The simple Stadium of Light story that highlighted Lee Johnson's Sunderland standards push

"I take that on my chin," Johnson said.

"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.

His task at Sunderland is to improve results but to do that, he believes he needs to overhaul the club's philosophy on the pitch and just as important, bring an energy and drive off it.

The new Head Coach discussed that at great length in his pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon, and had one example of what he meant to hand.

"I think when you get a new set of eyes on things, it's always good," explained.

"I'll give you one example - I noticed that two or three of the clocks in the dressing room didn't work. And I was like to Humey 'go on then, tell me', and he said 'gaffer, they haven't worked for about six months'.

"So you're telling me that that hasn't worked, and all we need to do is put a battery in it. Simple.

"It's the smallest of standards, the fact that in three clocks nobody had changed the batteries.

"But we need to make sure we do everything.

"Like with the All Blacks, they say sweep the sheds and we want to act with real class. When we go to Oldham, we want to make sure we leave the dressing room in a smarter way than we found it.

"They're the things that are free, really. Manners, discipline, punctuality.

"At the moment, I'm just seeing a little bit that needs to be turned 10, 15 per cent and driving those standards and policing them can't just come from me.

"It has to come from the squad, the staff and it's not something that will change drastically - but it'll set everyone in the right manner to perform and perform well."

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