Mark Atkinson has insisted his players must pick themselves up and learn from Saturday’s defeat to Everton.
It proved to be a day to forget for Sunderland under-18s as the Toffees soared into an early 2-0 goal.
From that point on the Black Cats struggled to get a foothold in the match, resulting in the Merseyside club adding to their scoreline a further three times.
Benji Kimpioka netted a late consolation for Atkinson’s side, but it did little to change the mood of the youth team boss.
Speaking to safc.com, Atkinson shared his frustrations over a hard day at the office and simply admitted, his players use the pain and anguish from the defeat to ensure it never happens again.
“It is important we look back and reflect on it,” he said.
“It is an opportunity for the players to learn and see what they thought of the match.
“We want the players to give their thoughts on why Saturday went the way it did because it is important they learn from it.
“They have got to learn from it and make sure it never happens to them again in their careers,” he continued.
“It was disappointing because in the first 20 minutes we gave away two silly goals through individual mistakes but there wasn’t really much between the two teams.
“There seemed to be an acceptance in the goals and that isn’t good enough.
“The slight positive was in the second half because we saw a reaction – we challenged the players to go and win the second half.
“We drew it 1-1 but that is just a slight positive.”
