Corry Evans believes Sunderland's performance against Norwich City in the wake of Alex Neil's departure demonstrated that the squad has matured since Lee Johnson's dismissal seven months ago. Neil was absent yesterday lunchtime as he waits to be confirmed as Stoke City's new boss and, while the Black Cats were beaten 1-0 by Norwich City at the Stadium of Light, their display against a side regarded as Championship promotion favourites gave the players and the fans a lot of encouragement.
It was a far cry from Sunderland's outings in February following Johnson's sacking and prior to Neil's appointment, when their chances of winning promotion from League One were severely dented by a home defeat against basement side Doncaster Rovers followed by a defeat on the road at Cheltenham Town. "We experienced this [losing a head coach] last season with the sacking of Lee Johnson," said Sunderland skipper and Northern Ireland international Evans.
"We probably didn't apply ourselves well enough in the couple of games that followed, but that has probably helped us this time. We have grown as a group since last season and a lot of the younger lads have gained a lot of experience and played a lot of games since then.
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"Last season was probably their first season in football but they have been through a lot already. We've been through a lot together as a squad.
"The pressure that comes with this club, you have to remain tight-knit in the dressing room and stick together because if you lose that togetherness it will go to pot. We can't affect anything outside the walls of our dressing room.
"We just have to stay together - it's part and parcel of football, managers come and go all the time. We have to try not to lose the momentum that we have built up through the start of the season."
Sunderland could easily have beaten the Canaries, hitting the woodwork twice and seeing a couple of efforts cleared off the line, before Josh Sargent scored the only goal of the game 15 minutes from time. Evans said: "We deserved at least a point, if not to have won.
"That shows how far we have come as a team, that we are disappointed not to have come away with at least a point against probably the strongest team in the division on paper. I was proud of the performance from the lads and we have to stick together and keep trying to move forward."
Evans had a couple of opportunities of his own, with a shot from just outside the box blocked and then an effort from inside the area that needed defender Grant Hanley to throw his body in front of the ball to prevent it finding the net. Evans said: "The lads keep saying 'one's going to go in one day!' and I have had a few chances from the edge of the box in the last few games.
"It's just a bit of luck, isn't it, which we probably didn't have on Saturday. Credit to Norwich, they put their bodies on the line at times and on another day we could have scored two or three, easily, because we hit the post, hit the bar, whatever.
"That's football I suppose, and we just have to try to stay positive and look forward to Wednesday night [when Rotherham United visit Wearside]."
READ NEXT:
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