Chris Coleman believes Sunderland’s debutants will be better for it after a ‘baptism of fire’ at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.
Deadline-day signings Lee Camp, Ovie Ejaria and Ashley Fletcher were all included in the Welshman’s starting XI to face Ipswich Town, while fellow new-boy Kazenga LuaLua also made his home bow from the bench.
It was a day to forget, though, as Mick McCarthy’s men frustrated the Black Cats before punishing them before the break through Joe Garner’s arrowed finish and an Adam Matthews’ own goal.
And although back-to-back defeats have left Coleman frustrated, he’s confident his new additions can fuse with the squad and help earn the results needed to avoid the drop.
“There’s a lot of new faces and they’ll find their feet and be fine – along with the lads that have been here a long time – but the good thing for the new boys is they’ve had a home game and made their debuts.
“We know it’s tough here [at the Stadium of Light] and we’ve found it tough to get results, so it was a baptism of fire if you like but they’ll be better for that.”
He continued: “We’re in the bottom three but we have 16 games to play and there’s a lot of points to play for.
“We’re two points away from safety so it’s not like we’re in a challenge that we can’t win, but every week we’re in the bottom three its energy-sapping and it takes away your confidence.
“I see that but we have to keep on until we can’t go anymore and make sure that we give everything we’ve got for where we are.
“We have five new players who wanted to come here so we can build a little bit of confidence going forward and hopefully that will get us the results we need.”