Resilience after red a major plus for Coleman

BLACK Cats boss Chris Coleman was delighted with his side’s reaction after going down to 10 men for the second successive game.

Callum McManaman wassent off for a second bookable offence on the stroke of halftime in the home defeat against Reading last weekend.

Sunderland went under after the red card that time.

But in yesterday’s 0-0 draw with Wolves, they reacted to Lee Cattermole’s dismissal by digging in to earn the point.

Coleman said: “After last week going down to ten men, you could easily come here and crumble after having another man sent off. We absolutely didn’t do that.

“We had eight or nine players out [injured] but there is no mention of that, it is about the players that are available and ready and they stood up for themselves.

“The five minutes of addedon time was a bit worrying to say the least but I won’t criticise the referee, there was a big atmosphere.

“The fourth official near us was very good, easy to deal with and honest. I won’t criticise the officials.”

Robbin Ruiter came into his own late on, making several fine saves to keep his second clean sheet in three games, while Darron Gibson put in a much improved performance.

Coleman added: “Darron Gibson played smart, his positional play was outstanding and it needed to be to counter the movement from Wolves’ front three.

“You need to keep your shape and we were disciplined. Darron was a key example of that.

“When the pair of them [Cattermole and Gibson] were on, we said don’t move from the centre of the pitch, sit in front of the defence, their movement was outstanding.

“There were some huge performances.”

Wolves missed the chance for a seventh straight win but did extend their lead at the top of the table to five points.

Boss Nuno Espirito Santo said: “It is disappointing because it is not the result we wanted but frustration, no, it is part of football.

“Victories are hard to achieve and we work hard to achieve that. The boys did everything. They kept trying. There was only one team looking for the three points.

“But I am not not frustrated and I’m conscious games like this will happen again and we have to find solutions. I’m not worried about the game plans of opponents.”