Sunderland made it three wins out of three after a hard-fought victory at Milton Keynes. Here’s what Lee Johnson had to say about the performance.
CHANCES
"I’m pleased that we showed that character in action if you like, we didn’t make it easy for ourselves though did we, let’s be honest. Some good chances, obviously we had a penalty, I thought Pritch’s one was a good one. I was convinced it was a penalty on Rossco before we got the penalty on Rossco. They’re not a bad side, they sort of pass you to death if you know what I mean. They’ve got a lot of players who are really good at recycling the ball. In fairness, if you look at what Burge’s had to do, there’s one fantastic save from a chip where he’s tracked back and chipped it but there wasn’t loads of dangerous opportunities. So, if you condense the highlights I think we would have done alright but at the moment it feels like we had to work too hard for it."
GOALS
"I think it was so calm wasn’t it, Elliot’s one, and just before that we’d sort of tried to get it to Rossco about using his body a bit more. He’s 6 foot 4 or 5, lean, quick, and it was hard for him because he had to do a lot of three-quarter pace running but that physical element, he needs to do also. If he can that to his game obviously like he did for that moment it gives him just that little bit more edge."
SIGNINGS
"I think we are learning so much aren’t we about our boys, when you make that many changes as we have, we still need a few more players. We signed Frederik which is a really good signing for us, today id have liked to have a right-back on the bench where possible or even starting. But we’ll get there and that’s why it's nice to get the two wins and there were a few players where we had to move four or five around today. So massive credit to the lads because they're the ones that have got to cope with it, stay organised and stay concentrated."
NEIL/EMBLETON
"Again, a real good move in terms of like we said, most goals are scored within three passes so I think Dan lost it, won it back a couple of times and then Elliot, a nice little open shoulder position. I actually thought the whistle had gone, he was that calm! He put the keeper on the floor didn’t he and a really good finish."
FANS
"The Sunderland fans, or our fans I should say, made it extremely buoyant didn’t they, and I thought they were brilliant. Obviously I've only experienced them properly three or four times and on every occasion they’ve been absolutely top drawer. I actually thought the last seven or eight minutes they deserved the effort and the win because they were the ones that kept us honest and in a game without fans, we may well have conceded in that."
FITNESS
"We’ll see how they are you know, it was a hard-fought game like both teams had a lot of mileage, the ball was in play a long time. It's going to be very different against Burton, we got minutes out of Dennis, he’s had covid, it's his league debut. I thought he was absolutely superb in the first half and that first fifteen minutes of the second half. Hes just got to keep building his fitness but unfortunately were having to do it in-season and therefore at times there may be some strange decisions, or what's perceived as strange decisions, but I'll try and articulate them as much as possible after the event."
BURTON
"Like I say, very different game, tight surroundings. I hope we take a good travelling support because at the moment they're seeing us through. It's going to be compact, it's going to be direct, were going to have to win first headers, second balls and again we’ll have to select the right team to be able to do that."
