The Chronicle (South Tyneside and Durham)
Team can’t celebrate a draw – we’re here to win, says Dodds
‘FANS ON A DIFFERENT LEVEL’
SUNDERLAND are becoming the 0-0 draw specialists after three in the last five matches and Mike Dodds reckoned, “if we can play forward quicker I think this is a really good team”.
The Black Cats dented Leeds United’s automatic promotion ambitions in Tuesday’s stalemate at Elland Road and, while there were plenty of smiles among players and fans, the club’s interim head coach warned against celebrating a draw.
On the whole he was pleased the team stopped Leeds playing, but wants his men to be better in possession and in how they attack.
“The out-of-possession stuff I was really happy with,” maintained Dodds. “We completely nullified any threat they had and I think we had the better of the chances even though the chances we had were few and far between.
“Our disappointment is we need to be better with the ball. If we were slightly better with the ball I think we could have made the evening a bit more comfortable.
“The reality is, they only had one shot on target and the chances they did have normally came from our mistakes. So I have said that to the group, we have got to be better with the ball.”
He added: “That’s four clean sheets in the last five games. One of those games [0-0 QPR] was a bitterly disappointing performance. But in terms of the out-ofpossession stuff, I think we executed what we set out to do.
“I think we are much harder to play against. If we can improve with the ball and if we can improve in terms of playing quicker and playing forward earlier, running forward earlier, all those types of things, which we continue to work with, I think it’s a really good team.
“We have some big games to come and the players are under no illusions that they have to keep going until the last game of the season. And we want to be undefeated from now until the end of the season.”
Dodds has only won one of his nine games in charge and the three points he has picked up have all come in goalless matches.
But he has seen a big improvement from the 5-1 defeat against Blackburn Rovers on Easter Monday.
“I had a word with them after the Blackburn game,” explained Dodds. “I told them, ‘it’s a really simple way of looking at things, you either respect the football club and give everything or you won’t play.’ It’s really that simple for me.
“What we showed here is everyone is completely committed to what we want to try and do. We have played the best team in the league, that’s my personal opinion, having watched them during our analysis. We have played them over two games this year and not conceded a goal and in both games I didn’t think they looked like scoring.
“I’ve said to the group we are not going to celebrate, as it’s a draw at the end of the day. This is Sunderland Football Club, we want to win every game of football, so there’s no big celebrations.”
The team travel to West Brom on Saturday and a huge backing from supporters is again expected and Dodds concluded: “They are top class. They are at a completely different level. For me they are the best fans in the country.”