To crumble against goal-up Rams

to Bury next, then Norwich, then Leeds come here, so the games come thick and fast.

“I don’t have a magic wand so I can’t turn the club immediately into one where everything goes right and we play free-flowing football, we’ll have to earn the victories we are going to get.”

Sunderland have reduced the size of the pitch, shortening it by around four yards and narrowing by around two yards, since the final pre-season friendly against Celtic last weekend.

Asked whether it was in response to the 5-0 defeat at the hands of the Scottish champions, Grayson said: “It wasn’t done solely for that reason. We could have played on a five-a-side pitch and been beaten by Celtic!

“But what we have within the group probably isn’t suited to too big a pitch so we just brought it in by a few yards each way.”

New goalkeeper Jason Steele came in for criticism for his performance against Celtic, but Grayson insists he had no qualms about starting him ahead of Robbin Ruiter in the Champi- onship opener. He said: “I never doubted him last week.

“I thought he got a little bit of unfair criticism and I tried to defend him in the week because some of the decisions he made last week were not solely his fault.

“We could have criticised all of them last week, and we certainly did. Tonight he showed what he is capable of, made saves when he needed to, looked composed with his hands, composed with his feet, and played his part in getting the result.” Simon Grayson ‘kicked every ball’ during Sunderland’s draw with Derby