Jack Ross reacts to Sunderland's 2-0 win at Bristol Rovers as Black Cats cut gap to Barnsley and Luton
Jack Ross praised 'resilient, robust and compact' Sunderland after the 2-0 win at Bristol Rovers, adding he always believes this side will produce moments of quality.
Sunderland's 2-0 win at struggling Bristol Rovers, coupled with Barnsley's goalless draw at promotion rivals Portsmouth, saw the Black Cats cut the gap to second place to two points.
Luke O'Nien's close range finish in the first half gave Sunderland the lead, Aiden McGeady's brilliant free-kick in the second sealing victory.
A clean sheet and three points on the road, and back-to-back wins following the victory over Gillingham ensured this has been a very good week for promotion-chasing Sunderland.
Ross said: "I’ve spoken about this a lot but pre and post match we maybe don’t give the opposition enough credit just because of the expectations on us.
"We came to a team that hadn’t lost since had played them, were on good form and had a lot to play for.
"You see the size of the crowd today and that’s a challenge. We had to be resilient, robust and compact and we did that.
"You then always believe you’ll produce moments of quality and we did that.
"We look at a lot of our aspects of our game and we know we’ll always offer an attacking threat.
"We had a little period where we didn’t and we got to the bottom of that, and then you have to address the other side of it as well.
"It’s the whole group, not just the defence, and in fairness to them they took on board what we asked them to do.
"That was pleasing today, we looked solid. It then allows the latter part of the game to be more manageable."