Régis Le Bris' verdict on Sunderland win, his 'good feeling' this week and brilliant Chris Rigg message

Régis Le Bris praised his Sunderland players for their response to their first defeat of the Championship season after the 1-0 win over Middlesbrough.

Chris Rigg's first-half goal proved the difference as the Black Cats reclaimed their place at the top of the table ahead of the 3pm kick offs. Le Bris said his players had given him a good feeling ahead of the game with their application in training and was particularly pleased with their defensive application.

"After the first defeat, it was difficult because I didn't think the dynamic was broken," he said.

"During the week I felt that the players were very involved, and with still this willingness to improve. We talked a lot about our game model, the way we want to play. At the end we just had the preparation for this game on the last day, and they were very involved in that. It was a tough game, we needed to solve many problems during the game - for example when they overloaded our left side in the first half. I felt our team wanted to work together to solve these problems. They had the momentum in the second half because they wanted to score, but our mindset was very strong.

"This week we spoke a lot about how we want to play - sometimes it is possible and sometimes it is not. During this week I had a good feeling but of course you need to produce against a strong opponent, and the players did that."

Le Bris hailed Chris Rigg for his goal but said most impressive is the way the youngster is applying himself in training every day.

"I think he is like a symbol of our process, our game model," Le Bris said.

"He always wants to learn, to play whatever the circumstances are, whoever the opponent is. He deserves to play like this because I see it every training session, he prepares to be able to do this.

"I don't think the age is a problem. You can have a high level of maturity at 17 and a low level of maturity at 30. I think that Chris Rigg is a good symbol of what we want to create and build as a team. He still wants to improve, still wants to understand the game and if we can share all these ideas, we can have the energy we need as a team even against a strong opponent."