Sunderland's newfound defensive solidity has given the Black Cats a platform for their play-off challenge, according to Alex Neil. Yesterday's 1-0 win against Gillingham at the Stadium of Light saw the Wearsiders keep their fifth clean sheet in six games, having managed just one shut-out in ten games prior to that sequence.
Neil took over in February, inheriting a side that had kept only nine clean sheets in the league all season, and he immediately set about improving that statistic and Sunderland now have 14 to their name. "It was something that needed fixing," said Neil, whose team is now unbeaten in seven games.
"I spoke about it quite a lot when I first came in because the stats were there, it wasn't an opinion, it was a fact. I think what we've got now is a real platform to go on and win games, and if we can continue that, it'll bode well for us going forward.
