'Stick together' - Dan Neil sends message to Sunderland fans ahead of Championship run-in

Sunderland team captain Dan Neil spoke at length to the media after the Black Cats 2-1 loss to Leeds United at Elland Road on Monday evening in the Championship.

The result saw Régis Le Bris men fall eight points behind in the automatic places with Leeds United and Sheffield United now in pole position to fill the top two spots come the end of the season. However, all is not lost for the Black Cats.

Sunderland have 13 games left to play and 39 points up for grabs in the Championship, and with the potential for many twists and turns along the way. Speaking after the game against Leeds United, Neil reiterated that everyone involved with the club needed to stick together.

Sunderland are hurting after late Leeds United loss

“I know for a fact that all the lads are hurting in there,” Neil told The Echo after the game. “These last remaining games, we're going to make sure we're fully prepared for all of them and we're going to give our absolute all to hopefully get the best possible outcome by the end of the season. It's a tough one to look at and speak because everyone's hurting.

“I think when the emotions are so high at the time, a few lads spoke, but I think we have to wait until the emotions have calmed down. We have to speak about it because these big games, like I said in the second half, we have to find better ways of dealing with that pressure. I think we're such a good team in possession that we could have got out of the pitch a lot better.

“We could have took the sting out of the game by getting in there half, and we just didn't seem to do that. But all the lads are together. We've got an unbelievable togetherness in this team. I think you've seen that all year with the character that comes from behind in a lot of games. We're going to stick together. We're going to look at this game and, like I said, the remaining games are all cup finals. We're going to be prepared.”

Do Sunderland concede too many late goals?

“I think over the season it averages out,” Neil added. “I think you could look at the Leeds game at home, the last goal. I think you could look at Swansea away when we've come back from 2-0 down. Watford in the last few minutes. I think the season averages out and there's going to be times where this is going to happen to us. And there's going to be times where we're going to make a late one against other teams.

“Obviously, we don't want to be on the receiving end of it so we need to get better at that. But, you know, as hard as it is, we have to put this one behind us in the bin. We'll obviously look at it for a day, maybe, but it's gone on at the end of the day. We can't do anything about it now, except learn from it and we need to move on to Saturday and make sure we give it all to get the three points.”

Dan Neil sends message to Sunderland fans ahead of run-in

“I just think everybody needs to get behind each other. Whether it's players, whether it's staff, whether it's fans, everybody within the club who's associated with the club. All these lads and this change room love playing for this club. And we'll do anything to help this club get to where we all believe it belongs and we're going to need everybody in this running. It's getting towards our Groundhog Day of the season where people are fatigued, people are feeling heavy.

“The immense support that we get in week in, week out is going to really, really help us. So my message would be let's stick together. Let's have a right good run at these last remaining games and, you know, what will be, will be and we'll try on the pitch to get the best possible outcome for everyone.

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“I think if you looked at the start of the season and you said that we were going to be fourth with 15 games to go and still with a chance of getting the autos. Like I said, there's twists and turns yet to come in the season. I think everyone would have said, oh yeah, I fancy that. Obviously, the way the season's panned out, we probably should be in a little bit better position in terms of the autos.

“But I think if you looked at the start of the season and if you look at last year, how we finished, I think you can see that the hard work and the effort that everybody at the club has put in to turn last season around. I'm proud of all the boys, all the staff this year, of kind of what we've achieved so far. But we're certainly not done. We're certainly going to give our absolute all in these last few games to, like I said, get the best possible outcome.”

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