Sunderland hit back in the second half, with Patrick van Aanholt’s close-range finish offering hope, but a dogged defensive display from Boro saw them hold on for Aitor Karanka’s first Premier League success.
Advertisement
“We have to get the balance right between youth and experience and get the right values in the transfer market”.
Fellow midfielder Stewart Downing was fulsome in his praise for his team-mates, who now have a win and a draw since returning to the top flight.
He said: “It was always going to be hard”.
The club stated their intentions of top-flight survival early on, brining in the likes of Victor Valdes and Alvaro Negredo, and Karanka believes that early business has helped them in their good start.
The former assistant to Jose Mourinho concluded: “This season, we could go to Spain to a training camp with nearly all the squad”, and Karanka believes “For that reason we are playing well, we are compact, we are playing with intensity and it is important to collect points as soon as possible”.
“It was a very good strike and then we let ourselves down for the last 10 – 15 minutes in the first half and that was our main mistake”.
Jeremain Lens was brought on at half-time as Moyes looked to mastermind a comeback on his home debut, and his team responded with a stirring second-half rally.
Downing said: “The bigger picture is we have won, three points, that’s four on the board”.
“Everyone is fighting. It’s obviously disappointing when they don’t play – everyone is like that – but it’s a team game and players will be needed over the course of the season”. “It’s a team effort and that’s what it was today”.
He told Sky Sports News: “I’ve got to say, I didn’t think we deserved to be 2-0 down at half-time”.
“We should be more experienced, on the pitch, to deal with it and deal with the loss of John O’Shea, losing him had an impact on the game especially with the situation we have at the moment with the centre-backs”.
Love never hid, mind – he got stuck in, worked hard and tried his best to contribute, but I feel he just wasn’t good enough on the day. “We did not take some chances but they did”.
“It has been a very good pre-season in terms of training, we trained very hard, but the changes and the short time the manager has been in, get players out and in, it is difficult”.
Advertisement
“But no excuse because we go out and we try to win and I thought the boys did try to win and I thought they really went to try and score in the second half and we were a bit unlucky we didn’t get an equaliser”.
