Lee Johnson explains Dion Sanderson confusion and reacts to his first Sunderland win

Sanderson had been selected to make his first appearance under Johnson, before the Sunderland Head Coach was informed that he was cup-tied having featured for Wolves’ U21s earlier in the campaign.

Johnson said he would ‘take responsibility’ and praised his team for their resilience in battling back to book their place in the last 16 of the Papa John’s Trophy.

Goals from Chris Maguire and Josh Scowen sealed Sunderland’s progression despite an early goal from Bobby Grant.

"I take that on my chin," Johnson said of Sanderson’s late exclusion.

"I’m the one that selects the side. Yes, I’ve only been here a couple of days, but it’s my fault.

"What we’ve got to do is drive standards. Our organizational standards need to be better.

"Our on-pitch performance was better today, there was more movement in the box and more aggression and cohesion. Of course you’re playing a side of a slightly lower standard, but I thought they gave us a really good game.

"They hustled and worked our hard, but I think our class showed in the end."

Johnson had criticised his side’s attacking play in the disappointing 1-0 defeat to Wigan Athletic on Saturday, and felt that there were signs of improvement on show at Boundary Park.

“It’s probably because I said if you get 28 box entries in the final third, I’ll give you Christmas Day off, so there was a bit of a carrot there,” he said.

"We’ll have to see [whether we did]. It’s mentality really – we have to make sure that we’re aggressive.

" When I watched back the crosses from the game on Saturday, I was almost embarrassed. Even though I’d only been there a couple of hours, it’s not what I want to see in terms of a personality from my teams.

"Massive credit has to go to the lads – after one training session, we’ve managed to look dangerous from not looking dangerous at all.

"That was because there were aggressive runners to the front post, there was violence in the cross, and there were earlier crosses. We worked the ball into better areas, and that has to keep bumping up week by week.

“I was pleased with them today, even when we went a goal down it could have been a bit same-old, same-old, but we started to create cleaner-cut chances and with a bit more composure we could have had three or four goals today.”

A message from the Football Clubs Editor

Our aim is to provide you with the best, most up-to-date and most informative Sunderland AFC coverage 365 days a year.

This depth of SAFC coverage costs, so to help us maintain the high-quality reporting that you are used to, please consider taking out a subscription to our new sports-only package here.

Your support is much appreciated. Richard Mennear, Football Clubs Editor