Phil Parkinson has explained it is vital Sunderland ensure we dust ourselves down and approach this weekend’s Sky Bet League One clash at Doncaster Rovers with a clear mind.
The Lads head to South Yorkshire on the back of last weekend’s loss to Milton Keynes Dons, and the manager has asserted that we must draw on our experience throughout the dressing room to pick up the form at the Keepmoat Stadium.
“We’ve shared a lot of the anger and frustration of late, and we want to get back to winning ways this weekend,” Parkinson said.
“We weren’t doing a great deal wrong prior to the Emirates FA Cup game which we spoke about last week. We made a few changes for that one, and then we’ve had injuries and international call-ups.
“It’s about getting back to how we were before the Mansfield game, looking at good elements of our play, and improving on where we’ve been in the last couple of games. In football, you have to quickly pick yourselves back up again – we’re well experienced in doing that – I’ve been a manager a long time, and we have experienced players.”
The boss gave his take on fellow challengers Doncaster – who contest their first league match in 18 days this weekend and sit 11th after 10 matches – and also claimed the recently introduced salary cap in the third and fourth tiers has significantly evened out the competition this season.
“Doncaster have been knocking on the door of the play-offs for a couple of years. Like every team, they need respecting – they have some good players and have picked up some decent results.
“I stand by what I said after the first lockdown, that the salary cap situation has certainly levelled the playing field in League One and League Two. You’ll find for instance that players who MK Dons signed, we’d have liked ourselves, but we didn’t have the room to accommodate those players.
“However, we’re still confident in our squad, our depth and quality. Every game is competitive amongst every team – Crewe beat Peterborough 2-0 last week, and they recently won against Doncaster as well. Every result in this league has to be hard-earned.”
Parkinson then acknowledged the level of discontent over the course of the past fortnight and stated the only acceptable course of action is to react in a professional manner and maintain a bravery in our play.
“I don’t read social media or what gets said – that’s been the case ever since I’ve been a manager and it’s no different now as manager of Sunderland. But you’d expect there to be a huge degree of disappointment in last week’s defeat.
“Part of our job is to deal with the reaction to that and get on with our job to put things right. Each game is competitive, and you’ll come unstuck if you’re not at your best. We have to bring our A-game to the table from minute one until the last. All the elements need to be in place which have brought us good results so far this season.
“Keeping the belief is important. We know going forward we’ve sometimes passed up some gilt-edged chances, and it’s about keeping that confidence and bravery. I’m confident that we can continue to pick up points as we have been, and that future games might not be as tight because rather than just scoring the first goal, we go on to get the second as well.”
For the first time in over a month, the Black Cats have not had a midweek match scheduled in either the league or any cup competitions, and Parkinson has taken the advantages from that to extensively analyse the past 10 weeks.
“I think it’s been good to have a week to review everything with the squad and the staff. If we’d had a game, we would have embraced that, but equally, having the free week has enabled us to focus on what we need to improve on and also understand that our start to the season has been very good.
“I think the key to releasing momentum is to not let the last two weeks affect us too much. In every season, whether I’ve been a player or a manager, there have always been defeats and days where you get more or less than you deserve.
“We need a clear head; we need to keep analysing and building on what we’ve done well; improving on what we haven’t done so well. I feel we’ve approached this weekend in the right way, and we’re ready to go.”