Victorious Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris turned his attention to next Saturday’s Premier League trip to Brighton within minutes of steering the club to derby victory over Newcastle.
Sunday’s 1-0 win over the Magpies at the Stadium of Light extended their unbeaten league run against their arch-rivals to 10 games and, perhaps more importantly for the promoted Black Cats, eased them on to 26 points and into seventh place.
Le Bris’ players celebrated with a group photograph on the pitch after the final whistle, mimicking what Newcastle had done after their 3-0 FA Cup win on Wearside in January last year, but the Frenchman insisted the euphoria will not go to their heads.
Le Bris said: “We have to stay smart and respectful. It’s a game and when you win, you’re happy.
“After that, obviously, we have players who were here for a long time, so they probably know better than the new ones how important this derby is, especially when you lost the previous one.
“Now it’s a question of just being composed, I repeat. You can enjoy and then reset because we have another tough challenge in a week.”
Sunderland’s latest win came courtesy of Magpies record signing Nick Woltemade’s own goal seconds after the restart and it was perhaps a fitting decisive moment for a game which was high on intensity, but low on quality.
The Black Cats dominated possession before the break and then, as Eddie Howe’s men launched an ultimately unsuccessful fightback in the wake of the goal, defended manfully to ease themselves across the finishing line with little fuss.
Asked about the scenes in the home dressing room following the final whistle, Le Bris said: “They were calm and relaxed, probably tired a bit because it was a tough game, but I like as well this atmosphere because those players, the squad, don’t get carried away.
“We know that this league is tough. If you don’t work hard, if you are not connected with your game model, you’ll get punished really quickly, so we’ll enjoy today and get ready for the next fixture.”
For opposite number Howe, there was huge disappointment as his much vaunted stars, who remain in contention for the Champions League knockout stage and have a Carabao Cup quarter-final against Fulham to come on Wednesday night, failed to deliver when their fans demanded it most.
Initially passive and ultimately toothless – they did not muster an attempt on goal until the 62nd minute – they never tested goalkeeper Robin Roefs and headed back to Tyneside with little ground for complaint.
Howe, who had defender Dan Burn taken to hospital with a rib injury, said: “That is going to sting for a long time. We know our performance was off what we needed it to be, not from a defensive perspective, where I thought we defended pretty well throughout the game, but we weren’t good enough to open them up.
“Criticism comes with every defeat, but of course with this one, I think it will be louder and stronger just because of the importance of the game. We fully acknowledge that.
“That’s why it hurts so much.”
