Mike Dodds verdict on Sunderland's win over West Bromwich Albion

Interim head coach Dodds led his Sunderland squad to a third consecutive clean sheet as Pierre Ekwah's strike was enough for all three points at the Hawthorns after Brandon Thomas-Asante's red card for the home side, in what was another well-disciplined defensive display on the road. 

Here is what Dodds had to say on the win over West Brom:

A good result, you must be pleased with the defensive application again?

The group had an opportunity to talk [in the dressing room] and, to speak on their behalf, they feel like they’re in a really good place in terms of five clean sheets in six games.

Any team, if you’re not conceding goals, it gives you a really strong foundation to be successful and I think we’ve done that as a group. I want us to be a little bit more free-flowing with the ball but sometimes when you feel like you’ve got to tighten up in certain areas it takes away from that so, if I’m being ultra-critical of myself, it’s trying to find a balance with both.

West Brom are a really good team, Carlos is a really good coach. The sending off is a big turning point in the game but even with that I thought the performance was really professional, it was a really thorough performance.

It felt a little bit like the Leeds game?

We spoke about it as a group and we’ve worked on it and we felt there were certain things in West Brom’s out of possession we felt we could exploit. I don’t feel we did that consistently enough. That being said, I can’t be critical of the group.

They’ve put three or four really strong performances together now where they look like a really strong, solid outfit. It’s easy to forget when you come to somewhere like West Brom we’ve got the youngest team in the league and we looked really mature in terms of our performance, so I can’t be too critical. I want to be demanding of them and demand more from them but to come here and win 1-0, regardless of the sending off, is a really positive performance.

Dan Ballard was a pantomime villain but managed it quite well?

I was a bit surprised, if I’m honest. The fans here will have their reasons for that, and I’m always respectful of the fans, but the first 'boo' did take me by surprise.

He’s a good kid, Dan. He plays for Sunderland Football Club and West Bromwich Albion fans have targeted him, and that’s alright, I’m sure our fans will target opposition players in the past and in the future. It’s a part of the game. And one thing Dan Ballard showed today was that he can handle that part of the game, which I knew. I didn’t need today as confirmation.

How much has that Blackburn defeat dictated things over the last fortnight?

I don't think the shape change or anything has been dictated to by the Blackburn game. The Blackburn game was a real learning curve for me and it was a real learning curve for the group in terms of; if I let them off five per cent, we can't afford, at this level, to come off the gas.

Although I know the group and have worked with the group for almost two years, I haven't been the decision-maker and that was obviously a game I want to forget but at the same time as I've said before, failure is the most important ingredient to success. I don't want to fail as publicly as that but I learned some harsh lessons from that day and since then we've been a lot better. 

What was your take on a hard-working performance?

That’s probably three performances we’ve had now where we’ve stuck to task, which I think is really important for young players. The sending off is obviously a big turning point in the game but even before that I didn’t feel like they got to our goal.

Scoring the goal after they’ve had the sending off from my perspective is a massive positive because it takes the anxiety away from trying to break the opposition down and what it did do is it allowed us to be really professional in the second half. We have to be respectful, they’re fifth in the league and they’ve got some real quality players so they were always going to have moments but, again, they didn’t really threaten the goal and I don’t think Patto had a save to make in the whole game really.

So I would describe it as very professional, very thorough and a good away performance.

It was a well-taken goal from Pierre Ekwah?

Pierre has got good technique and he’s in a good spot. I think when he tidies up with the bits he needs to tidy up with, and he needs a little bit more focus, you’re starting to see a good midfield player and we had that conversation when I first took the team. He’s now reaping the rewards of doing exactly what we want from him.

Five clean sheets in six games must be pleasing?

We always try to set the team up as well as possible. Within those six games we did have a blip, so I’m not getting carried away with the other bits but I’m really proud of the group.

It could get labelled at them at this time of the season they’ve got nothing to play for but they’re showing that they want to play for Sunderland Football Club, they’re showing that they want to be here and finish the season strongly. I’ve made it clear to them if they don’t finish the season strongly it’s going to be an uncomfortable few weeks for them. They’re giving us everything and out of possession I think we look as strong as we’ve ever been and we’ve got to keep going in terms of creating more chances, something which is a long-term objective for the group.

How satisfying is the victory?

I don’t think it was a free-flowing performance but I felt the Leicester game in particular we were excellent – but the reality is at the end of the season you’re going to see a 1-0 defeat. Now I don’t think that was free-flowing but what they are going to see is a 1-0 win, so it’s trying to get that balance between performance and results.

It’s a results-based industry. We want to be a little bit more fluid in possession but out of possession I can’t criticise them, I think they execute everything we want from them and we look like a really hard team to play against and if that’s your foundations moving forward you give yourself a really good chance.

Three games left to go, what are you expecting?

A different type of game [next week]. They’ll have a completely different approach and we might have to look at one or two things but it’s the second from last game at home and we want to make sure it gives the fans something to be happy about. But like I say every time we step onto the pitch, we want to win every game of football.

We won’t be setting up to draw games of football. There was a lot of praise levelled at the group for Tuesday night and I had to make it really clear to them that this football club doesn’t celebrate draws. Thankfully today, we had another really solid performance and we got the goal at the right time.