Adam Bale has challenged Sunderland under-18s to bounce back from their opening day defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday.
The young Black Cats suffered a disappointing start to their 2016-17 U18 Premier League campaign as they were downed 5-2 in the West Midlands.
Despite a resilient start which saw Michael Fowler hand the visitors an early lead, two goals in quick succession turned the game on its head.
Skipper Bale levelled the match with a sumptuous strike from range but Wolves punished the youngsters as they struck a further three times to run out comfortable 5-2 winners.
Speaking to safc.com the midfielder admitted while there were some positives to draw on, a reaction this weekend is crucial as the young guns look to open their home account against Stoke City with a win.
“Our defending wasn’t good enough and that’s something we must improve on,” he said.
“We’ve spoken about it and we’ve realised that it needs to be better against Stoke.“We know we can do it but it’s about applying it on the pitch because that’s when it really matters.
“It will be difficult but we must move on from this defeat at Wolves and prepare for our first home game,” he continued.
“It’s all about Stoke, getting back to basics is important but we have the chance to get off to a good start at home and we need to take that.”
