Alex Neil spoke about Sunderland's four-game unbeaten run, blocking out the pressure and the importance of scrappy wins...
UNBEATEN RUN
"I’ll be honest, I don’t really think about it. I only think about the next game. It’s not really something I focus on too much. I think it’s probably more important for the players to obviously get that feel good factor. Getting used to winning games but equally certainly not losing games and giving ourselves a good foundation to try and do that."
CLEAN SHEETS
"I think the goal we conceded last game was disappointing for me because we kept two clean sheets the previous weeks and obviously we wanted to try and maintain it. Obviously an individual error has cost us a goal but we responded well by scoring three goals. Maybe not necessarily the actual performance of the actual match itself, but at this stage in the season it’s more so getting the points on the board."
WINNING FOCUS
"What I will say is everybody wants it all don’t they. What you want to do is you want to develop players, play well and win games. But at this moment in time my preference right now is winning games. So ultimately, providing we get across the line and get those points on the board, that’s the most important thing. If that means sometimes its a bit scrappy, if it means we just need to find a way to get the job done, then certainly between now and the end of the season that’s sort of my main goal. To win as many points as we can."
PRESSURE
"It’s only pressure if you focus on it and think about it. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about those types of things. I just prepare for the game, get the lads ready, have confidence in what we’ve done and the structure we’ve set up. I always have an ace in my sleeve in terms of making sure I have an alternative if it’s not working, what I need to do or potentially need to do to turn the game in our favour. I take more comfort and confidence from that than I do anything else."
FLEETWOOD
"I liked the three points and I liked the three goals. Apart from that there wasn’t much more to like. So my reflection on the game remains the same. However, what I will say is when I say ‘back to the drawing board’ there are parts of the game that I didn’t enjoy. There are parts of the game that I thought we didn’t do particularly well."
STARTING FROM SCRATCH
"Between now and the end of the season I’m literally going one game at a time. The reason being we don’t have a base that I’ve sort of established at pre-season and the start of the season to then refer to on a regular basis, because normally when you’re doing anything with your squad you want to be able to fluctuate. Whether it be shape or strategy and the players understand it. So 70% of the detail is already in their heads. At the moment we’re starting from scratch week on week which is difficult because if you don’t get it quite right that type of performance in the first half of the game the other night is what happens. Equally, losing the likes of Alex and Broadhead for the last game."
