Reid. For the first time in a long while, the abuse flowing in his direction has been emanating from Tyneside, not Wearside.

Last Monday, Mrs Yvonne Mann, landlady of the Adelphi public house in Newcastle, was fined £580 for displaying a scarf upon which was writ large the suggestion that Mr Reid's team were, well, something that rhymes with the Stadium of Light. The message, for the benefit of the Adelphi's Toon Army patrons, was deemed to be a public- order offence, though there has been no shortage of Sunderland supporters saying as much in public – until the last 12 days that is.

At first the turning of the tide was tinged with irony. "And now you're gonna believe us," the visiting fans chorused when Jason McAteer put Sunderland 1-0 up at Leeds, "we're going to win the League." In all seriousness, nobody on Wearside believes that. There are many, though, who now believe Sunderland are still going to be in the Premier League at the end of the season.

That much has been reflected not just in the evaporation of the vitriol on the local radio phone-ins and on the letters pages of the local newspapers but also in the sudden, belated rush for season tickets at the Stadium of Light. Sunderland's home ground was 10,000 shy of its 48,000 capacity for the club's opening home game, against Everton on 24 August. In the wake of the 1-0 win at Leeds, the signings of Tore Andre Flo and Marcus Stewart, and the 1-1 home draw against Man-chester United, the signs are that Reid is winning round the supporters he lost last season as Sunderland nosedived from European contenders to relegation candidates.

The more acutely disenchanted will require further evidence – starting at Middlesbrough on Tuesday night – but the four points Sunderland have collected from their last two games are four more than they gained from the corresponding fixtures last season (they lost 2-0 at Leeds and were fortunate to escape with a 3-1 beating against a virtual Manchester United second team at the Stadium of Light).

More significantly, there is now a greater depth and quality to Reid's team, plus a shape and solidity that was missing last season. Stephen Wright and Phil Babb have strengthened a defence in which Joachim Bjorklund, signed from Venezia in January, has also had a stabilising effect. The arrival of Matt Piper and the promotion of Thomas Butler has added width to a midfield in which Claudio Reyna, another mid-term signing last season, has returned in his World Cup form. And up front, all of a sudden, Kevin Phillips no longer has to plough a lone furrow or rely upon a patched-up Niall Quinn.

Flo made an instant impact against United, scoring the equaliser that earned his new team a point. He also scored on his debut for Rangers, in a 5-1 win against Celtic, but was ultimately deemed a £12m flop north of the border after failing to hit the target in eight further Old Firm matches. The 6ft 3in Norwegian scored 38 goals in 61 starts for Rangers, though, and bagged 34 goals from 59 Premiership starts in his time with Chelsea – statistics which suggest Peter Reid may restore much of his former reputation with his £6.75m investment in a striker whose subtlety was perhaps never going to be best suited to the steamrollercoaster of the Glasgow derby.

Not that the Tees-Wear derby is likely to be an easy ride for Flo and his manager – nor the local engagement up the road from the Adelphi at St James' Park on Saturday week, for that matter.