Jermain Defoe has thrown down the gauntlet to his team-mates and demanded a response following Sunderland’s late 3-2 defeat to Crystal Palace.
Two goals from the prolific striker sent the Black Cats well on their way to a first Premier League win of season, but dreams soon turned to nightmares at the Stadium of Light as Palace fought back to level before Christian Benteke headed home a stoppage-time winner.
Speaking to safc.com, Defoe admitted it was a bitter blow to take, but he also drew positives from the performance ahead of Saturday’s Wearside match-up with West Bromwich Albion.
And with another international break looming on the horizon, the 33-year-old urged the Lads to put in a performance and come away with the points.
“It’s important we take something from the game but it’s also important for the lads to forget about last Saturday.
“We have to go back to the training pitch, work hard and try to put in the same kind of performance, and hopefully if we get a little bit of luck we will get the points that we need.
“We’re improving but when you’re 2-0 up and concede within 30 seconds it isn’t good enough and I think all the players know that,” continued Defoe.
“There were a lot of positives to take from the game – the amount of chances we created and our energy levels, and we put more crosses into the box which is what the manager wanted.
“It’s not often you score two goals and come away a little bit down but we just have to keep going; it’s still early days and we’re six games in but we don’t want to wait until the last couple of months – or last month – to get results.
“We need to get the points now and we want to show how good we are as a team.”
