James Copley and Joe Nicholson react to Sunderland 1-0 Leeds United
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00:00 Outside the Stadium of Light, Joe Nicholson and James Copley here from the Sunderland
00:09 Echo.
00:10 Sunderland have beaten Leeds by a goal to nil in the Championship.
00:13 Now back-to-back wins for the Black Cats under caretaker boss Mike Dodds.
00:17 James, he switched the formation tonight against a strong Leeds side that had won three games
00:22 in a row.
00:23 So just how impressive was tonight's win from Sunderland?
00:26 Really really impressive, excellent defensive display, Daniel Farger described Sunderland
00:30 as 'parking the bus' at times.
00:31 I think that's perhaps a little bit harsh, I thought Sunderland 2-1 Man were absolutely
00:35 fantastic.
00:36 Fair play to Mike Dodds, did not see him going 5 at the back.
00:39 He brought Jenson Sealton in, played sort of three centre-backs with Dan Ballard in
00:43 the centre.
00:44 09 left and Sealt right, Clarke and Barr were still quite wide but so were the full-backs.
00:53 Pritchard would drop deep and then Barr would move into the number 9 position.
00:56 It was really fluid tactically and fair play because I don't think many Sunderland fans
01:02 would have predicted that start at 11 before the game and it worked.
01:08 And actually Sunderland took the lead when Mike Dodds changed in and went 4 at the back
01:13 towards the end of the game which I actually thought were guts to do that.
01:17 He brought Ekwer on for Sealt and went back to sort of a 4-2-3-1 formation.
01:23 I mean a wonderful Sunderland game, absolutely fair play, brilliant performance, brilliant
01:27 by Mike Dodds.
01:29 Six points out of two games in stark contrast to his last spell as caretaker manager.
01:34 He's probably in with a shower of getting a job now.
01:38 Make no mistake, Leeds were a very good side and that's a very good win.
01:42 Joe Bellingham was the only goal of the game, assisted by Alex Pritchard who had another
01:46 excellent performance tonight.
01:47 He came back in, Dodds kind of hinted about it after the West Brom game.
01:51 He's not started a lot of games but he was excellent again tonight wasn't he?
01:56 Unbelievable, just a very good footballer.
01:58 It's hard to believe that Sunderland probably would have let him go in the summer if a bid
02:02 had come in.
02:03 I thought his set-piece delivery today was just outstanding from corners particularly.
02:10 Absolutely brilliant.
02:11 On another day, Sunderland maybe could have had another couple of goals just through Alex
02:15 Pritchard's set-pieces that caused problems.
02:18 We should mention the Leeds goalkeeper as well, Meslier, with a brilliant save from
02:22 Jenson Seal.
02:24 It was a really fascinating, high-quality game of football and I thought two very good
02:29 sides.
02:30 Tactically, the battle for 70-80 minutes was mesmeric.
02:35 I thought the times for being 0-0 for most of the game.
02:39 It was really, really interesting.
02:41 High-quality game of Championship football and I think a real confidence builder for
02:44 Sunderland.
02:45 I wanted to mention Jack Clarke as well.
02:48 Not productive in terms of going forward but I thought his work rate was absolutely superb.
02:53 Chasing back all of the time, getting Sunderland up the pitch.
02:57 Roberts as well when he came on changed the game.
02:59 Lugo and Aino-Louis picked up a bit of a daft yellow card I thought for the most part was
03:02 outstanding.
03:03 Ballard continues to be a rock.
03:06 Just a very good day all round.
03:07 Yes, I thought it was quite cagey a bit at times in that first half but Sunderland, as
03:11 you said, kept their shape very well, particularly in that second half when Leeds had a lot of
03:15 the ball.
03:16 They now go away to Bristol City on Saturday.
03:19 As things stand, Mike Dodds still set to take charge of the side so it looks like they're
03:24 in kind of a safe pair of hands at the minute with him in charge.
03:26 Yes, it does.
03:27 He seems like he's confident.
03:32 He talked about the external and the internal pressure after the last time he was caretaker
03:35 manager.
03:36 It didn't go too well for him.
03:37 Obviously two defeats when Sunderland are in League One.
03:40 It's a different club now.
03:41 He feels like he's earned the respect externally from fans and he definitely has.
03:47 I'm expecting him probably to be in charge for the Bristol City game to be honest.
03:51 I don't think Sunderland are close to an appointment even if that appointment came on tomorrow
03:56 or the next day, which it's not expected to.
03:59 It'll be a quick turnaround.
04:01 Whether Mike Dodds gets it permanently until the end of the season, I don't know.
04:04 We don't know but I think he will be in charge for the Bristol City game.
04:07 There's been some talk that Sunderland have had a few chats with various different managers
04:12 but nothing concrete.
04:13 Certainly no formal approaches.
04:14 No jobs have been offered.
04:16 No contracts are there to be signed.
04:17 So at the moment it's Mike Dodds for Bristol and hopefully he can make it nine out of nine.
04:22 Yes, we all hope so.
04:23 You can read more about today's match over on the SAFC section of the Sunderland Echo
04:27 website and we'll also have more build up to Saturday's game away at Bristol City.