Every word from Mike Dodds after Sunderland's 1-0 defeat to Watford at Vicarage Road:

It took you a while to get going but you created enough chances?

Yeah, I'm really upset for the group. I'm really upset for the fans, whether they're the fans that travelled to the stadium of the fans that watched at home. That's a game that we shouldn't be drawing - not even losing if I'm completely honest. I'm coming off the pitch and their players and staff are coming off the pitch saying we got away with one there. It's almost like a double kick between the legs because I know that. When their staff and players are saying something similar when you come off the pitch. It's a real bitter pill to swallow. I've just said that to the group, they've got to realise they've got to take their chances.

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That could have been a three or four - nil game if we're completely honest. Then the goal is a really poor goal to give away because they play through our midfield far too easily. Before we know it they breach our back line and we haven't laid a glove on them. One thing I will say, that's one moment in 90 plus minute where I felt out of possession we didn't do what we should do. The group have to realise this is the Championship. They're big moments. You can't undervalue those moments. Those are my two big disappointments. We've had chances - big chances and their goal is easily avoidable.

Jack Clarke has missed chances but he's had such an amazing season?

Yeah Jack had a couple of chances. I think the one at the end - was it Patta or Hemir? Riggy I think he should do better. The Trai chance where the keeper comes out and smothers it. You could argue he should do better. There's four or five there straight off the top of my head. I can't be overly critical of the group. I was really disappointed last week. I thought it was a really boring performance and I thought it was boring. I was critical after the Blackburn game and rightly so. If I'm taking the emotion out of the result, and I'm looking purely at the performance, that's a game we play ten times over - we win nine times.

The lack of goals is a big issue for next season?

Definitely. I think you can't get away from the facts. In particular when I've taken over, they've been 2-0s, 0-0s or 1-0. It's a 1-0 last week. We're not conceding goals Blackburn aside. Southampton was probably the other one but I can live with the Southampton one because of the way we set up. We knew it was going to be a basketball game. We're not conceding goals but we're also not scoring so I'm not going to sit here and spin positives. One thing I will say about today is at least we've created big chances. They're not half chances. That would be a positive from today because I couldn't have said that 7 day ago.

Watford had more of the ball in the opening 45 minutes were you disappointed with how your side looked after the ball?

Yeah. I was a little bit disappointed. I felt we landed on a lot of second balls in particular. We missed their initial press out from dead balls because they went man for man and made it really difficult for us. When you don't have - I mean this respectfully - a target to go and play off, it's really difficult when teams go man for man and lock you in because you don't have a focal point to play off. Whether that be a  9, 7 or 11. I do feel that when we landed on second balls we did that really well. I felt the two midfielders for 60 or 65 minutes, they got hold of the game. I was disappointed with the goal because they played through our midfield too easy.

They started the game - I wouldn't say better because they didn't hurt our goal but they had a bit more fluidity and had a little more possession. I felt all the possession was in front of us. I didn't feel like they were going to hurt or damage us. Once the game softened up a little bit and we found our barings, we were a little more aggressive in terms of how we wanted to set up. As I said, when I sit and reflect, I'm going to be a little emotional because we've lost a game that I don't feel we deserved to lose. When I reflect I think there'll be a lot of positives.

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I’ve literally just said as we walked out of the dressing room, we’ve got a full week to prepare for the game on Saturday. Obviously they’ll be well and truly up for it because their livelihoods are on the line. We have to perform to a similar type of level in terms of the chances we’ve created in the game, and for large pockets I thought we were really good in possession and had spells of being a lot more fluid and we created three or four really clear-cut opportunities which we have to score to be honest.