Regis Le Bris praised Sunderland’s resilience after seeing them fight back from two goals down to beat Bournemouth 3-2 and climb back into the Premier League’s top four.
The Black Cats looked to be in deep trouble just 15 minutes in at the Stadium of Light, but dragged themselves back into the game before winning it with a second-half surge courtesy of substitute Brian Brobbey.
Frenchman Le Bris spoke about the importance of resilience in his pre-match programme notes, and the message had clearly filtered through to his players.
He said: “It’s crucial because in this league especially, you can’t control everything. The scenario will go wrong at times and if you don’t have the foundations, the character, the connection with the team, a bad scenario and you give up.
“It was the case today. It started poorly for us, but because of the foundations we have created together, it’s still possible to think that you can be back in the game, and it was the case.
“It’s really important because the scenario in football is still unpredictable and when it goes wrong, you still have to stay in the game and create the next opportunity. One goal and we don’t know how the scenario will evolve, and that was the case today.”
On a bleak Wearside afternoon, the visitors darkened the mood amongst the locals as Amine Adli fired them into a seventh-minute lead before Tyler Adams extended it in spectacular style with an audacious finish from 45 yards.
However, the Black Cats have made something of a habit of refusing to accept the seemingly inevitable and Enzo Le Fee’s penalty before half-time and Bertrand Traore’s equaliser just afterwards set the stage for Netherlands international Brobbey to win it with 21 minutes remaining.
Victory took Sunderland to 22 points from their opening 13 games and left them well on course to achieve top-flight safety long before the season reaches its final stages.
However, asked if he had redrawn his ambitions for the campaign, Le Bris said: “No, not at all. Still our first target, we want to reach 40 points. When it will be done – as soon as possible – maybe we will have another objective, but that remains the case.”
For opposite number Andoni Iraola, there was disappointment and frustration in equal measure, although much of the latter was aimed at referee Tim Robinson and VAR official John Brooks over the 30th-minute penalty awarded for Alex Scott’s challenge on Traore.
Iraola, who claimed one of his players had been fouled during the build-up, said: “When you call a penalty and the VAR is checking for five minutes – five minutes, eh? – that decision should not be okay.
“We saw – 20 seconds, 30 seconds, but his five minutes checking, they are really expected to overturn it because when you are checking five minutes, they know it’s a mistake, but they don’t know if it’s a big enough mistake for the VAR to intervene or not.”
