We showed character against Leeds – Ekwah

PIERRE Ekwah reckons he and his Sunderland team-mates “showed character” in the 0-0 draw at Leeds United but knows the team have to improve going forward.

The elegant Black Cats’ midfielder, pictured, has been part of a squad that has kept four clean sheets in five matches – bizarrely conceding five in one game – but three 0-0 draws has been frustrating in other ways.

“Each game is different and this game was very different to what we usually play,” Frenchman Ekwah told the club.

“You have to manage those types of games and we did, we had a game-plan and we performed it.

“You need character to come here and suffer as much as we did, but we didn’t concede and at the same time we did create some chances as well so that takes character and we can see we showed that offensively and defensively.”

Ekwah conceded that the ball is given away too cheaply on occasion and explained: “At times, when you don’t have the ball for a period of time, as soon as you get it back you are a little bit loose with it. We were at times but we didn’t let ourselves down. You need clean sheets. You can’t just concede every game and we are really working on our defensive side as a team and that’s shown in those four games [excluding the 5-1 loss against Blackburn].”

He added: “We are going out to win every game. That’s what we are about. We can’t let our fans down by not playing our hearts out when we come on the pitch and are wearing the badge. So we will play our hearts out and on the defensive side. Each and every game we’ve got to bring it and it’s the same for the offensive side.”