Joe Nicholson and Phil Smith react after Sunderland's 1-0 defeat against Bristol City at Ashton Gate
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00:00 Outside Ashton Gate where Sunderland have been beaten 1-0 by Bristol City. Tommy Conway
00:05 for Bristol City scoring the only goal of the game in the 20th minute and Phil you spoke
00:10 to Mike Dodds after the game and he said, thought your side played well apart from that
00:14 15 minutes of madness really in the first half.
00:16 Yeah I thought the first half was really poor personally. I thought Sunderland did have
00:20 chances at times but I thought the intensity was miles off where it needed to be. And Dodds
00:24 said he agreed with that but I thought the second half was then, for me, just a pretty
00:28 familiar story really. They had pretty much all the ball, worked it into good areas really
00:32 easily, got the byline more than you could ever hope for really but just lacked that
00:36 killer presence in the box. And we've said it so many times this season but changing
00:40 the head coach was never going to change the biggest issue of this team. It's clinical
00:44 touching the box just isn't there.
00:45 Sunderland once again today played without a striker, Pritchard played as a false nine
00:49 with Clarke alongside him. What did Dodds have to say afterwards about the striker that
00:53 didn't come on off the bench?
00:55 Yeah he just said he was happy with the way his team were playing and that he didn't want
00:58 to change the shape in case they gave up their dominance of the game which I can understand
01:01 but I think you have to say that it's fairly talent when you're chasing a goal. You don't
01:04 turn to any strikers until the 86th minute. It is a big problem for Sunderland. I understand
01:09 that these players might be good in the long run for the club but it hasn't worked this
01:14 season. I think to be at this point in the season where the striker's not scoring a goal
01:18 and some of them not even getting on the pitch when you're chasing a goal, I think it tells
01:21 you that it just hasn't worked out. Whether it's Tony Mowbray, Mike Dodds or Mick Bale
01:25 next week, it's the biggest issue at this club and at the moment it's the biggest hurdle
01:29 they've got to overcome.
01:30 You mentioned Mick Bale there, he's expected to now be appointed the head of next weekend's
01:34 home game against Coventry and as we said today there are a lot of positives to work
01:38 with with this young group.
01:39 There definitely are. I think you saw again they played really well for the vast majority
01:42 of the game. I'm sure he'll win a lot of games to be honest because the players are excellent
01:47 but I think there's a lot of work to do still in that final third.