MAN of the match Mart Poom pleaded with the Sunderland supporters to be patient.

The Black Cats' goalkeeper was in inspired form against his former club Derby County at the weekend and kept his team in the match on several occasions.

It was the Estonian international's fourth clean sheet in only six games this season and despite being happy with another shut-out he asked the Sunderland faithful to keep the faith.

He said: "It is important for the fans to be patient and keep on supporting us. They are very passionate in the North East, they want to see us playing attacking football and scoring lots of goals and winning every game. But it is not so easy to make that happen every game and it was important not to lose like we did on Tuesday.

"Derby came here with a game plan and it's still a very attractive fixture for every team to come to the Stadium of Light and play in a nice big stadium and a lot come here to play defensively.

"In the second half Derby let us have possession in our own half but they were very difficult to break through."

The 32-year-old keeper believes nobody will run away with the Championship in the way Norwich and West Bromwich Albion did last season as he says the league is a lot tighter.

He said: "We wanted to keep the run going on Tuesday (against Sheffield United) and we are a couple of points behind from this time last season.

"It is important to win your home games but at the same time we have not lost at home yet and it is important we keep the Stadium of Light like a fortress.

"I think the league is even tighter this time than last season, but we're trying to hang on in there too. Four wins in a row pushed us up the table, which shows that any team can put a run together and push up the league.

"We are only a quarter of the way through the season and today showed you can't be on top of your game, every game. Of course we try but we looked tired today as a team and Derby started brighter."

Poom added it was a big blow to lose skipper Gary Breen for Saturday's game, and the following two matches, after he was controversially sent off on Tuesday evening at Sheffield United.

But despite the setback the popular goalkeeper believed the Sunderland defence handled his absence well and was full of praise for the youngster who stepped into his skipper's place.

He said: "He is our most experienced defender, our captain and our leader and we missed his voice.

"It was a crazy decision to send him and Andy Gray off on Tuesday night. Nobody saw anything wrong. Only the linesman saw something and it was a straight red.

"We're going to miss him but we must give credit to Neill Collins."

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