Elliott Dickman has admitted lessons must be learnt ahead of tonight’s mammoth trip to Norwich City.
Sunderland under-23s are in Premier League 2 action this evening at Colney training centre, kick-off 7pm, for the last time in 2018 as they hope to end the calendar year on a high.
Defeat last time out to title hopefuls Wolverhampton Wanderers left a sour taste in Dickman’s mouth as Oscar Burr’s late deflected strike punished the Lads as Benji Kimpioka squandered a guilt-edge chance moments earlier in the second period.
“Within the academy we work hard with the players in a lot of areas,” Dickman said.
“When they start getting to this age group and they are settled they need to understand how important it is when you do get a chance that it could be the difference between winning and losing a game.
“I still think there are one or two in the squad who find that difficult in terms of understanding what it is about, but they have definitely shown improvements.
“We could’ve gone one up against Wolves, we were unfortunate not to, but then the cruel reality of football is that we ended up losing the match 1-0 to a deflected goal.”
He continued: “It could’ve been a different story, but it wasn’t to be. Something all our attacking players need to do more of is shoot. They need to take their chances as it’s a game of the two boxes.
“Last time out, Brandon Taylor made some excellent challenges and blocks, Jack Bainbridge did the same but at the other end we need to be more clinical.”
