Elliott Dickman refused to get carried away after Sunderland under-23s brush after Peterborough United last night.
Putting six past the Posh to seal their place in the knockout stages of the Premier League Cup, Jack Diamond bagged a hat-trick while Lee Connelly scored twice and Swedish youth international Benji Kimpioka also chalked up a goal.
But speaking to safc.com post-match, Dickman was quick to highlight areas for improvement as his side begin to prepare for next Monday’s trip to West Bromwich Albion.
“I think we have probably played better in some of the earlier rounds and some of the other games,” he said.
“I know it sounds crazy because we scored six goals, but I just felt we could’ve approached the game a little bit better and at times we were a little bit sloppy.
“Of course, I’m pleased for the lads to have progressed, but I think the performance could’ve been better than what it is.
“We always want to better ourselves and don’t get me wrong, I thought we did have some nice passages of play.
“I just think in certain games this season we haven’t had a lot of the ball, so we’ve had to do a lot of work to improve our defensive shape and improve our mentality to deal with that, on Monday the game was different.
“In possession we had to take care of the ball and make good decisions when we had it and I just felt there were moments in the game we didn’t control things as well as we could’ve done, and it was just a little bit frustrating.
“It’s good that we are through, but we do want to get better.”
