Sunderland players were disappointed and frustrated in the away dressing room after the 0-0 draw at Preston – which was a huge plus for head coach Regis Le Bris and perhaps the biggest takeaway of the night.
For the head coach, the reaction from his players was evidence of the high standards they are now setting themselves after their superb start to the championship season.
And he believes he won’t have much work to do to get a reaction and an improved display out of his players when Coventry visit the Stadium of Light this weekend.
Le Bris admitted Sunderland were below par at Deepdale and “lucky” to escape with a point, though he believes his players deserve credit for digging deep to at least ensure they avoided defeat and extended their unbeaten stretch to seven Championship games.
“Now I think the culture and the standards they have are bigger,” he said.
“They are not happy in the dressing room right now, so that’s good for me.
“They know they can play much better. They protected the goal and won a point, but in the future I don’t have to push them; they will do it by themselves. That’s good for me.”
Goalkeeper Simon Moore agreed.
He said, “I think it shows how far we’ve come as a group. We’ve gone in there, and it’s a bit flat, really. We’re top of the league; there’s results gone our way, but it goes to show how hungry these boys are that they want a lot more.
“From my point of view with my experience, any point away from home in the championship is a good one and come the end of the season, you can look back and realise how just important it was. We’ll analyse it; there’s definitely things we can do better but we’ve got to be happy with where we’re at, and obviously we’ve got a massive game against Coventry.”
Le Bris opted to make a couple of surprise changes last night, resting Patrick Roberts and Romaine Mundle. The head coach agreed that fatigue could have contributed to Sunderland’s below-par display and believes the fortnight stoppage after the Coventry game will be beneficial.
He said: “It’s important to recover. Some players will be involved with their national teams; others will have time to assess this sequence of games.
“It’s still important before the next sequence to recover, so we’ll see.”
