Finally, a win – but Cats U23s’ hard work had earned victory
the players,” he said.
“Like I keep saying, I’m privileged to see what they do behind the scenes every day.
“Listen, I’m not getting carried away. It wasn’t a football classic, but we’ve managed to win a game - which is never easy.
“I’m just pleased for the players massively and the staff who tirelessly work behind the scenes.
“I think in the first half we probably had a lot more chances than we did in the second, so we probably could have got back in the game and taken the lead earlier.
“In the second half, they put us under pressure and our keeper has made a couple of good saves.”
Dickman’s views were echoed by skipper Jack Bainbridge - who has been at the heart of the side during their tricky run of results.
“It means a lot, to be fair,” said the former Everton and Swansea City centre-back.
“People don’t see what we’re like behind the scenes. We work hard every day with El and Proc (Mark Proctor), everyone - and nobody sees it.
“Everyone sees the results and thinks ‘oh, they might not be working hard’. But we are, and it’s nice to get the win.
“We missed a few chances in the first half, so in the second half we knew we had to get at them.
“When we pressed, we had a good chance of scoring goals.
“We’ve worked hard for it. It took a while to get the win, but now we just need to take that forward.”
The Black Cats’ win was made even more impressive given the circumstances behind it.
Dickman was deprived of his two starting full-backs just hours before the game forcing late changes, both in personnel and tactics.
It led to some unorthodox roles for the club’s youngsters - but the Sunderland under-23 chief was pleased with how they adapted.
“We lost Owen Gamble the day before to illness, so we were already looking at what we would do without him,” he explained.
“Then Kane Evans was ill, so we lost two full-backs.
“So we went with three at the back. Normally we have two full-backs in that wingback area, but we had two wide players - Ryan Leonard and Cieran Dunne.
“It’s never easy to slot into that role, but they did it well.”
Their willingness to adapt was fuelled by the spirit that has been fostered in the dressing room.
While poor results could have led to fractures and cliques, they have instead had the opposite effect. Tough times have forged a togetherness.
“It’s tough, because you get so many knock-backs,” explained Bainbridge.
“That’s the spirit within the team, though. We just keep bouncing back.
“Every game we looked at it as one we could win, but just kept getting knocked back and knocked back.
“But we believed in ourselves that we could - and we’ve done that now.”
*A clinical hat-trick by striker Layton Stewart led the way to a 4-0 Liverpool home win against Sunderland on Saturday,
Tom Hill scored secondplaced Liverpool’s other goal .
Sunderland coach Paul Bryson said "Overall, in parts of the game we were well organised but individual errors led to some poor goals from our point of view.
“Both Joe Hugill and James Foster played well and Ryan Gooch had a good game as well.
“What maybe the public don't realise is that, in a year, we have lost four of our outstanding prospects to big Premiership clubs such as Arsenal and Liverpool.
“The latest was only last week when 16-year-old leftback Logan Pye was tempted to switch to Man United.
“We cannot offer professional terms until players are 17 so we are powerless to stop this practice. It is very disheartening to lose good players who have been with the club since they were nine years old.”
Newman, Smith, Miller (Trialist 86), Armstrong, Ord, Wombwell (Turner Cooke 78), Foster, Jones, Gooch, Kiernan (Dicchio 72), Hugill.