Sunderland U21s came from behind to beat Norwich City on Friday night.

Sunderland U21s coach Graeme Murty has hailed the “character and communication” of his side following their dramatic 3-2 victory over Norwich City on Friday evening.

The Black Cats took the lead after just nine minutes at the Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground courtesy of a Joe Neild strike, but were pegged back before half-time and fell behind after the interval.

With time running out, however, Murty’s men rallied. First they dragged themselves level in the 89th minute when substitute Tom Proctor found the back of the net with his first touch, and then they sealed a dramatic victory deep into stoppage when Marcus Neill popped up to poke home a winner from close range.

What Graeme Murty say about Sunderland U21s’ victory over Norwich City?

And speaking after the final whistle, Murty was quick to express his delight at the manner in which his young team fought back in difficult circumstances. Speaking to Sunderland’s in-house media team, he said: “I thought it was exactly what the lads deserved. I thought that throughout the game we created numerous opportunities, played some really good football, got down the sides of their back line, into our assist zones really well and just couldn't find the clinical moments that we needed. I thought we controlled them in the second half far better than in the first half, so the lads made some really good adjustments. Towards the end, I thought we were the team that was pushing.

“Really disappointed with the goals, but I thought we were the team that was pushing. I thought the lads showed some really good development of their character and their communication throughout the game. That was one of our major challenges. The lads have defined what our defensive principles should look like and they've picked the three key areas they were going after today. I thought that you saw that much, much better in the second half. I'm really pleased with that. To get the win, to get the final outcome like that, speaks to their character and speaks to the way they continue to keep pushing and striving, just as we would hope that they would do.

“We believe in what we do. We believe in the pathway, we believe in challenging our young players. We believe in making sure they understand what our standards are and our expectations are, but we also believe in opportunity. I can't stand here and espouse all these values and not live them day-to-day. It's really key that we follow up and do what we say we're going to do. We've gone and pushed for the game, we've changed the game and put some younger players on. You never know what they can do. They can surprise you, they can excite and they can, ultimately today, be the defining characteristic in a win. We want to give opportunity, we want to give challenge and it's brilliant when they repay you like that.”

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Murty was also asked about the range of experiences that his side have been through in recent days, with several players also featuring for the U18s in Tuesday’s Durham Challenge Cup defeat at the hands of Dunston UTS. He added: “Varied. Some real success, some real challenge, a lot of failure and a great deal of support by a really, really committed and empathetic staff who understand what development looks like, understand it's not linear and understand that we need to vary our input, we need to vary their experience and all of these experiences that they're having are really valuable, they're going to go towards what their final education looks like and I'm convinced that we, collectively, as a group of staff and as a club, are providing our players with the stimulus that they need, the support that they need and one of the most important things, I believe we're giving them the opportunity as well, to further that education and to show how good they can be.

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“They're all chances, they're all chances to build, they're all chances to show how good you can be, they're all chances to perform as well and as much as we don't want to go on about performance and winning the games, this is a winning industry, they need to learn how to win and I've just said to them there, they'll play in games where they don't play as well and win, they'll play in games where they play better than that and lose, they need to understand that our expectation of consistency of approach and intensity and work rate are far, far, far more valuable than us walking away and me patting myself on the back because we won a game. They need to understand that they are in control of their output, they're in control of the way that they approach everything and we believe we've got a really good learning environment that instils those values.”

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