Régis Le Bris reacts to Sunderland's win over Sheffield United and reveals pre-match Eliezer Mayenda message

Régis Le Bris praised Eliezer Mayenda for his resilience after the striker delivered a man-of-the-match performance against Sheffield United on Wednesday night.

Mayenda bounced back from missing two key chances against Blackburn Rovers and Stoke City over the festive period, scoring Sunderland’s opening goal and assisting Wilson Isidor for the second. Le Bris had backed Mayenda in his pre-match press conference and made clear he would select him again for this game.

The head coach had told the youngster to move on from his recent misses, and a decision to move him infield proved key.

"It was a tough game," Le Bris said.

"Sheffield played very good football today and with the players we had in the squad, we played with a different style. We had to control the way they play, especially through our lines. When it was possible to recover the ball, we knew that we had two quick players to run in behind and to threaten the space in behind their defence. We did very well in this part of the game.

"At 2-1 they pushed a lot for a goal, and the spirit of our team was very good, we were connected with the fans and we felt their energy. And we avoided a late equaliser. We could have scored but but this was a balanced game, I think. We know that just one decision, one sequence can make a difference.

"I spoke about it in the last press conference, young players deserve support. They can make mistakes and they have to learn from experiences, when they are not in their best moment we have to believe in the talent and that they will succeed. I think we showed the whole team, the fans, the staff, the club - that Eli could play like this. He played a good game I think.

"I didn't say much after the Stoke game, we slept for two days to recover! There wasn't time! At the end of the Stoke game I just said, 'it's done, it's finished. Now it is the next game'. We deserved to win that game because we had many chances but we didn't. So we just had to stop, not overthink. Football is like this and we did well tonight."