Sunderland boss highlights key positive from draw at Leeds United - but explains his biggest disappointment

Mike Dodds says Sunderland can take a lot of positives from their 0-0 draw with Leeds United but challenged his players to improve in possession.

After a turbulent few weeks the Black Cats produced a committed display against the title-chasing side on their home turf, limiting them to very few chances across the game. While Dodds said that was definitely something to take forward, he insisted that it wouldn’t be right for Sunderland to be overly celebratory about taking a point and admitted there was a ‘tinge of disappointment’ that they weren’t better on the ball.

"I've just said to them down there, we have drawn the game - we haven't won it," Dodds said.

"We've got to take the positives from the game and there were a lot of them, but we have drawn and to be honest I don't want to be sat here celebrating draws. I thought our out of possession stuff was excellent and I never really felt that Leeds were going to score, I felt all their chances came from our sloppy game.

"I've just said to them that my biggest disappointment was out quality with the ball, I think the evening would have been a lot more comfortable for us had we had better quality with the ball,” Dodds added.

“I felt we turned it over far too much but I am happy with the execution of the plan to stop their threats. I think they're the best team in the league from what I've watched and to come here, obviously we played them earlier in the season and to not concede in either, I think it says everything about the group and the preparation for the two games.

"I didn't want to copy and paste what we did earlier in the season but I watch a huge amount of football and as many games, as far back as possible. They bump their full backs so high that I think you might as well play with a back five, so that's the conclusion I came to and we were very similar in terms of what we did at the Stadium of Light. Out of possession I was really comfortable, I never felt they were going to score and that's a huge achievement - but I do have a tinge of disappointment because I felt our play in possession was sloppy."

Sunderland had a major stroke of luck towards the end of the game when Luke O’Nien appeared to handball a Leeds United corner, and whole Dodds said he had not watched the incident back he felt it would have been harsh on his players for them to lose out on the back of that call.