Sunderland played out a 0-0 stalemate with Preston North End in midweek
Sunderland defender Luke O’Nien has delivered a frank appraisal of the Black Cats’ performance against Preston North End on Wednesday evening.
Regis Le Bris’ side could only muster a 0-0 draw at Deepdale, but extended their current unbeaten run to seven matches and preserved their place at the top of the Championship table. Their hosts did, however, create a number of chances, while Sunderland largely struggled to find their rhythm against a team who sit outside of the relegation zone on goal difference alone.
And in a post match interview with Sky Sports, O’Nien made it clear that he felt the Black Cats were nowhere near their best in Lancashire. He said: “Probably not happy to get a point, because I don’t think we merited it, I don’t think the performance was there. They had quite a few big chances compared to us. You come away with a point, you’ve got to take it when you don’t play well, but there’s a lot to look back on in that one, and a lot to learn.
“We’ve worked really, really hard to get into this position. Maybe we’ve got to go back and say, ‘What are the things that got us there?’, get back to doing them instead of changing too much. We’re a really good team. Tommy [Watson] has made his first start today, which is good for him because he’s been phenomenal in training. I thought he did well, he’s only going to grow as a player for us. So a lot of positives to take, and we’ll be in tomorrow, and we’re going to pull the bones out of it and go again at the weekend.”
When asked where Sunderland went wrong, the club captain added: “We didn’t quite have the flow, the build-up wasn’t quite there. The man-for-man references, in and out of possession, we were one step off with all of it. We’re a good team, we’ve still come away with a point, and we’ve shown we’ve got a lot of character as well. It takes a good team to grind that out.
“Again, we didn’t have the flow, and tomorrow we’ll have to look at it and see where it went wrong. We do that even after we’ve won, we pull the bones apart and go, ‘This could have been better’, and this is no different. It wasn’t quite the game that we wanted, but I’m sure when we look back on it at the end of the season, this will be an important point.”
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