Neil delivers verdict on his nine-game Sunderland tenure so far

Alex Neil says he thinks he has made a 'good start' to his Sunderland tenure after Nathan Broadhead's late winner against Gillingham.

Sunderland have taken 16 points from Neil's nine games in charge so far, but their form is trending upwards. They are now unbeaten in seven, and have kept five clean sheets in their last six games.

The Black Cats are currently out of the play-off positions but with Wycombe Wanderershaving played a game more, Sunderland' s promotion hopes remain in their own hands.

Neil admits his time would have been deemed less positive without Broad head' s late interventionat the Stadium of Light, but is happy with his progress given that he is still getting to know a significant portion of his playing squad, as well as the club more generally.

“To be honest, I’m learning about a lot of the players still,” Neil said. "Danny Batth, that’s his first game for me. I’ve had nine games. People seem to think when you walk into a club, ‘Oh, that’s enough, come on’. But honestly, I’m learning so much about the players and so much about the club. What we need to fix, what we need to change and do better.

"I think we’ve made a good start. Do you know what I think was really interesting about

Saturday's game? And I said it to the staff beforehand. If we didn’t win, our start would have been deemed to have been a poor one. If we did win, it would be deemed to be a decentone, with some optimistic ones maybe saying, ‘That was pretty good’.

"Thank fully, we managed to win, so hopefully we’re in the pretty good mode at the moment and we can try to develop and go on from there."

Crucial to Sunderland' s improving form is their excellent defensive record, which Neil made his first priority when taking over at the club.

“That was something that needed fixing," Neil said.

"I spoke about it quite a lot when I first came in because the stats were there, it wasn’t an opinion, it was a fact. I think what we’ve got now is a real platform to go on and win games. There’s only two facets of the game, isn’t there? What you do when you’ve got the ball, and what you do when you don’ t have it. What you can’ t be is easy to play against, and let teams score against you, and then not be able to create going the other way.

"We’re not easy to play against and I don’t think teams will look forward to playing against us, which is how I want my team to be represented when they play."