Alex Neil insists Sunderland are 'in a good place' going into tonight's home game against Fleetwood Town after promising performances on the road against Wigan and Charlton. The Black Cats ended their six-game winless streak with a comfortable 3-0 win at promotion-chasing Wigan ten days ago, and should have completed back-to-back wins for the first time in 2022 at the weekend after comprehensively outplaying Charlton at The Valley only to be held to a goalless draw.
Sunderland have now lost only one of their five games under Neil, picking up six points along the way, but he knows they need more wins if they are to secure a place in the play-offs having dropped to seventh after that draw against the Addicks. Tonight's game pits them against Stephen Crainey's struggling Fleetwood side, with the Cod Army arriving at the Stadium of Light without a win in nine games and hovering just two places and two points above the relegation zone.
"I think we're in a good place," said Neil. "I certainly don't think we lack confidence.
"We won at Wigan comfortably and we should have won at Charlton comfortably as well, so performance-wise we are in a really good spot at the moment. What we wanted on Saturday was to make it count, but unfortunately we didn't do that.
"But I've got real confidence in the group. The last two performances have been good." While Neil was disappointed that Sunderland did not take any of the multiple chances they created at Charlton, he was pleased to see his side keep a second successive clean sheet.
Sunderland had kept only one in their previous ten outings, leaking 21 goals in the process, and while most of those games were played before Neil arrived, it meant one of his first tasks was to find a way to plug the holes in the club's defence and stop them being seen as a 'soft touch'. He said: "You always want your team to reflect you [as a coach], and what I've said to the players is that the last thing we want is to be seen as a soft touch.
"We want to go somewhere, stand up, and fight our corner, but then equally have that quality to play through teams. We showed all that on Saturday because Charlton are a big, strong, team that puts balls in the box, and we had to be physically strong, powerful, and defend.
"We did all that, as we did at Wigan. All the right aspects were there.
"If we had scored at Charlton, we'd all be talking about how well we had played - that would have been the conversation. But the simple fact is that we didn't score, and that was frustrating for everybody."
Sunderland will be without playmaker Alex Pritchard this evening after he limped off at Charlton with an ankle injury. Neil said at the weekend that the midfielder would need a scan to determine the extent of the injury and, while the club is still waiting for the results, it is now thought that it is not as serious as first feared.
Luke O'Nien is back in training after recovering from the shoulder operation he underwent in November and he travelled to The Valley with the squad and took part in the warm-up, although he did not feature on the teamsheet, but there is a chance that he could be involved tonight. Jermain Defoe and Leon Dajaku missed the Charlton game with minor injuries and they could also come back into contention.
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