Neil: We've still got four or five we want to bring here
Alex Neil insists his Sunderland side gave a good account of themselves on their return to the Championship, but said the 1-1 draw against Coventry City underlined the need for further reinforcements.
Sunderland brought in Ellis Simms on loan from Everton on Friday, but Neil says he 'definitely' wants another striker, and that he is still four orfiveplayersshortgenerally.
The Black Cats were excellent through the first half of Sunday’s game and took a deserved lead through Jack Clarke, but Coventry's four substitutions changed the game and their late equaliser through Victor Gyokeres was well deserved.
Neil said the step up in intensity at the second tier was clear, and underlined the need for a big and competitive squad.
"We've still got four, potentiallyfivethatwewanttobring in before the window ends," Neil said.
"We need to make sure the squad is competitive and not only that, they brought four or five really fresh lads on who knowthelevel,andthatcanreally make a difference.
"I think what you could see today is that it was a step up in intensity. I thought towards the end of the game our lads were dead on their feet, it really is difficult. Normally we score a goal in League One, theoppositiongetsabitscared
and they sink back into their shape. We control the ball and it's basically a case of ‘when will the next goal come?’.
"At this level, Coventry came here thinking, 'we're better than Sunderland and we have better players, we're coming to win'.
"The intensity was one of the big learning curves for the lads today in terms of what it's going to take to play at this level.
"They're going to have to playfor96minutes-plus,every single week. There's not going to be a minute off.
"I thought it was a tough match, first and foremost.
"They’ll be aiming to try to be a top-ten team this season, I’dimagine,havingbeeninthe Championship for four or five seasons. They’ve built year on year, and you can see they’ve now got guys that other teams are willing to pay £8-10m for. We knew it was going to be tough. I thought our start was excellent, we moved the ball really well and scored a really goodgoal.Let’sbehonest,we’d be talking about a great result here if it wasn’t for one moment of quality.”