Mark Atkinson focused on his side’s second successive clean sheet following Sunderland under-18s’ stalemate at West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.
The young Black Cats produced a pleasing display but lacked cutting edge in the final third to really open the Baggies up.
Second-half substitute Lee Connelly carved out Sunderland’s clearest sight of goal, but Fergus McAughtrie was unable to covert as his fierce effort from a tight angle was kept out by Albion’s stopper.
While the result saw the young guns fail to record back-to-back wins, Atkinson believes the point signifies progress as the Lads have extended their unbeaten run to three games.
And with two games left in their season, the under-18s boss is eying further improvements in the run-in.
“It was another game where we can take a lot of positives from,” he said.
“Obviously we are delighted again to get the clean sheet and with the way we played. The only thing we lacked was in the final third.
“That said, the lads’ quality up until then was really good and the big thing we asked from them was to enjoy having the ball.
“They did that and we just lacked that bit of quality in the final third when it came down to making key decisions at key moments.
“We want to go unbeaten for the last two games now,” he continued. “We are unbeaten in our last three and have two clean sheets in that time now as well.
“It is something we haven’t done all year so hopefully we can continue that in these final two games.”
