Easter Monday turned into quite the celebration for Sunderland as they earned a hard-fought three points away to Cardiff, with a strong defensive display headed by the experienced Danny Batth helping to guarantee the victory.
PERFORMANCE
“I thought first half we were excellent, I think you saw that with their early substitutions, they couldn’t really get near. The way we were moving the ball, it was just unfortunate that we didn’t take our chances. I thought from start to finish we moved the ball so well we caused them so many problems. It was just that finishing touch that would give us the lead to go into half time and we knew that they were going to react and try and do something a bit different second half because it wasn’t really a contest to start with. We got the goal on the back of some good work from Pritchard, his free kick in the post and obviously Dennis following it in and then we had to battle and roll our sleeves up and credit to the lads there’s a lot of young players. Trai playing at centre-half today, I thought he was outstanding and if we keep doing that, rolling our sleeves up, and the lads coming off the bench. Everybody played a big part today.”
RESPONSE
"I think a little bit of game management as well I think you look at the last game, we conceded the late goal that’s cost us two points and you think back and there’s various times in the season where you kick yourself because you think if a man goes down or we keep the ball in the corner we walk away with three points and they’re the margins at this level. I thought today away from home we did really well just to sort of nullify their threat, I mean they’ve got six or seven lads the same size as me so we have to be really smart in the way we defended and yeah I think we deserved the win."
RESPONSIBILITY
"Yeah obviously everyone had to fight, scrap and then we spoke about in the dressing room about trying to keep the ball down and play because that’s obviously our strength as a team. First of all we had to compete, well you have to in any game, and run hard and get back into our shape but when we had the ball we always felt that we could get into those spaces where it would cause them problems."
HULL REACTION
"Immediately after the game you feel disappointed and you kick yourself for the manner of the two goals in the second half. I thought first half we didn’t start well enough against Hull."
FANS
"So to react like that today was brilliant for the travelling fans, we’re on the other side of the country, well we’re not even in the country are we? We’re down in South Wales, for the fans to come down this far and see us get a win away from home it was a credit to the lads."
ATTENTION TURNS TO BIRMINGHAM
"I think at this stage in the season we’ve got to rest up and recover and get those energy levels. The lads are out on their feet last 10-15 minutes, so just rest and get prepared for the next game at home and really look forward to it and embrace it."
