Beaglehole: A Fair Result

- Steve Beaglehole reflects on his side's 0-0 draw with Sunderland
- Leicester City were held to their second stalemate in seven days at Holmes Park on Monday
- The Foxes remain third in PL2 with five wins from their opening 10 matches
- Derby County are next up at Pride Park on Friday evening (7pm kick-off)

While the Foxes showcased attacking endeavour at Holmes Park, the Black Cats were resolute at the back to deny Beaglehole’s side a sixth league victory of the season.

The Under-23s manager accepted the result at full-time, crediting the visitors' resolve, but wants to see more from his players in attacking positions over the coming weeks.

“Like I said before the game, we’ve had some really good matches against Sunderland, they have beaten Everton this season too, even though they are bottom,” he told LCFC TV.

“We had a game plan to try and score an early goal but we didn’t work the goalkeeper enough. We weren’t quite as productive as we have been so far this season.

“You have to look for the positives. It’s another game we haven’t lost and we kept a clean sheet, but we just needed to have a few more ideas up front.

“Our attitude was spot on. For Sunderland to come here and set up the way they did, it showed just how far we have come this season.

“These things happen, it’s a good learning curve for the lads. They had 11 men behind the ball and we just needed to show a bit more intelligence in the final third.”

Beaglehole already has one eye on City’s next clash, a trip to Derby County on Friday (7pm kick-off) and he knows what his side need to do to turn draws into victories.

“We created stuff from set plays where I would usually expect us to do more,” he added. “But fair play to Sunderland, they did a fine job defensively.

“There are no complaints from me, I thought they deserved the result and it proves that no team can be taken softly at this Under-23s level.”