Keeping clean sheets will go a long way to deciding Sunderland’s fate according to John O’Shea, with captaining explaining why the Lads must go back to basics during the final ten games of the season.
A steady opening half-hour against Aston Villa was a distant memory by half-time, as the Villans capitalised on defensive lapses to seal a commanding lead at the interval.
O’Shea, who was forced off at the break, admits the Black Cats must tighten up at the back if they hope to put pressure on the teams around them and climb out of the bottom three.
And the skipper insisted there is no time to waste, with the Sky Bet Championship season nearing it’s finale.
“It’s the basics, everyone together,” said O’Shea.
“Mistakes will happen, but you need to do the basics well – stopping crosses, defending crosses, marking men in the box, getting decisions right, all those basics.”
He continued: “If you do that, you get clean sheets and you give yourself a chance to win games.
“We don’t want to be where we are but we are and we have to face that quickly, in the sense that we have to get momentum from somewhere.
“You can’t keep hoping teams lose if you keep losing because the games are going to run out – the responsibility has to fall on your shoulders.
“You have to somehow dig that result out, that three points, that clean sheet.
“If we do that, we’ll give ourselves some chance.”
