Michael Beale's interesting verdict on his plans for key Sunderland challenge as head coach

Michael Beale says improving Sunderland's output is going to be a key focus of his moving forward, though he says he is not overly concerned about the side's reliance on Jack Clarke.

Beale admits he feared it was going to be a case of deja vu on the road as Sunderland struggled to turn their good play into good chances at Hull City on Boxing Day, but Clarke's brilliant strike secured three vital points and lifted the Black Cats back into the top six. Beale says he has had limited opportunity to get some of his attacking ideas across, and has suggested that he will look to find more opportunities for the strikers who he says are 'dying for a chance' to prove their worth.

"We didn't have much time to train for the Hull City game, and of course there's a lack of confidence after the defeat we'd had [against Coventry]," Beale said.

"It is hard to say after a defeat like that but again, we had a lot of chances in that game and they were just a lot more ruthless than we were. Hull were a really dangerous opponent, Liam Rosenior is doing a fine job there. To come away and get a clean sheet... I was a bit concerned as the game went on that it was going to be another day where we didn't execute in the final third, certainly after Paddy's big chance. But it's a special goal from Jack - I actually thought we wad easier chances than that one.

"I do have some ideas about how we unlock things a bit in the final third, but I've not had much time to really implement it. There's been a couple of small changes that people will start to see. You could see that there's a bit of an over reliance on Jack but to be honest, I think any team in the Championship would rely on a player of his ability. We make allowances for both him and Paddy to do what they do, I thought Jobe, Bradley and particularly Adil really helped the midfielders out at Hull, which then helped the midfielders support the full backs, to allow those two players to what they do. If we keep creating chances you hope we'll start to take them. And I do have a queue of people who want a chance under a new head coach, who probably feel that they have a bit quality and ability than they've been able to show Sunderland fans so far - I see it that as a good thing, we've got people dying for an opportunity to get out on the pitch."

Beale had hinted at what he believes is one of the attacking issues earlier in his post-match press conference, suggesting his team can overplay at times.

He said: "I think we can be a bit fussy in the final third, trying to score the perfect goal. We want an extra pass when we can got the shot off, we play good football but we can more effective."