WELL, it was an improvement. Mike Dodds called for a reaction in the wake of Sunderland’s Bank Holiday battering at the hands of Blackburn, and while his side didn’t deliver a first home victory of his current spell as interim head coach, they at least summoned up some of the effort and intensity that had been so glaringly missing five days earlier.

They almost certainly would have won had it not been for an inspired first-half goalkeeping display from Max O’Leary, who made at least six crucial saves before the break, and while the current campaign has effectively become a write-off, there were a couple of key positives that Sunderland can cling to as thoughts turn towards next season.

Jack Clarke was back doing what Jack Clarke does best, running at opposition defenders and offering the kind of attacking outlet down the left-hand side that the Black Cats were unable to replicate during his injury absence. If Clarke stays on Sunderland’s books this summer, he will be their key player again next term. If he is sold, the successful reinvestment of the eight-figure fee he will unquestionably command will be the key to moving the club forward without him.

Clarke formed part of an attacking line-up that also featured 16-year-old Chris Rigg and 18-year-old Jobe Bellingham. It goes without saying that both players possess abundant potential. Rigg looks at home at Championship level even though he has barely passed school-leaving age. Bellingham’s performance levels have dipped in the second half of the season, but it is easy to forget that he is also a teenager. Given his workload over the course of the last eight months, it would have been a miracle if he hadn’t hit something of a trough.

At the back, a defence that had looked so lightweight and porous against Blackburn rediscovered much of its solidity and heft. Dan Ballard and Luke O’Nien were much-improved, and the 66th-minute return of Aji Alese to replace the somewhat inconsistent Leo Hjelde was another major plus. Alese has barely kicked a ball since he was pressed into action in the second leg of last season’s play-off semi-final at Luton. Get him properly fit over pre-season, and he should be a major asset next term.

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Individually, Sunderland’s players took a major step forward from the Blackburn debacle, and collectively, the level of the two performances were chalk and cheese. With their professionalism having been questioned after they shipped five goals at the start of the week, the Black Cats’ players proved they still care. Ultimately, win, lose or draw, that is all the fanbase ever really asks of them.

“Any disappointment over the course of my tenure has been justly deserved,” said Dodds, whose side return to action at promotion-chasing Leeds United on Tuesday. “I always say to the players that you have to give the fans the chance to buy into what we're trying to do, so when you pass forward quicker and run forward quicker, they will back you 100 per cent.

“I've only been here a couple of years but if the fans see an individual or a team leaving everything out on the pitch, they won't ask for much more.”

With that in mind though, Dodds admits he felt somewhat anxious in the build-up to Saturday’s game, having read the riot act in the wake of the Blackburn defeat. Would he get the response he was looking for? Or as a caretaker boss, would the players switch off from him entirely?

“It's the first time since I've taken charge that I had an element of anxiety coming into the game,” he continued. “Thinking over the course of the games I've taken, I've held my hands up in terms of the first half against Swansea because I asked too much of them, too quickly. But in all of the other games, they'd done what we asked, and I felt there pockets of positives in each one.

“Monday, I didn't see coming, which frustrated and angered me, so I was hoping to see a significant reaction from the players. I thought we got that.”

They would also have got all three points had O’Leary not been in such inspired form. The Bristol City goalkeeper kept out early efforts from Ballard and Clarke, but it was his back-to-back double saves midway through the first half that really prevented Sunderland from claiming the lead their play before the break really merited.

Having kept out an initial strike from Bellingham, O’Leary made an even better stop to thwart the follow-up effort from Clarke. Then, moments later, after stopping an initial strike from Dan Neil, the visiting shot-stopper got his fingertips to Adil Aouchiche’s rebound header and tipped the ball onto the crossbar. Sunderland struck the woodwork again in the second half when substitute Bradley Dack powered a diving header against the bar after Neil flicked on Trai Hume’s cross.

“Max made some excellent saves, especially in the first half,” said Bristol City boss Liam Manning, whose afternoon became increasingly problematic when his squad’s planned flight home from Newcastle Airport was cancelled at half-time of Saturday’s game, necessitating a 300-mile coach journey instead. “He was excellent, but then he has been so often for us. He’s made so many big saves for us.

“We’ve had games where we’ve been on the other end, where we’ve come away, performed well and not won. I’m just pleased with another clean sheet – that’s four in five now and three in a row. We haven’t done that too many times in a little while.”