Alex Neil has a lot to think about, after seeing his Black Cats draw 1-1 with Coventry on the opening day of the season.
POSITIVES
"I thought there were some really good bits in it from us. I thought we started brightly and in the first 30-35 minutes we were very good. Some very good play, moved the ball well. I thought we were threatening and got a very good goal which was pleasing. Goochy went down the line and Jack Clarke arrived at the back post. I don't know how many times I've told him to do that so for him to be there was really nice for him."
SECOND HALF
"When we scored, I thought we seemed a little hesitant after that. It was a case of thinking, do we really need to risk it now? And unfortunately the way we played today, in terms of trying to find that box midfield player and the spare man, you need to risk the ball to find that player. Naturally Coventry are a difficult team to get after the ball against. Because they make the pitch big, and if you do jump you end up with 2v2 at the back. They've got pace and power, so we wanted to limit that and keep the ball in front of us. So the strategy in terms of how we wanted the game to go, it wasn't too dissimilar. I thought the disappointing thing in the second half was we didn't retain the ball as well. We can certainly do that better, we didn't risk it enough and if we did we were too easily dis-swayed if you like because they nicked it once or twice. But I thought we still had good moments and thought we were still dangerous."
MOMENTS ARE KEY
"We were that moment away from getting the points. It might not be normal for fans here that other teams come here and have more of the ball, but I thought that was the best way of getting the result today. And like I say, we were one moment away from getting there and that was disappointing."
PRAGMATIC
"Obviously I played him (Clarke) at wing-back as well. So what we need to bare in mind is Coventry are a good team. They've been at this level for four or five years and been building year on year. Equally, they'll be expecting a top ten finish this year so for us it was a good challenge. I think they're one of the hardest teams to ensure you apply pressure regularly throughout the game without exposing yourself. I thought for large spells we were good and disciplined, and worked really hard. There will be games where we will be much more aggressive and get after the ball, but in terms of how we set out to play today the lads did well."
FANS
"We will do (need the fans). What we all want to see is running after the ball and everybody tearing about, but there are some games unfortunately that can't happen because if you do you're going to get damaged. The last thing I wanted to do was set off on a negative tone. I wanted to be positive in what we're trying to do. Like I say, we certainly had our moments today. We know there are things we can do better but all in all, I don't think a point is a bad result for us."
