Sbragia Pleased With Response

Published: 12 Apr 2009 - 14:09:00

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Ricky Sbragia has demanded more of the same after seeing Sunderland very nearly dent Manchester United's title hopes. The Black Cats turned in a much-improved performance in Saturday's 2-1 home defeat by United, only to be felled by substitute Federico Macheda's winner within seconds of his arrival from the bench. Sbragia's side have won only once in nine attempts in the league and are just two points clear of the drop zone as a result of Middlesbrough's 3-1 win over Hull and Newcastle's 1-1 draw at Stoke. Their next two fixtures - Hull at the Stadium of Light on Saturday and bottom-of-the-table West Brom away a week later - could have a significant say in the success or otherwise of their fight for survival. However, after his players drastically under-performed to lose to the likes of Wigan, Manchester City and West Ham in recent weeks, Sbragia is confident their fate will continue to lie in their own hands as long as they reproduce the kind of endeavour and commitment they showed against the league leaders. The Scot revealed the club had held clear-the-air talks last week and he was delighted with the response he got. Sbragia said: "We had a chat on Tuesday and we cleared the air a little bit about how we felt we were going and where we weren't going. "The players responded to that and responded really well. They gave me everything and that's all I can ask for. "You just question why in the West Ham game, we didn't get the same performance. "In Saturday's game, were were excellent and without any doubt, we have got to carry that into the Hull game, and West Brom, Everton, Portsmouth, all the way through. "We have set ourselves a good standard and we have got to keep to that standard." Few gave Sunderland much chance of adding to their points tally on Saturday despite Cristiano Ronaldo and Ryan Giggs starting on the bench and Rio Ferdinand once again missing through injury. However, Sir Alex Ferguson's embarrassment of riches meant he was still able to unleash Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez and the fit-again Dimitar Berbatov on the Wearsiders, and for 20 minutes the game looked likely to be a procession. Nemanja Vidic had already had a header cleared off the line by Danny Collins when Paul Scholes glanced Rooney's cross past the stranded Craig Gordon. But Sunderland, without a win in six games, responded gamely and gained the upper hand as the half drew to a close, with Djibril Cisse forcing a fingertip save from Ben Foster and Carlos Edwards' driven cross deflected against a post by former team-mate Jonny Evans before half-time. They got their reward within 10 minutes of the restart when Foster failed to collect Teemu Tainio's cross under pressure from Kenwyne Jones and the striker stabbed home his first goal since February 7 from the loose ball. Ultimately, it counted for little as Macheda diverted Michael Carrick's 76th-minute shot past Gordon within seconds of replacing Berbatov to claim victory for the second time in a week. For Sbragia, a fourth successive defeat in the midst of a run which has yielded just two points from a possible 21 was nothing to celebrate. However, he spotted the green shoots of a recovery which cannot come about quickly enough, and was particularly pleased with the way strikers Jones and Djibril Cisse, whose partnership has been the subject of a season-long debate, answered his call to arms. He said: "Kenwyne and Djibril have been criticised an awful lot, but they worked extremely hard together and with a little bit more luck we could have got another goal. "There was a deflection in the first half on to the post and there were some chances around the box. "But credit to them, they were in there, which is important." The bulk of a crowd of 45,408 headed home knowing they are in for a white-knuckle ride over the next few weeks, but at least buoyed by the suggestion that a corner might be about to be turned. With Irish-American investor Ellis Short ready to increase his stake in the club significantly providing top-flight status is retained, the price of failure could be substantial.