Mike Dodds delivers verdict on Sunderland's brilliant win over Leeds United and how they did it

Mike Dodds praised his Sunderland players after a revamped starting XI and system delivered a hugely impressive 1-0 win over Leeds United.

Dodds switched to a back three to nullify a dangerous Leeds United attack, bringing Jenson Seelt back into the side and also pushing Alex Pritchard up front. The visitors dominated the ball but it was the hosts who created the better of the chances, albeit many of those from set pieces.

Jobe Bellingham eventually got the winner at the end of an excellent breakaway, after Pritchard nodded an attempted clearance into his path. Dodds said he hadn't felt he needed to change much for the West Brom game at the weekend but that Leeds' forward line demanded a change in approach.

"I thought the players executed the game plan to an absolute tee," Dodds said.

"Before Trai cleared one off the line late on, their XG was about 0.4. For a team of their Premier League quality, to limit them to that number of chances is remarkable really.

"They've got to believe in how we wanted them to set up. When we've played against the top teams in the league, and I'm thinking of Leicester away when we turned it basically into a 1-v-1 game, that can psychologically be difficult for a player and they've got to really believe in how we set them up. Tonight they really believed in it, we've played two teams in really, really good form, both with Premier League budgets and good coaches - and I think we've given away five shots on goal. That says how well organised the players have been and how well prepared they were mentally for the game.

"I'm really pleased with the clean sheet, I was frustrated with the goal we conceded against West Brom because we'd put so much effort into the game. The clean sheet is very satisfying.

"I didn't change a huge amount on Saturday, because having done all the analysis and preparation I didn't feel like a lot needed to change to win the game. To win tonight, I felt we had to change one or two things. We had to be respectful of their threat, but also get a balance to make sure we could have a threat going the other way. That was the fight I was having in my head, how much did I want to commit high up the pitch and how much did I want to try and nullify their threat?

"I thought the balance was spot on this evening."

Dodds praised Pritchard for a typically intelligent display that had a big impact on the match.

"Regardless of what Pritch did at the weekend, when he came on and got two assists, he was always in my thinking for this game because he is so bright tactically. I knew I would need him in these types of games. With Jobe, I knew that I was probably going to change his position for this game and it speaks volumes that he can do that against teams of this calibre in just a couple of days."