Alex Neil says Sunderland's win at Wigan 'de-stressed' his players - but he has warned them not to ruin it by falling flat at Charlton tomorrow. Last weekend's 3-0 victory against the promotion-chasing Latics ended the Black Cats' six-game winless streak.
Sunderland's previous win had come at home to Portsmouth more than a month earlier, and the wait had been the source of much angst both in the dressing room and on the terraces. The convincing win at the DW Stadium has lifted the mood, but now Neil's men must back it up with another victory at The Valley to complete their first back-to-back wins since the end of December.
"I think it de-stressed them more than anything else," said Neil of the win at Wigan. "I think there's a misconception sometimes that players go home to their big houses and they're not that fussed, and that's certainly not the case.
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"It weighs on the players if they haven't won a game, because they understand the importance of it and they want to represent the team, the club, the city. I felt it de-stressed them. It certainly had a positive effect, that's for sure.
"But what we don't want is to win against Wigan and then the next game be a bit of a damp squib. We want to make sure that we build on that win.
"We want to create momentum between now and the end of the season, and make sure that we do a lot of the things we have been talking about and carry them out on a consistent basis." The win at Wigan also saw Neil clock up his first win at the fourth attempt since taking charge on Wearside.
He admits the biggest challenge for him has been to get across his ideas to the players in a short space of time, having taken over with around two-thirds of the season already gone. Neil said: "The problem you have in football is that people think you walk into the building on a Thursday and you win the game on a Friday.
"It doesn't work like that. There's a lot of work to do, a lot of preparation goes into it, a lot of organisation that you need to put in place behind the scenes for the starting XI and for the squad.
"That base is normally built up in pre-season so as the season develops you are really just tweaking things from game-to-game. But I am basically trying to cram in 100 percent of the information into their heads when I have only got five percent of the time.
"We've spoken about the dynamics of the squad which adds to that. The Wigan performance was a good one and a better one. What we did was negate some of the weaknesses that we have had in the previous couple of matches.
"You only find those weaknesses out when you play in a certain style, and our style certainly changed for the Wigan game. I have to try and come up with a style and a strategy that will negate our weaknesses but also equally allow us to play to our strengths against the opposition."
Neil changed the system to play 4-2-3-1 against Wigan, and that formation offered greater protection to Sunderland's back line. He said: "I think the formation negated what I felt Wigan were good at, and it protected what had been a relative weakness for us in the previous two matches.
"All in all, it suited us. What you'll tend to find is that over the course of a season I will make tweaks along the way in every game, whether it be personnel, strategy, or formation, just to optimise what we have on the pitch in terms of what I deem our strengths to be and also to make sure that we don't play into the hands of our opponents."
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