Michael Beale issues Sunderland challenge ahead of game at Hull City

Michael Bailey, who acknowledged that his first game as head coach was a “eye-opener,” has tasked his Sunderland players with responding positively to their team’s embarrassing loss to Coventry City at home on Saturday.

The Black Cats are back in action this afternoon when they visit the MKM Stadium to take on Hull City. Over the weekend, they were soundly defeated 3-0 by the Sky Blues.

Over the weekend, Sunderland’s troubles on the field and the growing mutinous atmosphere in the fans contributed to their spectacular collapse. A sizable portion of the Stadium of Light supporters were singing their support for Tony Mowbray, Beale’s predecessor.

The newly-installed head coach can understand the fans’ frustrations, and has urged his players to prove their mettle when they head to Humberside for their Boxing Day game.

“We need to address the events that transpired over the weekend,” Beale stated. “That opened everyone’s eyes greatly. Coming in, it was undoubtedly eye-opening for me. I understand that a lot will be written about me when I first come here. I accept what happened (against Coventry) with pleasure, but our dressing room needs to respond.

“The Championship is a ruthless league where you play every three days, and we can’t have a hangover. We don’t have time for it. We need to dust ourselves down, and we need to show a different face at Hull, for sure.”

Hull suffered a defeat on Friday night, losing 3-2 to Bristol City. Despite this setback, the Tigers are still three points and three places ahead of Sunderland in the Championship standings.

The Black Cats will play a team from Rotherham United, who are currently positioned at the bottom of the table, on Friday night in South Yorkshire after playing Liam Rosenior’s squad this afternoon.

A major hurdle for Sunderland, who will be without Niall Huggins for an extended period of time following the defender’s stretchered off the field during the last moments of Saturday’s loss, is playing two away games in four days.

“We have two very important away games coming up,” Beale stated. “They play against competitive teams and teams with momentum.” Leam Richardson has taken over as the new manager of Rotherham, while Liam Rosenior is performing admirably at Hull.

“I was considering Coventry as a team that might prevent us from reaching our goals for this season when we played against them. Hull is undoubtedly included in that category as well. The league is quite inconsistent, and they recently had a bad loss at Bristol.