MEPHAM: NORWICH

Chris Mepham was proud to earn a third consecutive clean sheet, with more crucial blocks from the Bournemouth loanee, and insists there's still plenty for Sunderland to play for in the remaining five league fixtures.

PRIDE IN CLEAN SHEETS

“For sure, it’s definitely something I take pride in and as a team we take pride in it. Naturally there is a lot of focus on attacking play and stuff like that, but I think it is important to come to a team like this, who have a lot of the ball and want to create chances, and limit them to very few real clear-cut opportunities. That was pleasing and it’s a team aspect, not just the back four. Everyone contributes to that.”

GOAL SAVING BLOCKS

“All good now but it felt a bit weird at the time! But like I said, it’s something I do take pride in. I’d rather make a block like to stop a goal than score up the other end, to be honest. I’ve always had that kind of mentality and mindset. To have a couple over the last couple of games is really pleasing. I thought everyone did that. There have been two games now where we’ve conceded a lot of possession and we have to be really concentrated and switched on. I thought the team was really honest tonight and defended well.”

PLAY-OFFS SEALED

“There’s still loads to play for and that’s the important message that we need to keep within the squad. It’s not a case of cementing play-offs now so we’ll let the season fizzle out. There is still so much to play for and there’s lots of momentum we can get. Definitely still a lot of areas we can improve on as a team and that’s something which is exciting for us, that we’ve got a little bit less pressure on us now where we can afford to tweak certain things on or off the ball. Hopefully that will put us in a really good place going into the play-offs… if that is the case.”

ONTO SWANSEA

“They come thick and fast in this league, as we’ve learnt throughout this season. I think it’s nice to have this volume of games, it’s something I enjoy, I’d rather be playing in these matches than just training, to be honest. We’ve got a long journey back home now! But we’ll rest up, get the recovery in and like I said, we’ve got a lot to play for so we’ve got an opportunity against Swansea on Saturday to test ourselves and show why we are where we are. We can definitely have that arrogance and confidence to go into that game on Saturday.”