'˜Resilience, diligence, accountability'... Chris Coleman on Sunderland's path to safety

The Black Cats switched to a back five and secured a crucial point against Wolves, despite being reduced to ten men in the second half.

Coleman says he knows how to motivate and organise a team and hopes the side can now start to climb away from safety.

He said: “The early signs are okay. It’s game by game, step by step, and we have got to keep building. It’s all about what happens on the training ground. I don’t care what team you are, you get your success on the training ground.

“It’s resilience, diligence, all those nasty words, accountability, and the better you get at those things, the better results you get.

“I haven’t got a magical wand but I know how to motivate and organise a team.”

Coleman was pleased with his team’s application work-rate and says that will be key to turning around the wretched run without a win at the Stadium of Light.

Failure to beat Fulham would mean a full calendar year passing without the Black Cats winning on home turf, but with Birmingham also travelling to Wearside before Christmas, it is a big opportunity to close the gap to the sides in mid-table.

He said: “That is the very least we can do [work hard]. The buzz words now are playing between the lines and creating overloads.

“Those nasty words I mentioned before turn you into a hard team to play against and means you end up getting better results.

“It is not about a one-off game and having that same spirit next week.

“I know we are at home and the pressure is on us and the fans are super unhappy and I don’t blame them for that because we haven’t won for so long at home.

But we’ve got to shown that same resilence at home, be brave. We’ve got to find the answers to turn it around at home and make sure we do it.”